Kennedy Center

In 1994, the law transferred complete operating responsibility for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to its Board of Trustees. Previously, that responsibility had been divided between the Board and the National Park Service. At the time of the transfer, GAO and others pointed out the need for an organizational structure that would clearly define and assign responsibilities for facility operations. The Center's managers decided that the facility management program would be run by a few managers supported by an in-house staff and contractor technical staff. Currently, six managerial positions have been established, and the Center does not anticipate a need for additional positions in the future.

GAO noted that: (1) as a part of the audit, tests of the Center's compliance with certain provisions of laws, regulations, contracts, and grants are made to identify instances of noncompliance that could have a direct and material effect on the financial statement amounts; (2) as GAO did the work necessary to plan its own audit, the information and documentation obtained from the Center and from the Center's auditor demonstrated that GAO's audit, if done, would have duplicated those portions of the auditor's work involving: (a) testing of internal controls; (b) sampling of expenditures; and (c) testing for compliance with the limitation on the use of appropriated funds; (3) GAO concluded that efficient use of its audit resources would be best achieved by the Center's continued contracting for a single, annual audit of its financial statement and that this annual audit should include both the use of appropriated funds and compliance with the limitation on the use of those funds; (4) GAO issued its report on the Kennedy Center's progress in defining and implementing a facility management organization since enactment, in 1994, of Public Law 103-279; (5) in addition to authorizing appropriations for the Center, Public Law 103-279 transferred complete operating responsibility for the Center, previously divided between the National Park Service and the Center's Board of Trustees, to the Board; (6) in a February 1993 report, GAO noted that while the Center did not then have individuals on staff with certain professional and technical skills that would be associated with managing capital projects, there appeared to be no reason that the Center could not acquire the necessary management capability; (7) the Center has developed its facility management organization under the premise that the organization would include a small in-house staff supported by contractor technical staff; (8) accordingly, the Center established about 55 in-house facility management staff positions, including 6 managerial positions; (9) to provide facility-related operating information to managers, the Center staff has developed a series of reports for use in tracking and managing appropriated funds usage; (10) in addition, the Center has purchased and is implementing four modules of a computer-integrated facility management system; (11) the Center is in the process of evaluating and implementing computerized scheduling software for use in preparing a comprehensive schedule/calendar; and (12) Center officials told GAO that they expect these systems to become operational during the next few months.