Information on Internal EEO Activities at Selected Federal Agencies

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed information on civil rights activities submitted by a variety of federal agencies to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for fiscal years 1981 and 1984.

GAO obtained information on internal equal employment opportunity (EEO) office activities at the agencies including components dealing with complaint processing, policy development, legal activities, and affirmative action plan development and implementation. However, GAO found that: (1) a number of problems and inconsistencies exist in the way EEO offices collected and presented data in agency reports; (2) the new reporting format caused some difficulty; (3) the agencies did not always report all of the statistics from all of the organizational components; and (4) the lack of responsibility in compiling and completing data caused differences in agencies' interpretations of reporting guidelines and procedures. GAO noted that the data showed that internal EEO activities both increased and decreased between fiscal years 1981 and 1984; however, because of inconsistencies in the gathering and reporting of data, it was difficult to draw conclusions about these changes.