Federal Personnel Should Be Better Informed of How Undesignated Contributions to the Combined Federal Campaign Will Be Distributed

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) administration of the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) to determine: (1) the manner in which contributions are distributed among the participating charities, especially those contributions that are not designated to a specific charity; and (2) the methods used to determine which charities will be eligible to participate in CFC.

Federal employees are free to choose to designate or not designate all or part of their contributions to specific charities. In 1982 campaigns, $35.6 million of the $101.2 million pledged by contributors was undesignated to specific charities. The methods used to distribute undesignated contributions have been controversial. However, beginning in 1982, OPM established a procedure whereby local federal officials oversee campaigns and one of the participating groups of charities administers the campaign and acts as fiscal agent. This procedure creates the appearance of, if not an actual, conflict of interest. To deal with this problem, OPM requires that campaign literature include: (1) encouragement to federal personnel to designate their contributions to specific charities; (2) a statement telling contributors that, if they do not designate, their contributions shall be distributed by the charity administering the campaign; and (3) the name of the charity administering the campaign. However, GAO found that OPM does not review campaign literature to ensure that it contains this information.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Rosslyn S. Kleeman Team: General Accounting Office: General Government Division Phone: (202) 512-9204