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DIVISION PERSONNEL INCREASE: ALLOCATION TO DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION. AND WELFARE

Senator HOLLINGS. You are requesting 42 positions for this Division. It appears that the largest increase relates to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Would you comment on that. Mr. STAATS. Schedule I-2 shows that 16 of the requested positions for civil activities have been allocated to the work at the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. This Department is the largest of the departments in terms of appropriations with a proposed budget of about $79 billion in fiscal year 1973. It has over 250 programs in the health, welfare, education, and social security fields and we need to increase our resources to be applied in this work. Even with the increased resources that we propose to use in this work, we will have to be selective in the choice of the activities and locations for the reviews, but it is our objective to provide a fairly representative coverage of the more important program activities of DHEW. Pages I-6 through I-10 of our justifications describe generally our work plans at DHEW.

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH AUDITS

Senator HOLLINGS. You referred to the legislative branch on page I-1 but I don't see that listed on the table on page I-2. What activities in the legislative branch do you audit and/or investigate?

On page I-3, you state:

Reviews are also planned at many of the smaller independent agencies and commissions in the Executive Branch and at various agencies and activities in the Legislative and Judicial Branches of the Government.

What reviews do you contemplate in the legislative branch for fiscal year 1973 ?

Mr. STAATS. In the table on page I-2 we have included in the category "other civil agencies" 19 man-years for the work on the legislative branch activities in fiscal year 1973.

Our work on legislative branch activities in fiscal year 1973 will include:

Government Printing Office;

House and Senate restaurants;

House Finance Office;

House and Senate recording studios;

House beauty shop;

House Sergeant at Arms;

House stationery revolving fund;

House Office Equipment Service;

Printing clerks, majority and minority;

Credit Unions, House and Senate;

Capitol Historical Society; and

Selected activities of the Architect of the Capitol.

Some of these audits have been made for a number of years earlier on the basis of requests from the Clerk of the House or the Senate Sergeant at Arms or by provisions of statute; others have been added as a result of the provisions of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970.

74-760 O - 72 - 5

REVENUE SHARING

Senator HOLLINGS. On page I-15, you refer to the revenue-sharing proposals and welfare reform. Do you have any projections at this time concerning the impact on the GÃO if these proposals are enacted? Mr. STAATS. Presently there are several revenue-sharing proposals being considered by the Congress. The impact of the work upon the GAO because of enactment of revenue-sharing legislation would be entirely dependent upon the final form of such legislation as may be enacted.

We believe that enactment of the proposals for welfare reform, specifically H.R. 1, would result in a significant increase in the work of our Office beyond that now devoted to the area of welfare. Our reviews of welfare programs would be increased in such areas as the comprehensive work training programs, its supportive services, extended day care facilities and public service employment, the additional emphasis on consultative social services to recipients, family planning, uniform eligibility requirements, Federal administration of the payment procedures, and the improvements in the adult public assistance programs. Also, if pilot projects are mandated by the legislation, we would envision involvement of our Office in monitoring such projects.

DEFENSE PROGRAMS

Senator HOLLINGS. With respect to the Defense Division

According to the table on page J-2, which I will insert into the record, you are requesting 21 additional positions for the Washington staff and 48 for the field staff.

(The table follows:)

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PERSONNEL INCREASE OVER 1972

Senator HOLLINGS. Last year, as I recall (Senate hearings, p. 64), your justifications indicated a reduction in your field staff of some 98 positions. You gave as an explanation that:

The work in such areas as acquisitions of weapon systems and "should cost" studies requires greater supervision on the part of the Washington staff, the use, in the field, of Washington staff members who possess special technical skills not available in the staffs of field offices, and more work to be performed at the headquarters levels of the Department of Defense rather than at the installation level.

Your request this year appears to reverse that work-flow. What are your comments on that?

Mr. STAATS. The justification of estimates for fiscal year 1972 indicated that we expected to use a field staff of 896 for 1972 on defense work. This represented an estimated reduction of 98 field positions from the prior year. Our explanation of the reduction was not intended to imply a trend of shifting workloads from the field to Washington.

Our projections of requirements for field and Washington positions for both fiscal year 1972 and fiscal year 1973 were based on analyses of staffing requirements for the work planned to be performed in those years. The nature of the work to be performed governs our staffing requirements and affects the division of effort as between the field and Washington.

INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS: ALLOCATION OF NEW POSITIONS

Senator HOLLINGS. For the international division, you are requesting 14 additional positions, according to the large summary table on page D-1. Yet the table on page K-7 reflects only an increase of eight positions. How do you account for that? Also, how will you apply these positions to your activities under this division?

Mr. STAATS. The 14 additional positions shown in the summary (p. D-1) are requested for the international division. Seven of these are intended for the Washington staff, and seven for the overseas offices. As shown on page K-6, the overseas offices, although organizationally a part of the international division, actually perform services for all other divisions of GAO requiring work to be performed

overseas.

The table on page K-7 does not reflect a separate request, but rather is a comparison of that part of our manpower which is applied to international activities. The tabular reconciliation on page K-6 shows that we are proposing an increase of 14 in the international division staffs, but after adjusting for the overseas services provided by the international division to other GAO divisions, and the borrowing of staff time from the field operations division, the GAO application of manpower to international programs is only increased by the equivalent of 8 man-years.

To recapitulate:

1. The figure of eight men on page K-7 is a part of the 14 positions requested on page D-1.

2. The increase of 14 will be applied to:

(a) Washington staff-seven-primarily for additional work in Lation America, which is performed by temporary duty travel from Washington.

(b) Overseas staff-seven, of which three are for the European branch, and four are for the Far East branch.

LOCATION OF OVERSEA OFFICES

Senator HOLLINGS. Please list for the record the location of your overseas offices.

Mr. STAATS. We have a European branch with headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany and an office in New Delhi, India and a Far East branch with headquarters in Honolulu, Hawaii, and offices in Saigon, Vietnam, and Manila, Republic of the Philippines.

FINANCIAL AND GENERAL MANAGEMENT STUDIES

Senator HOLLINGS. You request an additional 21 positions for the division of financial and general management studies, for a total Washington staff of 143.

I refer to your statement on page M-6 of the justifications:

During the 91st Congress and so far in the 92d Congress, singificant advances have been made to improve the information and analysis support services of the Congress. GAO has been requested to provide direct support for the planning, design and management of system development.

Please elaborate on these comments.

Mr. STAATS. During the 91st Congress GAO provided staff for the automatic data processing working group of the Committee on House Administration for the development of plans and systems concepts for information and analysis support services for the House.

During the first 6 months of the 92d Congress, this staff worked with the newly-formed House Computer Services Staff to acquaint them with the work we had done in the 91st Congress. It also provided some advisory assistance to the new Subcommittee on Computer Services of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee.

This staff is now performing GAO's function under sections 201, 202, and 203 of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 regarding the budgetary and fiscal information needs of congressional users in connection with the development of a standard budgetary and fiscal data system by the Office of Management and Budget and Department of the Treasury. The needs of the Congress were determined through the staff's recently-completed interview survey of 249 Members of the Congress and congressional staff members representing 42 committees and 68 members. The results of these interviews are described in our report "Budgetary and Fiscal Information Needs of the Congress" dated February 17, 1972, which was sent to all Members of Congress and to its committees. The status of implementation of recommendations in this report is the subject of a series of hearings by the Joint Committee on Congressional Operations which started on March 1.

1972.

We view this effort as a high-priority, major long-term project.

BROAD-BASED REVIEWS

Senator HOLLINGS. For the record, inform the committee what is involved when you speak of the necessity of "broader based reviews in terms of program results ***”

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