The General Accounting Office (GAO)is an independent government agency directed by the comptroller general of the United States. Congress created the office in 1921, when it passed the Budget and Accounting Act. From 1921 to 1945 the GAO functioned mainly as an auditor, checking on the legality and accuracy of federal expenditures. It also handled financial claims for and against the government, decided on bid protests on government contracts, and approved agency accounting systems. During the New Deal and World War II, the GAO expanded its jurisdiction to field sites of government programs and contract operations. After World War II, the GAO began undertaking comprehensive audits that went beyond strictly financial matters. By the 1950s its studies of federal activities in the defense, international, and civil areas combined analysis of the financial aspects of programs with an examination of their effectiveness and results. Under Comptrollers General Elmer B. Staats (1966–1981)and Charles A. Bowsher (1981–1995), the GAO focused on program evaluation.
By the 1990s, the GAO annually produced one thousand blue-cover reports, two hundred to three hundred congressional testimonies, and many oral and written briefings. By that time 80 percent of the GAO's work grew out of congressional requests, and it prepared reports on such high-profile issues as the savings and loan crisis, the Iran-Contra scandal, health care reform, the federal budget deficit, and major weapons systems. Commonly referred to as the investigative arm of Congress, the GAO, with a staff of 4,500 in 1994, was an influential force in the federal government, although its role was not widely understood by most Americans. The comptroller general, who is appointed by the president for a fifteen-year term, emerged as one of the most influential federal officials. The GAO's work has resulted in annual savings to the government of billions of dollars. For example, in 1991 GAO testimony influenced Congress to prohibit the use of funds appropriated for the Desert Shield and Desert Storm operations to pay for an indirect fuel price increase experienced by the Department of Defense outside the Persian Gulf as a result of high oil prices; this preventive measure saved the government $2. 8 billion.
Bibliography
Mosher, Frederick C. The GAO: The Quest for Accountability in American Government. Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 1979.
Trask, Roger R. GAO History, 1921–1991. Washington, D. C. : United States General Accounting Office, History Program, 1991.
Walker, Wallace Earl. Changing Organizational Culture: Strategy, Structure, and Professionalism in the U. S. General Accounting Office. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1986.
—Roger R. Trask/C. W.
