Gao Report

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski lambasted the manager of the 2,200-person work force that operates the 285-acre Capitol complex yesterday, saying that he has responded to employees' complaints of discrimination with inadequate, "teensy-weensy" measures.Speaking at a hearing of the subcommittee that reviews the complex's maintenance budget, the Baltimore Democrat said that George M. White, who oversees the complex as architect of the Capitol, has failed to improve what many employees see as a hostile, racially and sexually discriminatory work environment.

WASHINGTON -- The General Accounting Office (GAO) recently reviewed a program intended to test applicants for entry-level federal jobs in the U.S. government's ranks, and found it time-consuming, burdensome and inefficient.The program, the GAO found, falls far short of just about everybody's expectations -- from the applicants seeking jobs to the people who do the hiring.Known as Administrative Careers With America (ACWA), the program seeks to find qualified applicants for entry-level jobs in more than 100 government occupations.

WASHINGTON -- The federal government's information on nutrients in food, used around the world to determine public nutrition policy, plan feeding programs, do medical research and answer questions such as how much fat is in a sirloin steak, is flawed and unreliable, according to a federal report issued yesterday.For an average person on a diet who is counting calories or grams of fat, or for people on low-sodium diets, the inaccuracies found by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, could be a problem.

SOME of the dopiest, zaniest assertions flying around in the media about health care reform involve the subject of rationing.For some reason, many experts and pundits who are otherwise sensible, cogent and reasonable turn into vein-bulging, fulminating loons at the suggestion that it might be possible to find sufficient resources within America's present health care budget to pay for a decent package of care for everyone."

WASHINGTON -- Document security within the Justice Department and FBI is so lax that congressional investigators were unable to track classified papers moving between the two agencies, according to a report by the General Accounting Office.The study also found that the FBI failed to take disciplinary action for many of the 4,400 violations that its own security patrols uncovered at FBI headquarters over a three-year period.The GAO report, done for the House Government Operations subcommittee on information, justice, transportation and agriculture, noted that safeguarding classified and sensitive information is an absolute necessity in the law enforcement area.

Washington. -- One of the cheerier delusions of good government is that big federal departments can be forced to tolerate in their ranks those righteous, pesky people known as whistle-blowers. Might as well expect them to welcome their worst enemies to their most secret connivings.That's the lesson to be had from a congressional study of how government agencies have responded to the Whistle-blower Protection Act of 1989, a law designed to protect federal employees who expose wrong-doing on the job.The study, by the watchdog General Accounting Office (GAO)

WASHINGTON -- The United States lost ground to foreign competitors in 10 out of 11 high-technology industries in the 1980s, according to a government study released yesterday.The General Accounting Office found that Japan gained on the United States in many high-tech areas, including research and development, trade, and patent applications.The report, commissioned by Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, the Texas Democrat who chairs the Senate Finance Committee and sits on the international trade subcommittee, was the latest evidence of a disturbing trend over recent years that threatens U.S. dominance in the world's high-tech market.

Martin Marietta Corp. spent about $554,000 from 1986 to 1991 on questionable entertainment costs in connection with its management of certain contracts for the Department of Energy, according to a Government Accounting Office report released yesterday.The money was spent on such things as alcoholic beverages, golf outings, musical performances, dinners, luncheons, receptions, tours and a chartered boat ride.The funds were part of $25 million that Martin Marietta Energy Systems of Oak Ridge, Tenn.

ANNAPOLIS -- Damn the General Accounting Office, midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy said yesterday. Things have changed."In my plebe year, the deputy brigade commander was a woman," recalled Marvin Reed, a graduating senior from Queens, N.Y. "And every time she tried to make announcements in the chow hall, you could hear the catcalls. Last fall Julianne Gallina was the commander and nobody said anything to her.""You get more respect now," added a graduating woman from Pittsburgh. "Everybody is more open and honest.

WASHINGTON -- Women and minorities are trailing white men at the U.S. Naval Academy, due in part to the macho traditions of the school and to lingering gender and racial biases, congressional investigators report.In every area of the Annapolis academy's scholastic, physical training and military curriculum, female and minority students have fared worse than their white male counterparts -- including living up to the school's rigorous honor code, investigators reported.In one of the more surprising findings of the 22-month study, the General Accounting Office said female midshipmen were cited more often than white men for rule infractions.