Gao Report

WASHINGTON -- For 30 years, blacks with serious ailments have been much more likely than whites to be rejected for benefits under Social Security disability programs, a congressional investigative agency has found.From the initial claim through the appeals process, blacks have had a more difficult time obtaining benefits from the two largest federal programs for people with severe disabilities, which together now provide $43.2 billion in disability checks annually to millions of workers and their families, the study by the General Accounting Office concludes.

WASHINGTON -- The Air Force provides free plane travel for top White House officials, Cabinet officers and members of Congress on a no-questions-asked basis 900 times a year at an annual cost of $150 million, the General Accounting Office said yesterday.The study of the use of the 89th Air Wing showed that no one attempted to determine whether the trips were justified or whether less costly commercial flights were available. The GAO called for tighter controls to restrict the practice."In most cases, the use of the 89th Wing aircraft is considerably more expensive than commercial aircraft for similar trips," the GAO report stated.

WASHINGTON -- Top Bush administration officials took dozens of personal or political trips aboard military aircraft that cost the taxpayers three-quarters of a million dollars, but the government was repaid only $61,585, the General Accounting Office reported yesterday.Meantime, another independent audit released yesterday found more private trips for which former Chief of Staff John H. Sununu used government vehicles without paying for them at all.According to the GAO report, Cabinet-level members of the administration took 35 trips that were purely political or personal in nature.

WASHINGTON -- The General Accounting Office is urging NASA not to award a contract for its Earth Observation System Data Information System, a project that could mean money and jobs for Maryland, until a plan is devised to resolve technical difficulties.The GAO urged the delay in a report released yesterday.The Earth Observation System [EOS] is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration project designed to collect data on changes in the global environment. The information would be processed by EOSDIS.

WASHINGTON -- The federal government has collected just $365,000 out of $83.6 million in court-ordered fines and restitution from individuals convicted in the nation's top savings and loan fraud cases, the General Accounting Office reported yesterday.The finding raises questions about the government's effectiveness in recovering funds stolen or misappropriated by corrupt thrift operators. Hundreds of S&L failures nation wide, many linked to fraud, are expected to cost taxpayers more than $500 billion over 40 years.

Union attacks GAO reportA recent General Accounting Office report that criticizes federal labor-management relations is already being attacked by the largest union for federal workers.GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, interviewed 30 agency, union and neutral experts on their views about how well the labor relations program is functioning.The federal program differs from non-federal programs in three ways, according to the GAO. First, federal unions bargain on a limited number of issues -- bargaining over pay and other economic benefits is generally prohibited.

Baltimore-Washington International Airport may get another chance tobecome home to a coveted Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum annex.Criticizing the selection process used last year by the Smithsonian to pick a Virginia airport over BWI, the General Accounting Office has strongly recommended the museum start looking all over again."

WASHINGTON -- Disorganization and weak management reign at the Immigration and Naturalization Service, according to the General Accounting Office, which recently issued one of the toughest reports it has done on a federal agency.Take this scathing capsule from the auditors:"The agency has degenerated into a group of segmenteautonomous programs, each trying to handle its own set of problems with little attention given to their interrelatedness. Without coherent overall direction and basic management reforms, the organization has been unable to effectively address changing enforcement responsibilities and long-standing service delivery problems."