“Many departments need to cut the fat,” says Schatz

(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today applauded the General Accounting Office’s (GAO) report that highlighted 23 areas of “high risk” where governmental programs were vulnerable of “fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement.”  The study also looked at the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of these programs.  The updated report was part of a larger, annual series that closely examines each cabinet department, most major agencies, and the U.S. Postal Service. The series attempts to “bring ‘light’ to these areas as well as ‘heat’ to prompt needed actions.”

“For too many years, Congress has been throwing money at the bureaucracy in an attempt to get them to produce results.  The real result are obese, slow moving agencies that do little in meeting the people’s needs.  In a post-September 11^th era, it is essential that these programs are able to perform efficiently, ” remarked CAGW president, Tom Schatz. 

This year, the GAO added four more areas of concern to the 21 previously sited areas.  The Department of Homeland Security, Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA), federal real property, and the Medicaid program have been targeted further attention by the Congress and the administration.

“Though the Department of Homeland Security is in it’s infancy, the task it has been given is of great importance to protection of our nation. From the start, it must be a focus of Tom Ridge and those under him to make the department as streamline, yet secure, as possible” Schatz said. “An entangled, messy hierarchy would have dire consequences.”

 “The SSA, the DVA,  and the Medicaid program has the looming task of providing for an aging baby-boom generation while they have been unable to provide for those already eligible,” Schatz continues. “An updated system of management and execution is needed.”

Though the report has hailed its successes, pointing to the 13 areas that have been removed from the list since its inception in 1990, Schatz believe there is much more work to be done.  “The GAO must continually pressure Congress to be held accountable for the increasing cost to taxpayers due to these ‘high risk’ departments and to adequately act on it’s findings,” Schatz concluded.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.  Its annual Prime Cuts publication recommends 548 cuts to the federal budget that would save $1.2 trillion over the next five years.