Submitter:

Name:Owen Ambur

Email:Owen.Ambur@verizon.net

Organization:

Name:Government Accountability Office

Acronym:GAO

Description:
GAO is an independent, nonpartisan professional services agency in the legislative branch of the federal government. Commonly known as the audit and investigative arm of the Congress or the "congressional watchdog," we examine how taxpayer dollars are spent and advise lawmakers and agency heads on ways to make government work better. As a legislative branch agency, we are exempt from many laws that apply to the executive branch agencies. However, we generally hold ourselves to the spirit of many of the laws, including 31 U.S.C. 3512 (c), (d) (FMFIA), the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA), and the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 (FFMIA).1 Accordingly, this performance and accountability report for fiscal year 2009 provides what we consider to be information that is at least equivalent to that supplied by executive branch agencies in their annual performance and accountability reports.