About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

GAO-02-504R 1 (2002-04-10)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaalyi0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 


   £


       Accountability * Integrity * Reliability
United States General Accounting Office
Washington, DC 20548


         April 10, 2002

         The Honorable Ernest Hollings
         Chairman
         The Honorable John McCain
         Ranking Minority Member
         Committee on Commerce, Science,
           and Transportation
         United States Senate

         The Honorable Sherwood L. Boehlert
         Chairman
         The Honorable Ralph Hall
         Ranking Minority Member
         Committee on Science
         House of Representatives

         Subject: NASA: Compliance With Cost Limits Cannot Be Verified

         Section 202 of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA)
         Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 (P.L. 106-391) limits the agency's obligations,
         through substantial completion of the space station,' to $25 billion for space station
         development and $17.7 billion for shuttle launches in connection with space station
         assembly. The act further requires that NASA, as part of its annual budget request,
         (1) account for and report amounts obligated to date against the cost limits,
         (2) identify the amounts needed for future development and completion of the space
         station, and (3) arrange for GAO to verify the accounting submitted to the Congress
         within 60 days after submission of the budget request. This is our second letter to
         you reporting on the problems we have encountered in attempting to verify NASA's
         compliance with the general cost limits as required.

         In August 2001, we reported that NASA, as part of its fiscal year 2002 budget request,
         did not comply with the act's requirement to use obligations as its basis for reporting
         against the cost limits but instead used budget authority. We also reported that the
         agency was unable to provide detailed support for amounts obligated against the
         limits for us to evaluate and meet the 60-day reporting requirement. However, NASA

         'According to the act, the space station is considered to be substantially complete in the fiscal year
         that NASA's development costs compose 5 percent or less of the total international space station costs
         for that year. NASA estimates that this will occur in fiscal year 2004.

         2U.S. General Accounting Office, NASA: International Space Station and Shuttle Support Cost
         Limits, GAO-01-1000R (Washington, D.C.: Aug. 31, 2001).


GAO-02-504R NASA Space Station Cost Limits

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most