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AIMD-00-286R 1 (2000-08-22)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaalla0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAO0 Acoun abiity Integrity * Reliability United States General Accounting Office Accounting and Information Washington, DC 20548 Management Division B-286010 August 22, 2000 The Honorable Dan Glickman The Secretary of Agriculture Subject: Credit Reform: Improving Rural Development's Credit Program Cost Estimates Dear Mr. Secretary: This letter and the attached briefing slides are the third in a series of status reports on the Rural Development (RD) mission area's progress in improving its credit program cost estimates under credit reform. Until RD makes significant progress in developing well supported, reasonable estimates of its credit program costs, an unqualified audit opinion on the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) consolidated financial statements will not be possible. Furthermore, since USDA is the largest direct lender in the federal government and the credit program amounts are material, USDA's inability to properly implement credit reform will continue to contribute to our inability to give an unqualified audit opinion on the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government. Therefore, since April 1999, we have assessed RD's credit reform implementation efforts in such areas as (1) identifying key cash flow assumptions, (2) improving cash flow models, (3) assessing cash flow model data, and (4) implementing other procedures to enhance the credit subsidy estimation process. As part of this effort, we have provided regular briefings to USDA's Executive Steering Committee for Credit Reform Implementation. Shortly after our first briefing in June 1999, the USDA credit reform task force developed a detailed implementation plan to guide the agency through its efforts to improve its credit program cost estimates. Today, we briefed the Steering Committee on (1) the status of RD's efforts to implement procedures from the plan and (2) recommendations designed to make the necessary improvements to RD's cost estimates in a more timely manner. Results in Brief Overall, the task force has made some progress in addressing the deficiencies related to reasonably estimating the cost of RD's credit programs. Progress made since our last briefing to the Steering Committee on December 16, 1999, includes updating GAO/AIMD-00-286R RD's Credit Reform Implementation

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