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GAO-02-912R 1 (2002-07-15)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaamaf0001 and id is 1 raw text is: £ Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 July 15, 2002 The Honorable John McCain Ranking Minority Member Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation United States Senate Subject: Financial Management: Amtrak's Route Profitability Schedules Need Impro vement Dear Senator McCain: Each year, Amtrak must provide an Annual Operations Report to the Congress' that shows revenue, cost, and profit or loss on all its train routes in the form of route profitability schedules and an annual audited financial statement. The Congress uses the information provided on these schedules to help evaluate Amtrak's financial performance, including the profitability of individual Amtrak routes. In addition, Amtrak periodically receives requests from the Congress or its staff to provide route profitability schedules at different times of the year. In response to such a request, in May 2001 Amtrak provided your staff with schedules that included comparative data for fiscal years 1999 and 2000. In November 2001, Amtrak provided schedules with data for fiscal year 2001 that also included data for fiscal years 1999 and 2000 that differed from the information previously provided in May. Also, it was not readily apparent how any of the schedules tied to Amtrak's audited financial statements. This letter summarizes the information provided during our briefing to your staff on May 14, 2002. The enclosed briefing slides highlight the results of our work and the information provided. You asked that we (1) determine the reasons for the differences between the totals on Amtrak's annual route profitability schedules for the same periods, and how the schedules correlate to the audited financial statements, and (2) comment on the general clarity and usefulness of the schedule presentations. Results in Brief In November 2001, Amtrak changed the way it prepared its route profitability schedules and applied this new method to information previously provided in May 2001 for fiscal years 1999 and 2000. Based on the initial information requested and provided, the schedule totals could not be readily reconciled to the audited financial statements for the corresponding periods. According to Amtrak officials, in order to focus on the operating 'Pursuant to Section 24315(a)(1) of Title 49, U.S. Code, Amtrak is required to provide this report, which includes revenue, cost, and profit or loss for all its train routes to the Congress no later than February 15th of each year. GAO-02-912R Amtrak's Route Profitability Schedules

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