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GAO-04-230R 1 (2003-11-26)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaamjq0001 and id is 1 raw text is: im Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 November 26, 2003 The Honorable Tom Davis Chairman The Honorable Christopher Shays Vice-Chairman Committee on Government Reform House of Representatives Subject: Monitoring and Oversight of Federal Funds Awarded to Bridgeport, Connecticut In 2001 and 2002, federal prosecutors indicted the Mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and a dozen conspirators on charges of racketeering, extortion, mail fraud, and tax evasion. In March 2003, the mayor was found guilty on 16 counts, and most of the others indicted have pleaded guilty. While the indictment did not refer to any misuse of federal funds, some of the corrupt activities were associated with projects that had received some federal funding in the past. This corruption has raised concerns about the adequacy of monitoring and oversight of the more than $82 million in federal funds Bridgeport has received in recent years. You asked us to examine federally funded programs operated by the city of Bridgeport and determine whether and to what extent the respective federal agencies, including program officials and Offices of Inspector General, have heightened program monitoring and oversight in light of the corruption. To respond to your request, we interviewed program and Inspector General officials from six federal agencies that provided about 95 percent of federal funds to Bridgeport in fiscal year 2002 to identify their general monitoring and oversight mechanisms as well as any monitoring activities specific to Bridgeport.' We also obtained and reviewed annual Single Audit Act audit reports for Bridgeport for fiscal years 1998 through 2002, as well as agency and Inspector General audit and monitoring reports on federally funded programs in Bridgeport! In addition, we reviewed the indictment and verdict and met with officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding the corruption investigation. We performed our work between June and October 2003 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. 'The six federal agencies are the Environmental Protection Agency and the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, and Transportation. - The Single Audit Act (31 U.S.C. 7501 et seq) requires state and local governments that expend more than a threshold amount in a fiscal year to have either a single audit or a program-specific audit conducted and to forward the audit report to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse for distribution to each federal agency responsible for programs for which the audit report identifies a finding. GAO-04-230R Bridgeport, Connecticut

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