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089433 1 (1971-06-28)

handle is hein.gao/gaobacvkp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 


                      UNIT ED STATES GENERAL ACCoUNTINC OFFICE
                               WASHINGTON,  D C 20548

CIVIL DIVISION

                                                              June 28, 1971


            Dear hr. Ball:

                 We reviewed the travel and overtime practices followed by
            the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals (Bureau), Social Security
            Administration, with respect to iTs hearing examiners.  The
            examiners travel and work overtime in providing hearings to
            individuals who disagree with determinations made on their
            claims for Social Security retirement, survivors, disability,
            or hospital insurance benefits and renderang decisions with
            respect to such claims.

                 In recent years, the Bureau has experienced substantaal
            growth in the number of cases it has received and heard under
            various titles of the Social Security Act.  The Bureau has
            estimated that this trend will continue and that its overall
            workload is expected to increase dramatically in the immediate
            future because of additional responsibilities assigned to it
            under the Federal Coal IBhne Health and Safety Act of 1969.

                 Our review indicated that substantial improvements might be
            made in the Bureau's travel practices.  Specifically, our test of
            the travel records of selected examiners identified numerous in-
            stances in which the oustification for both intra- and inter-regional
            travel appeared questionable.  Several of the trips involved cross-
            country travel at considerable expense to the Government.

                 Our review of overtime worked by hearing examiners during
            fiscal years 1969 and 1970 showed that some regions, using little
            or no overtime, handled on the average more cases per examiner than
            other regions using substantial amounts of overtime.

                 The details on each of these matters--travel and overtime
            usage--are discussed below.

            IMPROVEMENT POSSIBLE IN
            ADINISTRATION  OF TRAVEL

                 Under Bureau procedures the administration of hearing examiner
            travel has, to a large extent, been delegated to the various regional
            hearing representatives.  These represenzatives are responsible for






                              50TH ANNIVERSARY   1921-1971  0    IM3

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