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![handle is hein.gao/gaobacxwe0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
UNITED STATES GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE
Sccx. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20548
RESOuPrSS COMMUNITY June 8, 1984
ANC C%0iC DEVELOPMENT
Drb lSION
Mr. William G. McDonald
Executive Director 124434
Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. McDonald:
Subject: Feasibility of Transferring Certain Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission Regional Office
Activities to the Corps of Engineers
The regional offices of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commis-
sion (FERC) and the division and district offices of the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers (Corps) all perform inspections of hydro-
electric projects to ensure that they are constructed, maintained,
and operated so as not to pose a threat to down-stream areas.
FERC is primarily responsible for non-federal projects and the
Corps is primarily responsible for the projects it constructs and
operates. We analyzed the nature and volume of this work in an
attempt to determine the cost effectiveness of transferring all or
a portion of the workload of the FERC regional offices to the
Corps' division and district offices, with the remaining FERC
regional office functions being transferred to FERC hedquarters.
We undertook this analysis because of the obvious similari-
ties between the functions of FERC and the Corps related to hydro-
electric project inspection and licensing. Our analysis centered
around the advantages and disadvantages of transferring FERC's
regional functions of hydroelectric project inspection and moni-
toring to the Corps, which has a much larger field operation, and
consolidating the remaining FERC regional functions at FERC head-
quarters. The remaining FERC regional functions involve assisting
FERC headquarters in analyzing electric utility operations, hydro-
electric pro]ect analysis, and river basin studies.
The results of our analysis were inconclusive. At the time
of our analysis (August 1982 through May 1983), the data avail-
able at FERC headquarters and regional offices were inadequate to
draw valid conclusions concerning the cost effectiveness of such
transfers. Although we attempted to estimate how much it would
cost for the Corps to perform the FERC regional office functions,
we were unable to do 'so because, at that time, FERC did not have
detailed data on how the FERC regional office personnel spent
th.eir time.
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