Improving the Extent and Reliability of Cost Information Available to Assist in Evaluating Federal Program Operations

What Needs to Be Done | Key Reports

While reliable information about the costs associated with federal services and programs is crucial for decision making, our work has shown that many federal agencies have not yet developed reliable, systematic methods to accumulate and analyze costs.

Reliable cost information is needed to help Congress and the President make informed policy decisions on program priorities and budgets and evaluate and allocate resources among programs.
Costs are also needed to provide a basis for setting user fees for which the federal government receives hundreds of billions of dollars annually.
Addressing this deficiency will require a cultural transformation to a federal government that emphasizes identifying and managing costs, as well as budgetary resources.

^ Back to topWhat Needs to Be Done

To encourage the development and use of managerial cost accounting, it will be important that agencies take steps to

develop, update, and monitor managerial cost accounting policies and procedures aimed at providing information needed to help Congress and the President make well-informed decisions, and
improve internal controls over systems that provide the cost and related performance data needed for relevant and effective analysis and decision making.

Highlights of GAO-07-679 (PDF)