Apr 2 2004
From The Space Library
The GAO released an analysis of NASA's budgetary outlays for fiscal years 2002 through 2004. Under Pub. L. No. 106-391, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2000, GAO was required to verify NASA's accounting of its funds obligated against established budgetary limits for the ISS and for Space Shuttle support for the ISS. Under the Act, NASA's obligations were limited to US$25 billion for the ISS and US$17.7 billion for Shuttle support. GAO's report noted that NASA had not provided sufficient documentation for the amounts it had reported as obligated against budgetary limits. Thus, GAO could not verify the amounts that NASA had reported to Congress in its budget requests for fiscal years 2002 through 2004. Similarly, NASA had not reported any documentation of its FY 2004 budget obligations in its FY 2005 budget request to Congress. NASA officials acknowledged that NASA's accounting system presented some difficulties for GAO's auditors, but explained that those difficulties were the result of NASA's having reported budgetary figures based on the amount it was authorized to spend rather than on the amount it was obligated to spend. (Patty Reinert, “GAO Says Lax Bookkeeping Thwarts Space Agency Audit,” Houston Chronicle, 7 April 2004; U.S. General Accounting Office, “International Space Station and Shuttle Support Cost Limits” (report no. GAO-04-648R, Washington, DC, 2 April 2004), http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04648r.pdf (accessed 19 March 2009).)
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