Government Accountability Office (GAO)

How It Works

GAO, established as the General Accounting Office in 1921 and renamed the Government Accountability Office in 2004, is an independent legislative-branch agency led by the Comptroller General (a 15-year appointee, currently Gene Dodaro). It is often called the "congressional watchdog" and has roughly 3,500 staff with a $780 million annual budget. GAO conducts financial audits, program evaluations, investigations, and legal opinions at the request of Congressional committees, individual members, or on its own initiative. GAO reports have identified hundreds of billions in improper payments over the years and the agency self-reports a roughly $70-100 return on every dollar of its budget in financial benefits to the government. GAO also maintains the biennial "High Risk List" of programs most vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement (37 items in the 2023 update, including Medicare, DoD weapons acquisition, IRS modernization, cybersecurity, and improper payments). Separately, GAO is the primary venue for bid protests: losing offerors on federal contracts can file a protest at GAO, which must issue a decision within 100 calendar days. GAO receives roughly 2,000-2,500 protests per year and sustains or causes corrective action in about 50% of cases where the protest is not dismissed on procedural grounds. Its findings are nonbinding but carry weight, agencies implement roughly 80% of GAO recommendations within four years. GAO publishes thousands of products per year (audit reports, testimony, legal decisions, correspondence) all available at gao.gov, and its decisions on appropriations law questions (such as what a particular appropriation may or may not fund) are treated as authoritative by federal agencies because GAO serves as Congress's interpreter of its own spending laws. For contractors, GAO bid protest decisions and the accompanying docket of agency reports provide some of the most detailed public records of federal source-selection processes.

Related Terms

• Inspector General (IG), An independent official within each federal agency who investigates fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, reporting to both the agency head and Congress.
• USASpending.gov, The official U.S. government website that tracks all federal spending, contracts, grants, loans, and other financial assistance, searchable by agency, recipient, and location.
• Bid Protest, A formal challenge by a losing bidder who believes a contract was awarded improperly, filed with the GAO, the Court of Federal Claims, or the contracting agency.