	Prior Difficulties in Comparing Budget Justifications

In 1998, we reported that difficulties in comparing EPA’s fiscal year 1999 and 1998 budget justifications arose because the 1999 budget justification was organized according to the agency’s strategic goals and objectives, whereas the 1998 justification was organized according to EPA’s program offices and components. In its fiscal year 1999 budget justification, EPA did not show how the funds requested for each goal and objective would be allocated among its program offices or components. To be able to compare EPA’s requested fiscal year 1999 funds for Science and Technology to the previous fiscal year’s enacted funds, EPA would have had to maintain financial records in two different formats—by program components and by strategic goals and objectives—and to develop crosswalks to link information between the two. Guidance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) does not require agencies to develop or provide crosswalks in their justifications when a budget format changes. With these two formats of financial data, the Office of Research and Development could readily crosswalk, or provide links, to help compare the 1998 enacted funds, organized by program components, to the fiscal year 1999 budget justification, organized according to EPA’s strategic goals and objectives. Therefore, because the radiation program could not be readily identified in the fiscal year 1999 budget justification, congressional decisionmakers could not easily compare funds for it with the amount that had been enacted for fiscal year 1998. EPA’s Changes Improved the Clarity of the Budget Justification, but Additional Information Is Needed

For fiscal year 2000, EPA made several changes to improve the clarity of its budget justification. According to EPA officials, they planned to provide tables for each goal and objective to show the amounts of funds requested for key programs, starting with the agency’s fiscal year 2000 budget justification. However, they intended to make available backup information to show the program offices that would be administering the requested funds. However, for the objectives that rely on Science and Technology funds, EPA made several changes without explanations or documentation to link the changes to the fiscal year 1999 budget justification. EPA (1) acknowledged that funds from one objective were allocated to several other objectives but did not identify the objectives or amounts, (2) did not identify funds in Science and Technology amounts that were transferred from Hazardous Substances Superfund, and (3) made other changes to the number or wording of objectives that rely on Science and Technology funds. Therefore, a clear comparison of 1999 and 2000 budget justifications cannot be made. The amounts for Science and Technology as shown in the budget justification for the objective are shown in table 2.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) budget justification for its Science and Technology account, and changes among the justifications for fiscal years (FY) 1998, 1999, and 2000, focusing on: (1) difficulties experienced in comparing EPA's Science and Technology budget justification for FY 1999 with those of previous years; and (2) actions that EPA planned and implemented in order to improve the clarity and comparability of the FY 2000 justification, and items that need further clarification.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) EPA's budget justification for FY 1999 could not be readily compared to amounts requested or enacted for FY 1998 and prior years because the justification did not show how the budget would be distributed among program offices or program components--information needed to link to the prior years' justifications; (2) the Office of Management and Budget does not require EPA to provide information to compare the justifications when the format changes; (3) to facilitate such comparisons, agency officials provided supplemental information to congressional committees; (4) because EPA did not maintain financial records by both program components and strategic goals and objectives for all enacted Science and Technology funds for FY 1998, it could not readily provide information for all amounts; (5) at GAO's request, EPA estimated the 1998 enacted amounts so that the 1998 budget could be compared with the FY 1999 request; (6) EPA implemented several changes to its FY 2000 justification to solve problems experienced in comparing the 1998 and 1999 budget justifications; (7) to improve the clarity of its budget justification for FY 2000, EPA included tables that detail, for each objective, how requested amounts are allocated among key programs; (8) backup information is also available that shows the program offices that will be administering the requested funds; (9) the agency also implemented a new accounting system that records budget data by goals and objectives, which enhances reporting financial data by goals and objectives; (10) while the budget justification followed the basic format reflecting the agency's strategic goals and objectives, EPA made changes to the objectives without explanations or documentation to link the changes to the FY 1999 budget justification; (11) for example, funds were allocated from one objective to other objectives without identifying the objectives or amounts, funds that included money transferred from another account were shown as Science and Technology funds, and changes were made to the number or wording of objectives without explanations; and (12) as a result, the FY 2000 budget justification cannot be completely compared with the FY 1999 justification without supplemental information.