AOUSC officials have (1) established a process for centralizing and maintaining federal criminal debt accounts, (2) developed a formal training program for judicial district staff, (3) selected an off-the-shelf accounting system which became operational in April 1995, (4) installed an inexpensive interim software package that was used through March 1995 until the selected system became operational, (5) begun processing new criminal debt information for 25 of the smaller judicial districts, and (6) begun converting criminal debt information from the interim to the off-the-shelf system. Currently, only a small fraction of criminal debt accounts are on the NFC system. Further, while AOUSC has indicated that it will enhance the system to increase user access to NFC information and improve management reporting during phase II, it has not yet determined what specific enhancements will be made to NFC or how it intends to accomplish them. Recommendations

As part of its efforts to complete the planned implementation of the NFC system, including enhancements such as the one needed to perform interest and penalty calculations, and various interfaces to facilitate the exchange of information between NFC and its users, we recommend that the Director, AOUSC, work with DOJ to finalize a reconciliation strategy to include time frames and resources for reconciling existing criminal debt accounts at judicial districts and entering the reconciled information into the NFC system and fully define a strategy for addressing additional actions needed to enable the NFC system to (1) provide a repository for national criminal debt statistical information, (2) produce reports to accommodate management information needs, (3) facilitate communication between NFC and its users, and (4) account for bail bond and collateral forfeiture actions. Nonetheless, progress is being made to enhance the reliability of accounting and reporting of criminal debt information. 2. 5.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the National Fine Center (NFC), focusing on the: (1) Administrative Office of the United States Courts' (AOUSC) efforts to establish NFC and centralize criminal debt accounting and reporting within NFC; and (2) additional actions AOUSC needs to take to complete implementation of the NFC automated accounting system.

What GAO Found

GAO found that AOUSC has: (1) established a process for centralizing and maintaining federal criminal debt accounts; (2) developed a formal training program for judicial district staff; (3) selected an off-the-shelf accounting system and inexpensive interim software until the selected system becomes operational; (4) begun processing new criminal debt information for 25 small judicial districts; and (5) begun converting criminal debt information from the interim system to the off-the-shelf system. In addition, GAO found that: (1) AOUSC is slightly ahead of schedule in establishing NFC and centralizing federal criminal debt, but much planning and implementation effort remains; (2) many enhancements to the selected accounting system will be required to automate certain manual processes before NFC can begin receiving new criminal debt information from larger judicial districts; (3) AOUSC and the Department of Justice (DOJ) still must ensure the reliability of the existing criminal debt accounting data before entering the information into the NFC system; and (4) although AOUSC plans to further enhance the system to increase user access to NFC information within the next 5 years, it must first identify the specific enhancements required and determine how to accomplish them.