Congress's watch dog: mostly it still goes for the capillaries.

• Author: Heilemann, John
• Position: General Accounting Office

Congress's Watch Dog: Mostly It Still goes for the Capillaries

It was barely two weeks after election day when the General Accounting Office (GAO) sent George Bush a 26-volume "transition series" report, telling him the government he was about to inherit was falling apart. "Neglect and mismanagement" had become the government rule. At the Environmental Protection Agency, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Pentagon. At the Social Security Administration. At Housing and Urban Development. The cost of fixing the problems would be "staggering," the GAO said, including at least $130 billion to modernize the plants that produce the nation's nuclear weapons, $20 billion to fix dilapidated public housing, and $50 billion--off by at least $100 billion, it now turns out--to bail out the S&Ls. Even the national parks needed $1.9 billion to halt their deterioration. Though they rarely mentioned him, the reports added up to an indictment of ronald Reagan.

While unflattering appraisals of the outgoing government were to be expected, no one thought the most systematic attack would come from Comptroller General Charles Bowsher--whom Reagan himself had handed a 15-year appointment, an $89,500 salary, a $300 million-plus budget, and a staff of more than 5,000. "Gratuitous advice," harrumphed Edmund Haislmaier of the Heritage Foundation. "Mr. Bowsher's latest political exercise," griped The Wall Street Journal. Less partisan voices sounded puzzled. A story in The New York Times marveled over "the habitually cautious" GAO's use of adjectives like "staggering."

These reactions say a good deal about Washington, not least of which is that the city expects government agencies to write in euphemisms. But the reactions say a good deal more about the GAO. Here was Congress's watchdog doing its duty--and the sound was so unfamiliar that no one knew what to make of it. Washington's confusion shows both how far the GAO has come in recent years and how much farther it needs to go.

As Congress's investigative agency, GAO ought to be the government's great ombudsman--tracking programs not only for evidence of fraud and abuse but to discern which work, which don't, and why. Its size alone makes its potential powers formidable, with 80 audit sites within the federal agencies and 15 field offices spread across the country. It has the authority to dig through the files of almost every government program and to grill its personnel. But, historically, the agency has suffered a form of institutional myopia, asking too many small questions and asking them too politely to fulfill its mission.

Under Bowsher, the GAO has shown increasing signs of outgrowing its instinct for the capillary, with the transition reports being just one piece of evidence. But the agency still spends too much time on isolated examples rather than trends. It gives too much attention to questions of minor fraud and not enough to questions of broader government performance. And it's much better at dissecting disasters after they happen then it is at detecting and disarming them as they arise. GAO: You've come a long way, baby, but you're still not the ombudsman we need.

If the call for greater GAO oversight seems to repeat the call for greater press oversight, greater congressional oversight, and greater Office of Management and Budget oversight--it does. Maybe someday the duplication of effort won't be needed. Maybe there'll be so many reporters and government inspectors worried about whether the mine safety laws are being enforced that they'll be bumping into each other in the Harlan County mines. But for now it's safe to say that the odds of such mine-shaft collisions are slight; would-be watchdogs needn't be deterred.

GAO: DOA?

When Congress created the GAO in 1921, it vested the agency with a sweeping mission: to investigate "all matters" involving public funds. And Congress went beyond mere rhetoric. To help protect the GAO from intimidation, it created a 15-year term for the agency's head; though appointed by the president, he could be...