|
Showing 1 - 25 of
2374 matches in All Departments
Since 2001, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
has been working to develop the policies and plans to build the
Electronic Records Archives (ERA), a major information system that
is intended to preserve and provide access to massive volumes of
all types and formats of electronic records. Senate Report 108-146
directed GAO to provide a progress report on NARA's development of
the ERA system. Specifically, GAO's objective was to determine the
agency's progress in implementing recommendations from previous
assessments.
GAO discussed low-income housing tax credit utilization and
syndication. GAO found that: (1) tax credits are intended to induce
investors to supply equity for low-income housing; (2) tax credit
use increased from 20 percent in 1987 to 98 percent in 1989; (3) by
the end of 1989, about $565 million worth of initial-year credits
were awarded for the development of 236,000 low-income housing
units; (4) the credit program represents the federal government's
primary subsidy for encouraging low-income housing production; (5)
most tax credit syndications have been conducted as public
offerings, with limited partnership interests in
tax-credit-eligible projects being sold to individual investors;
and (6) many syndications are being conducted as direct placement,
usually to corporate investors.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers the
contaminants in storm water runoff as a significant threat to water
quality across the nation. Prompted by Congress, EPA has responded
with various initiatives, including the National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System Storm Water Program, which requires
more than 1,000 local governments to undertake storm water
management programs. Those municipalities in Phase I of the program
have been trying to reduce pollutants in storm water runoff for
several years, and it is time to begin evaluating their efforts.
EPA however, has not established measurable goals for this program,
nor has it attempted to evaluate the program's effectiveness in
reducing storm water pollution or to determine its cost. EPA
attributes its inaction to inconsistent data reporting from
municipalities, insufficient staff resources, and other competing
priorities within the Office of Wastewater Management. Although
municipalities report monitoring and cost data to EPA or state
regulatory agencies annually, these agencies have not reviewed this
information to determine whether it can be useful in determining
the program's overall effectiveness or cost. GAO found that the
reported cost information will be difficult to analyze unless EPA
and its state partners set guidelines to elicit more standardized
reporting. Better data on costs and program effectiveness are
needed--especially in light of the Phase II program that will
involve thousands more municipalities in 2003. EPA's planned
research grant to the University of Alabama and its pilot project
to analyze data from annual reports and develop baseline indicators
is a step in the right direction and could point the way for a more
comprehensive approach.
Pursuant to congressional requests, GAO compared public housing
authorities' (PHA) development of housing under the Public Housing
Development Program and Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program,
focusing on the: (1) characteristics of the tenants served; (2)
characteristics of the projects developed; (3) costs of each
program to the federal government; and (4) administrative
experiences of PHA when developing housing through each program.
GAO found that: (1) families with children were somewhat more
likely to have serious housing problems than the elderly; (2)
unlike the public housing program, the tax credit program did not
provide PHA with an operating subsidy when tenants could not
provide enough rent to cover operating costs; (3) the development
of tax credit projects was not subject to Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD) regulation and review; (4) HUD grants
covered almost all of the public housing project development costs,
while tax credits only generated enough cash to pay for more than
half of the costs of developing the tax credit projects; (5) PHA
had higher administrative costs when using the tax credit program;
and (6) federal regulations and procedures for the public housing
program greatly affected project development and completion.
|
You may like...
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
|