Government Performance Results Act

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the 2001 GAO review of DOJ, a routine assessment conducted in compliance with federal law, the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) was put into place because waste and inefficiency undermine the confidence of the American people. The author believes that the current Attorney General, John Ashcroft, a hard-line, religious-right, ultra-conservative, has shown a contempt for the Bill of Rights. The paper states that the GAO should not be given more power, but the Congress has a duty to enter into a new post-9/11 phase and stand up to the Executive Branch to independently protect Americans from waste, abuse, and mismanagement of resources.

Table of Contents
The GAO Critiques DOJ
Internet-Based Research of DOJ
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"As to the first of DOJ's "planned outcomes" " less violence related to gangs and drugs " the GAO in its summary states that DOJ "fell short of achieving its performance targets for four measures." Looking into those failures a bit more closely (p. 8), DOJ had said it would try to perform 4.81 million "criminal background checks" and yet it only conducted 4.49 million checks. Also, the GAO says that while DOJ claims it prevented 71,890 "ineligible" individuals from purchasing firearms, the GAO says DOJ missed its target of preventing 140,244 persons from buying guns."

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