**GAO-02-891R**                      Published: Jul 26, 2002. Publicly Released: Jul 26, 2002.                  

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## Highlights

During GAO's fiscal year 2001 audit on accounting procedures and internal controls at the Congressional Award Foundation it found several internal control weaknesses related to processing transactions, maintaining supporting documents, and required reporting. Specifically, GAO found lack of approval for payments to vendors, inaccurate classification of transactions in the general ledger, lack of supporting documents for adjusting journal entries made by the foundation's accounting firm, incomplete personnel files, and lack of congressional reports for fiscal year 2000. The leadership of the Congressional Award Foundation changed near the end of the fiscal year 2001, and this transition may have contributed to the weaknesses found during GAO's audit. Since this transition, the foundation has established the executive position of the Director of Finance and Administration to oversee daily financial and administrative operations.

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## Topics

Auditing and Financial Management

AccountingFinancial statement auditsInternal controlsReporting requirementsFinancial statementsFinancial managementData errorsMaintenancePayroll recordsFederal assistance programs