Performance and Accountability Report, Fiscal Year 2022
Fast Facts
GAO's work yielded $55.6 billion in financial benefits for the federal government in FY 2022—a return of $74 for every dollar invested in us. We did it by recommending ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of federal programs and more.
We also identified 1,262 other benefits—things that improve programs and operations but can't be measured in dollars. For example, our work:
- Prompted the Army to better protect weapons systems from cyberattacks
- Led HHS to improve monitoring of psychotropic medications prescribed to children in foster care
- Prompted DEA to use computer algorithms to proactively identify suspicious drug distribution activities
Highlights
What GAO Found
Presented is GAO's Performance and Accountability Report for fiscal year 2022. In the spirit of the Government Performance and Results Act, this annual report informs the Congress and the American people about what we have achieved on their behalf. The financial information and the data measuring GAO's performance contained in this report are complete and reliable.
This report describes GAO's performance measures, results, and accountability processes for fiscal year 2022. In assessing our performance, we compared actual results against targets and goals that were set in our annual performance plan and performance budget, and that were developed to help carry out our strategic plan. An overview of our annual measures and targets for 2022 is available here, along with links to a complete set of our strategic planning and performance and accountability reports.
This report includes A Fiscal Year 2022 Performance and Financial Snapshot for the America Taxpayer, a letter from the Comptroller General, and five parts as follows:
A Fiscal Year 2022 Performance and Financial Snapshot for the American Taxpayer. This section provides an overview of GAO's performance and financial information for FY 2022 and outlines GAO's near-term, future work, and agency priorities.
A letter from the Comptroller General. The letter highlights some of GAO's key accomplishments for FY 2022.
Part I: Management's Discussion and Analysis. This section includes a statement attesting to the completeness and reliability of the performance and financial data in this report and the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. It also includes a summary of our mission, organizational structure, strategies we use to achieve our goals, and process for measuring our performance. In addition, it discusses our agency-wide performance results and use of resources in fiscal year 2022. It also includes information on management challenges, external factors that affect our performance, and future challenges and priorities.
Part II: Performance Information. This section includes details on our performance results by strategic goal in fiscal year 2022 and our targets for fiscal year 2023.
Part III: Financial Information. This section includes details on our finances in fiscal year 2022, including a letter from our Chief Financial Officer, audited financial statements and notes, and the reports from our external auditor and Audit Advisory Committee. This section also includes an explanation of the information each of our financial statements conveys.
Part IV: Inspector General's View of GAO's Management Challenges. This section includes our Inspector General's perspective of our agency's management challenges.
Part V: Appendixes. This section provides the report's abbreviations and describes how we ensure the completeness and reliability of the data for each of our performance measures.
Why GAO Did This Study
As a legislative branch agency, GAO is exempt from many laws that apply to executive branch agencies. However, we generally hold ourselves to the spirit of many such laws, including the Government Performance and Results Act and the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act. Accordingly, this performance and accountability report for fiscal year 2022 provides information on the work of GAO that we consider comparable to that reported by executive branch agencies that choose to prepare annual Performance and Accountability Reports in lieu of Agency Financial Reports.
For more information, contact Timothy Bowling at 202-512-6100 or BowlingT@gao.gov.