Comptroller General of the United States

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Template:Short description Template:Infobox official post

The comptroller general of the United States is the director of the Government Accountability Office (GAO, formerly known as the General Accounting Office), a legislative-branch agency established by Congress in 1921 to ensure the fiscal and managerial accountability of the federal government.

Overview

The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 "created an establishment of the Government to be known as the General Accounting Office, which shall be independent of the executive departments and under the control and direction of the Comptroller General of the United States".[1] The act also provided that the "Comptroller General shall investigate, at the seat of government or elsewhere, all matters relating to the receipt, disbursement, and application of public funds, and shall make to the President when requested by him, and to Congress... recommendations looking to greater economy or efficiency in public expenditures."[2][3][4] The comptroller general is appointed for fifteen years by the president of the United States with the advice and consent of the Senate per 31 U.S.C. Template:Trim/Template:Trim § Template:Trim. Also per 31 U.S.C. Template:Trim/Template:Trim § Template:Trim when the office of comptroller general is to become vacant the current comptroller general must appoint an executive or employee of the GAO to serve as the acting comptroller general until such time as a new comptroller general is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

The comptroller general has the responsibility to audit the financial statements that the treasury secretary and the Office of Management and Budget director present to the Congress and the president. For every fiscal year since 1996, when consolidated financial statements began, the comptroller general has refused to endorse the accuracy of the consolidated figures for the federal budget, citing "(1) serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense, (2) the federal government’s inability to adequately account for and reconcile intragovernmental activity and balances between federal agencies, and (3) the federal government’s ineffective process for preparing the consolidated financial statements."[5]

The current comptroller general is Eugene Louis Dodaro, who assumed office on December 22, 2010. He was preceded by David M. Walker.[6] On February 15, 2008, Walker announced that he was resigning from GAO to head The Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Eugene Louis Dodaro became acting comptroller general of the United States on March 13, 2008, and was subsequently appointed by the president on September 22, 2010, and confirmed by the Senate on December 22, 2010, as the comptroller general. Dodaro was sworn in at a ceremony at the GAO on December 30, 2010.

List of officeholders

No. Portrait Name
(born–died)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". 		Term of office Appointing president Ref.
Took office Left office Time in office
1 File:John Raymond McCarl - Comptroller General of the United States - circa 1921 to 1936.jpg John R. McCarl
(1879–1940)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". 		July 1, 1921 June 30, 1936 Template:Ayd Warren G. Harding [7]
2 File:Fred H. Brown (20383297920).jpg Fred H. Brown
(1879–1955)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". 		April 11, 1939 June 19, 1940 Template:Ayd Franklin D. Roosevelt [7]
3 File:Lindsay C. Warren (20383297900).jpg Lindsay Carter Warren
(1889–1976)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". 		November 1, 1940 April 30, 1954 Template:Ayd Franklin D. Roosevelt [7]
4 File:Joseph Campbell (20383297880).jpg Joseph Campbell
(1900–1984)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". 		December 14, 1954 July 31, 1965 Template:Ayd Dwight D. Eisenhower [7]
5 File:Elmer B. Staats (20383297860).jpg Elmer B. Staats
(1914–2011)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". 		March 8, 1966 March 3, 1981 Template:Ayd Lyndon B. Johnson [7]
6 File:Charles A. Bowsher (20383297820).jpg Charles Bowsher
(1931–2022)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". 		October 6, 1981 September 30, 1996 Template:Ayd Ronald Reagan [8]
7 File:David M. Walker (20383297790).jpg David M. Walker
(born 1951)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". 		November 9, 1998 March 12, 2008 Template:Ayd Bill Clinton [9][10]
8 File:Eugene Louis Dodaro 2005.jpg Gene Dodaro
(born 1951)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". 		December 30, 2010 Incumbent Template:Ayd Barack Obama [11]

See also

References

Template:Reflist

External links

  1. ↑ Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, Sec. 301
  2. ↑ Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, Sec. 312(a)
  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ a b c d e Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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