GAO targets regulatory agencies as troubled

[struggle4progress]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. regulatory structure policing the financial sector is outdated, federal oversight of medical products is inadequate and the government's tracking system for toxic chemicals is in danger of becoming obsolete, the investigative arm of Congress said Thursday.

Shortcomings in regulation topped a list of 30 programs needing broad-based transformation or at high risk for waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a report it issues at the start of every new Congress.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers pledged cooperation with the Obama administration to help fix the problems, which ranged from soaring cost overruns in weapons procurement to long backlogs in handling disability cases at the Social Security Administration, the Defense Department and the Veterans Administration.

The GAO report is "a roadmap to government oversight," Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told a news conference ...

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<link to pdf report via:>
GAO's New 'High Risk' List a Kick in the Government's Pants
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/01/the_gaos_new_high_risk_list.html?hpid=topnews