‘ Billions of federal dollars are lost each year through fraud, abuse, waste, and error. Sen. James R. Sasser, DTenn. is authority for that rather shocking statement. Member of the Senate Appropriations. Budget, and Governmental committees, Sasser made the assertion in the closing days before Congress’ election recess as he discussed tightening government accounting operations. He told the Senate: “Repeatedly, the General Accounting Office finds weaknesses over virtually all aspects of accounting operations – accounts receivable, collections, disbursements, obligations. and imprest funds – that allow monetary losses to occur.” When you consider there are 2,000 fiscal offices throughout the federal system, the difficulty of coordinating the massive operation is understandable. But that doesn’t excuse incompetency and fraud. Sasser said the losses occur because many of the offices “disregard basic fiscal control procedures. ” Here are some of the examples he cited: – GAO auditors found that in May, 1978, Department ‘of Labor fiscal offices had not recorded $218 million as accounts receivable due the government; and no effort was being made to collect the amount. – Several Environmental Protection Agency offices had routinely made disbursements without determining if the amount of payment and name of payee were correct. – Auditors found that the Navy’s Pacific Fleet averaged a 13 percent error rate when processing vouchers during a twomonth test in 1978, resulting in $710.300 in overpayments and $17,600 in underpayments. – Most agencies were not following up on delinquent accounts. At one fiscal office at the Health Services Administration, only one bill had been sent to each debtor. When partial payments were received, no second billing was made for the balance due. In fact, no action was taken even when the debtor paid nothing. – At the American embassy in Paris, employees owed more than $11,500 for personal telephone calls. “Some amounts had been outstanding for more than nine months one emiployee owed more than $1,700 …” All this, The Congressional Record quoted Sasser as saying, “leads me to believe that a legislative solution is necessary. Incident after incident of ineptitude is accompanied by monumental indifference by the federal agencies involved.” Sasser juined with Sens. Thomas Eagleton, D-Mo., Charles Perfy, R-Ill. and Charles C. Mathias. R-Md. in sponsoring legislation known ‘as The Financial Integrity Act of 1980. The bill would place greater responsibilities on heads of federal agencies for improving financial control systems. Obviously prompt and effective steps are needed. The Senate bill is a move in the right direction.