ABSTRACT
There were more positive elements in the remarkable turnabout of the General Accounting Office (GAO), which occurred mainly in the years of 1945–1954. These stemmed principally from two thrusts, one concerning the audit of government corporations, the other growing from efforts, in cooperation with other agencies, to improve federal accounting systems. Precedent and probably essential to the transformation of the GAO were the good will and the support of a majority of Congress. The most explicit legislative recognition of the tie between Congress and the GAO came in the latter part of 1945 in connection with President Truman’s proposal to revive for twenty-seven months the reorganization authority that had originally been voted in 1939 but had expired. In the Reorganization Act of 1945, enacted on December 20, 1945, Congress not only exempted the Comptroller General and the GAO from presidential reorganization authority but also described them as “a part of the legislative branch of the government.”
