ABSTRACT
The first thirty years of the General Accounting Office (GAO) history were punctuated by frontal assaults on its locus in the government, its powers, the tenure of its chief, and its very existence as an agency. Many of these attacks stemmed from reorganization study groups and from Presidents—Wilson through Roosevelt. The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 substantially reversed the original position with regard to financial control; all of the powers of the comptroller of the treasury and the auditors were transferred to the GAO, explicitly “independent of the executive departments,” and a few new ones were added. Historically, the stickier question has concerned the GAO’s exercise of powers of an executive or quasi-judicial character and the degree to which the Comptroller General’s opinions are binding on the executive branch. After fifty-seven years, the legal status and powers of the Comptroller General and the GAO remain in some respects disputed.
