Government Accountability Office (GAO)
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is at the center of government decision-making. The GAO helps Congress make the right decisions by providing legislators with information on policy issues and offers recommendations to improve government operations. The office claims to be “one of the most respected organizations in both the private and public sectors because our program reviews, policy analyses, audits, and investigations are professional, objective, fact-based, non-partisan, and non-ideological.”
The GAO's work covers whatever the U.S. government has done, is doing, or is considering doing. Employees investigate issues including national defense, international affairs, education, the environment, health care, transportation, financial management, and information technology. They work with local and state governments, federal agencies, and foreign governments.
Accountability office employees are at the vanguard of congressional oversight, and their work depends on knowledge, analysis, and specialized skills. The entire staff has a voice in all operations and management. The GAO helps its employees balance work and personal lives through flexible work schedules and onsite services. It invests in employees' continuing education through training and mentoring programs, and rewards high-performing individuals through a pay-for-performance system and incentive awards.
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GAO employees testify before the Congress several hundred times a year. They are cited regularly in the news media and are the second most-referenced organization in the world. The office's recommendations result in hundreds of actions, including landmark legislation, that lead to improvements in government operations.
More than half of the GAO staff has a doctoral or master's degree in areas like public administration, public policy, law, business, computer science, accounting, economics, and the social sciences. The GAO employs more than 3,000 employees from coast to coast, two thirds of whom work at the Washington, D.C., headquarters.
Career opportunities at the GAO include positions for analysts, financial auditors, and various specialists in information technology, economics, and communications analysis. The office also has a student intern program. The GAO also wants you to know that it “is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer, promoting and supporting diversity through recruitment, employee associations and councils, diversity training and events, and outreach programs.”
