The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) has published an
electronic version (January 2018) of my Federal history book, GAO:
Reporting the Facts, 1981-1996 (The Charles A. Bowsher Years).  You can
download it on the GAO Reports and Testimonies page,
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.gao.gov_products_D18596&d=DwIBaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=qe38skBceVYzknXV93DV3QMaXZ6HaVQVqwN0TeL9ix0&s=69U-k47a3XwTubA8i-fAA_v3x0Qk4OmFEpRy6V2udW0&e=
or short link
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__bit.ly_2svIEmc&d=DwIBaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=qe38skBceVYzknXV93DV3QMaXZ6HaVQVqwN0TeL9ix0&s=uJ2tS0dCCWOMvSLl3JpK5juhBgna4prZ9q4jgiDh774&e= .
The contact official is my former boss at GAO, Timothy Bowling, Managing
Director, Audit Policy and Quality Assurance.

My book covers the tenure as head of GAO of Charles Bowsher, who served as
Comptroller General of the United States from 1981-1996. He is pictured
with the current Comptroller General, Gene L. Dodaro, and others, including
two former Acting Comptrollers General, Milton Socolar and James Hinchman)
with me at GAO in January 2018 here.
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__twitter.com_ArchivesMaarja_status_963785834704068609&d=DwIBaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=qe38skBceVYzknXV93DV3QMaXZ6HaVQVqwN0TeL9ix0&s=S8IfL55rk6rsYRPp79peHgifMkaPwXO6Zc17-Fc78kw&e=  (Tim Bowling
is standing next to me.)
The book includes a short biographical section on Charles Bowsher which
looks at his prior career, including as Assistant Secretary of the Navy for
Financial Management during the Vietnam War.

During Bowsher's tenure, GAO still was the U.S. General Accounting Office.
Its name change to U.S. Government Accountability Office occurred in 2004.
I completed writing this manuscript prior to retiring from GAO, where I
worked for many years as agency historian in a GAO History Office located
in the policy office.  My research, reflected in footnotes in the book,
drew on records, GAO History Office oral history interviews, and
Congressional publications, among other sources.

You get a sense of the book in the generous comments to me from a retired
Federal historian who reviewed my manuscript prior to publication:

"Your ringside account of the Bowsher years at GAO is, in my judgment, a
thoroughly researched, fully engaging, and judiciously balanced display of
the federal historian's craft at its very best.  You have written this work
in a narrative style that evokes Mr. Bowsher's 1988 directive that GAO's
transition reports be 'readable and unambiguous.'

You have masterfully synthesized a great amount of complex information to
make it attractive to both the financial management professional and the
general student of government operations.  This will surely become a 'must
read' for present and future GAO analysts and senior managers.

You have succeeded in 'coaxing out' the best traditions of the agency
without preaching or sugarcoating. You make the case for the Bowsher years
being a time of thoroughgoing challenge and adaptation, but also
faithfulness to the organization's founding principles."


My book also includes a short overview of GAO's earlier history, including
the tenure of  Elmer B. Staats, Comptroller General, 1966-1981, whom I
featured in my last blog post.
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__archivalexplorations.wordpress.com_2018_02_10_understanding-2Dthe-2Dpast-2Dand-2Dthe-2Dcomplex-2Dpresent_&d=DwIBaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=qe38skBceVYzknXV93DV3QMaXZ6HaVQVqwN0TeL9ix0&s=7VmciQU8UfC0jd6u6FGn9tCophTzVQ_WjPbbjL-Mbe4&e=
or
short link
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__bit.ly_2BnhFvK&d=DwIBaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=qe38skBceVYzknXV93DV3QMaXZ6HaVQVqwN0TeL9ix0&s=YTO84BIstLjg0lju9LvfIEazhHl4gGElbFW3Ck0oBOw&e=

GAO's audit and investigative work covers a broad span of Federal
government operations. If you're interested in financial management,
auditing and investigations, government operations, change management, or
Federal history, please consider downloading and reading my book.  This is
an electronic  publication, Steve Whitaker--about the length of an earlier
GAO history book published by my predecessor, former boss, and mentor, the
late Roger Trask, in 1991.

Maarja
[log in to unmask]
Washington, DC
@ArchivesMaarja
Blog:  Archival Explorations
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__archivalexplorations.wordpress.com_&d=DwIBaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=qe38skBceVYzknXV93DV3QMaXZ6HaVQVqwN0TeL9ix0&s=C50Fy9R8M_7T3JW_QzoKs9p0DXFZuXPhxWfSG6hOuUo&e=

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