From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: GAO's New Transition Smartphone App Description: Audio interview by GAO staff with Chuck Young, Managing Director, Office of Public Affairs Related GAO Work: Presidential and Congressional Transition Released: November 2016 [ Background Music ] [ Narrator: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It's November, 2016. With the election behind us, a new President and Congress are preparing to take office. GAO is releasing a new smartphone app to help policymakers and new leaders identify key areas for action to improve government operations. Jacques Arsenault sat down with Chuck Young, GAO's Managing Director of Public Affairs, to talk about GAO's transition resources. [ Jacques Arsenault: ] With a new Congress and President coming into office, what is GAO doing for the transition? [ Chuck Young: ] Well Jacques, we've got a number of things planned, but the highlight really is a brand new app, a brand new smartphone app, that we're introducing, that's going to allow the user to quickly see -- agency by agency -- what are the priority recommendations GAO has made to improve governance at that agency? [ Jacques Arsenault: ] So then where can people find this new app, and what will they be able get when they download it? [ Chuck Young: ] Well it's going to be free and available in the App Store, for iphone, or in Google Play. And people will to able to open it up and quickly search either by agency or by topic and see the key recommendations GAO has made across the government to improve operations. They can search by topic, for example. If you are, let's say, a new congressional staff member, who's working for a member or for a committee that oversees EPA, or if you are a new political appointee coming in with the new administration, you can look up EPA and see what are the priority recommendations GAO's made to improve government operations across EPA. [ Jacques Arsenault: ] Now GAO already has an existing mobile app. How does this new one fit into that landscape? [ Chuck Young: ] Well our existing apps, which are available, again for free, in the Google Play Store or in iTunes, allow the user to quickly look at our daily content. A lot of people look and say, 'What's GAO come out with today? What are the latest reports and testimonies?' They're really focused around that, although you can do some other things with them as well. This one, instead, is not focused on what's come out today, but what are the key recommendations to improve government. [ Jacques Arsenault: ] So let me take a step back. Can you talk about GAO's role in the transition? [ Chuck Young: ] Sure. So GAO actually has a statutory responsibility. The law says GAO needs to assist in the transition. Exactly how that's defined is left up to GAO and up to Congress. But we'll be not only introducing this new app, but we're going to have a transition website that goes over all of these recommendations. We are going to not only look at what are the key recommendations, but we're going to be looking across the government. The work GAO has done, for example: Key Issues, what are they, and what work have we done in each area? The High Risk List. The High Risk List is a list of programs at high risk for waste, fraud, abuse, mismanagement or in need of transformation. And we come out with that list at the start of each new Congress; a new one will be coming out in February. And that goes into broad detail about individual issues that really need to be addressed at the start of the new Congress and the new Administration. And also as part of the website, we're gonna l have a Management Agenda that we are unveiling for the first time, that looks at 8 different management areas across the federal government that new managers can focus on to improve on to improve government operations. [ Jacques Arsenault: ] And finally, when it comes to GAO and transition resources, what would you say is the bottom line? [ Chuck Young: ] The bottom line is: if you are a new member of the government, or you are a new member of the policy communities, or if you are just a member of the public who wants to know more about how the government can be improved, this gives you easy access, agency by agency, and you can answer the question: What are the key things that need to be done to help this agency work better. [Narrator:] To learn more, visit GAO.gov and be sure to tune in to the next episode of GAO's Watchdog Report for more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office.