GAO
United States
General Accounting Office
Washington, D.C. 20548
Accounting and Information
Management Division
B-277105
October 15, 1997
The Honorable Alfonse M. D’Amato
Chairman
The Honorable Paul S. &banes
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
United States Senate
The Honorable James A. Leach
Chairman
The Honorable Henry B. Gonzalez
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Banking and Financial Services
House of Representatives
Subject: Commemorative Coin Program: Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial F’und, incorporated in 1979, established a
national memorial on public land in the District of Columbia to honor those
who fought in the Vietnam War. Title II of Public Law 103-186,the United
States Veterans Commemorative Coin Act of 1993, provided that the Fund use
surcharge proceeds from the sale of commemorative coins to help create an
endowment for the repair, maintenance, and addition of names to the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial. Section 303 of Public Law 103186 required that we perform
a one-time audit of the use of commemorative coin surcharge proceeds received
by the Fund.’
‘Section 303 applied to recipients that received surcharge proceeds between
December 14, 1993, and September 29, 1996. Public Law 104208 repealed
Section 303 and requires recipients that receive commemorative surcharge
proceeds on or after September 30, 1996, to separately account for the receipt
and expenditure of surcharge proceeds and obtain annual financial audits by an
independent public accounting lkm until all surcharge proceeds are expended
or placed in trust. (Section 529 of the Treasury, Postal Service, and General
Government Appropriations Act, 1997, as enacted by Section 101(f) of Public
Law 104208, the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act, 1997, amended
Section 5134 of Title 31, United States Code, effective September 30, 1996.)
GAO/AlMD-9815R Vietnam Veterans Memorial F’und
B-277105
We determined that the Fund received about $2849,000 in surcharge proceeds
from the U.S. Mint from October 1994 through April 1996 and established an
endowment in accordance with the provisions of Title II of Public Law 103-186.
As of May 1997,the F’und had expended about $252,000from the endowment.
The endowment balance as of May 1997 was about $3.3 million.
In conducting our work, we obtained direct confirmation from the U.S. Mint of
the amounts of surcharge proceeds transferred to the F’und. We traced those
amounts to the Fund’s bank and endowment statements, traced expenditures to
source documents, reviewed the Fund’s accounting for the surcharge proceeds
and expenditures, and traced the balance of the endowment as of May 1997 to
investment reports. We also reviewed minutes of the Board of Directors’
meetings related to surcharge proceeds. Our audit was performed from May
1997 through July 1997 in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards. At the conclusion of our work, we provided a draft of this
letter to the President of the F’und for comment and he had no comments. This
letter is reprinted in enclosure I.
Copies of this letter are being sent to interested parties and will be made
available to others on request. Please contact me at (202) 512-9489if you or
your offices have any questions about this letter.
-/azL/i4L e/4
David L. Clark
Director, Audit Oversight
and Liaison
Enclosure
2 GAO/.AIMD-98-15RVietnam Veterans Memorial Fund
ENCLOSURE I ENCLOSURE I
COMMENTS FROM THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL F’UbID
ANNIVERSARY
September24,1997
Gene L. Dodaro
Assistant Comptroller General
Accounting and Information Management Division
United States General Accounting Office
Washington, DC 20548
Dear Mr. Dodaro;
Thank you very much for your letter of September l.2, I997 forwarding the
draft GAO report on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund Commemorative
Coin Promam for review and comment. We were very pleasedthat the reporr
reflects our full compliance with the legislation. Given the fact that the report
is favorable in every respect,we have no comments regarding any point
discussedin the repoh
We appreciate the diligence of Mr. Potter in conducting the review aad
preparing the report and we look forward to cooperating with GAO in future
reviews of the Commemorative Coin Program.
JanC.
Presid
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc.
IO 12 Fourteenth St.. NW. Suite 201, LV.xhtn!$on. D.C. XOVj l 1103 3’J3-Ol190 F.n I?011 393-0029
GAO/AIMD-98-15R Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund
..
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Address Correction Requested
Commemorative Coin Program: Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund
Published by the Government Accountability Office on 1997-10-15.
Below is a raw (and likely hideous) rendition of the original report. (PDF)