Vice President Al Gore promised in 1993 that his program to reinvent government would save billions of dollars. The General Accounting Office now says that the Gore project double-counted savings, did not tally short-term costs involved in making long- term savings and did not retain enough documents to make a judgment possible on whether some savings were achieved.

The GAO reviewed recommendations made by Gore's National Performance Review -- now called the National Partnership for Reinventing Government -- for cost-cutting changes at the Agriculture Department, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Energy Department.

• GAO found that $21.8 billion in claimed savings by Gore's project could not be documented or substantiated.

• Double-counting led to inflated savings in at least two cases.

• Estimates of savings did not take into account "offsetting costs" -- such as the expenses of giving numerous civil service employees up to $25,000 in cash "buyouts" to voluntarily quit their jobs, as well as other costs.

• Gore took credit for savings which originated from other quarters of government -- specifically, actions to downsize some agencies taken by Congress.

Gore currently estimates his plans will save about $137 billion. But the GAO report concludes, "There was no way to substantiate the savings claimed."

Source: Stephan Barr, "Reexamining 'Reinventing,'" Washington Post, August 17, 1999; "NPR's Savings: Claimed Agency Savings Cannot All Be Attributed to NPR," GAO/GGD-99-120, July 23, 1999, General Accounting Office.

For GAO report http://www.gao.gov/archive/1999/gg99120.pdf