Treasury has made progress in establishing its management infrastructure for the Office of Financial Stability, through which it is buying up and insuring assets as part of the Troubled Asset Relief program, GAO told the Senate banking committee recently.
It said however that Treasury is still in the process of developing an oversight structure for contractors and its internal control system remains in a nascent state.
The department has taken steps to help maintain continuity of leadership within OFS during and after the transition to the new administration by ensuring that interim chief positions would be filled to ensure a smooth transition and used direct-hire and various other appointments to bring a number of career staff on board quickly, according to GAO-09-359T.
It said that overall, OFS has increased staff since December from 48 to 90 as of January 26, which includes an increase of permanent staff from 5 to 38.
Still, while hiring progress is being made, the number of temporary and contract staff who will be needed to serve long-term organizational needs remains unknown, GAO said.
