Page 4 GAO Report to Congressional Requesters Decemer 2005
"Livestock Market Reporting USDA Has Taken Some Steps to Ensure Quality, but Additional Efforts Are Needed"
page 4-5 of the report.
If the Secretary of Agriculture is responsible for enforcing the PSA and is over GIPSA and the AMS, why doesn't he tell AMS to give GIPSA all transaction data? Why is he playing the middle? To what end? If the Secretary of Agriculture is playing interference, he should be questioned about why this inefficiency had to be brought out in a GAO report.
Full Report: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.21&filename=d06202.pdf&directory=/diskb/wais/data/gao
"Livestock Market Reporting USDA Has Taken Some Steps to Ensure Quality, but Additional Efforts Are Needed"
"Coordination between GIPSA and AMS has been limited, primarily due to the legal authority within which each operates. AMS Implemented and enforced the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act while GIPSA implements and enforces the Packers and Stockyards Act. The Livestock Manditory Roeporting Act did not provide authority for AMS to share confidential packer transaction data within USDA unless the Secretary of Agriculture or the Attorney General directed AMS to disclose the information for enforcement purposes. GIPSA monitors cattle and hog markets by analyzing publicly available AMS livestock reports. his approach to livestock monitoring has limitations because it does not include company specific transaction data that would be useful for detecting anti-competitive behavior. AMS provided packers' transaction data to GIPSA for two investigations after formal requests for those data........."
page 4-5 of the report.
If the Secretary of Agriculture is responsible for enforcing the PSA and is over GIPSA and the AMS, why doesn't he tell AMS to give GIPSA all transaction data? Why is he playing the middle? To what end? If the Secretary of Agriculture is playing interference, he should be questioned about why this inefficiency had to be brought out in a GAO report.
Full Report: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.21&filename=d06202.pdf&directory=/diskb/wais/data/gao