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GAO: Lobbyist disclosure compliance 'similar' compared to prior years
K Street’s newest registered lobbyist generally complied with expense and income report requirements, while accuracy among established lobbyists on these reports varied, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Friday indicated.
GAO completed the review of income and expense reports, or LD-2 reports, and their associated firms or lobbyists for the third and fourth quarters of 2010 and first and second quarters of 2011 as part of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (HLOGA). The office also sampled a total of 160 LD-203 reports on political contributions from the same timeframes.
HLOGA amended lobbying disclosure requirements on quarterly and semiannual reports for “certain political contributions” and “increased civil … and criminal penalties for failure to comply,” as well as required GAO to conduct an audit on lobbyist compliance annually.
Almost all selected lobbyists — 93 percent — could provide income and expense documents to support their reports out of the 100 selected quarterly lobbying disclosure LD-2 reports. Only 63 percent disclosed the amounts received correctly.
Of the other 37 percent, 16 percent disclosed at least $10,000 more or less than they had documented in reports, and approximately 21 percent of reports were rounded incorrectly on filings.
Individuals acting as lobbyists were fairly similar in statistics when it came to reporting accurately on LD-2s. Roughly 68 percent of “individuals acting as lobbyists” could provide full supporting documents for their reports, with 17 percent providing some documentation and 15 percent providing none.
GAO’s results also indicate fairly similar reporting compliance regardless of which chamber of Congress firms or individuals choose to lobby in.
A very small number of political contributions that should have been reported were not disclosed on LD-203 reports, the office found. Only 86 percent of lobbyists and firms filed these forms in conjunction with their LD-2 reports, and a minuscule 4 percent of those reports “omitted one or more reportable political contributions.”
These LD-203 forms were checked against existing Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.
The office’s report also showed enforcement improving. The U.S. Attorney’s office hired someone to work solely on lobbying efforts, the report states.
The attorney’s office referred 561 cases of noncompliance in 2009 or 2010. Out of those, 43 percent, or 243, are pending action, and 56 percent, or 312, are now compliant with requirements.
The attorney’s office also finalized a $45,000 settlement in November, the first since HLOGA became law. Before 2008, the office had made settlements with three offices “totaling about $47,000,” the report states.
While almost all lobbying firms and lobbyists interviewed said the requirements for disclosure were “easy” or “somewhat easy” to comply with, a few lobbyists expressed difficulties filing the reports.
These individuals cited confusion over whether interning for Congress should be disclosed on the lobbying form as previous experience. The lobbyists also told the agency they did not keep track of lobbying contacts with covered officials such as members of Congress or members of the executive branch.
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