We have performed the procedures contained in the enclosure to this report, which we agreed to perform and with which the Inspector General (IG) concurred, solely to assist it in ascertaining whether the net excise tax revenue distributed to the Airport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF) for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2003, is supported by the underlying records. As agreed, we evaluated fiscal year 2003 activity affecting distributions to the AATF.

The adequacy of the procedures to meet the Inspector General's objectives is his responsibility, and we make no representation in that respect. The procedures we agreed to perform include (1) detailed tests of transactions that represent the underlying basis of amounts distributed to the AATF, (2) review of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) quarterly AATF certifications, (3) review of the Department of the Treasury Financial Management Service (FMS) adjustments to the AATF for fiscal year 2003, (4) review of IRS's precertification1 of receipts for the third quarter of fiscal year 2003 (5) review of certain procedures of the Department of the Treasury Office of Tax Analysis' (OTA) estimation procedures affecting excise tax distributions to the AATF for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2003, and other procedures including (6) the comparison of net excise tax distributions to the AATF during fiscal year 2003 and amounts reported in the draft financial statements prepared by the Bureau of the Public Debt (BPD) for the AATF and the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) draft consolidated financial statements, (7) detailed tests of transactions that represent total IRS tax revenue receipts and refunds, and (8) review of key reconciliations of IRS records to Treasury records. The enclosure contains the agreed-upon procedures and our findings from performing each of the procedures. We were not engaged to perform, and did not perform, an audit, the objective of which would have been the expression of an opinion on the amount of net excise taxes distributed to the AATF.

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