OMB to add internal controls requirements to PMA scorecard

The Office of Management and Budget will add implementation of milestones for tighter internal controls to federal agencies’ ratings for the President’s Management Agenda scorecard during fiscal 2006. Agencies are required under OMB’s revised Circular A-123 to have a framework in place to implement those financial management practices by October 2006, said Dave Zavada, branch chief of financial standards and grants in OMB’s Office of Federal Financial Management. An example of an internal control would be an agency performing routine reconciliation and analysis of its accounts throughout the year instead of quarterly or annually, he said. The first management statement assuring internal controls over financial reports is due in June 2006. That statement will accompany the agency’s year-end financial statement, which must be completed Nov. 15, 45 days after the close of the fiscal year. Prior to 2004, agencies had 90 days from Sept. 30 to finish their year-end reports.