Federal financial report is in, but GAO offers no opinion

The federal government's consolidated financial report for 2011 is out and the picture isn't pretty. The Government Accountability Office found once again that it can't render an opinion on that statement. That's despite the fact that several departments received their own clean financial statements.

In Fiscal Year 2011, 20 of the 24 individual CFO Act agencies received unqualified opinion on all of their financial statements, Dacey said. One agency received an unqualified opinion on all of its statements with the exception of its statements on social insurance and changes of social insurance. Another agency received a qualified opinion.


The three main obstacles to GAO giving an opinion on the accrual based financial statements:


1.Serious financial problems at the Department of Defense have prevented its statements from being auditable.

2.The federal government has been unable to adequately account for and reconcile intergovernmental activity and balances between agencies.

3.The federal government has an ineffective process for preparing consolidated financial statements.

-Michael O'Connell, FederalNewsRadio.com
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New online toolkit aims to help agencies combat fraud

When it comes to fraud, some seem to think federal agencies wear big target signs.

The AGA has created a new fraud prevention online tool kit, designed to help agencies better detect and prevent fraud.


The toolkit allows agencies to search for red flags by different program areas and different types of fraud as well as what they can do to combat them.


-FederalNewsRadio.com
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DISA passes government audit test ahead of most of DOD

After five years of preparation, the Defense Information Systems Agency has received its first “clean audit” decision under a federal law that mandates financial transparency.


DISA earned the audit green-light through an audit of its fiscal 2011 Defense Working Capital Fund financial statement. It represents DISA’s accuracy in its accounting and financial management for its working capital fund, which includes money coming from its customers. A separate general fund contains money appropriated from Congress, and efforts to get that fund audit-ready are ongoing.

-Amber Corrin, FCW.com
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Education wants to put financial management in the cloud

The Education Department wants to take its financial management system to the cloud.

Education issued a request for information Nov. 18 seeking ideas for infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service for the Education Department's Central Automated Processing System (EDCAPS).

Education's system includes five different components:
•Financial-management support software
•Grants-management system
•Contracts and purchasing support system
•Travel-management system
•Nortridge Loan system

-Jason Miller, FederalNewsRadio.com
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Recovery Board's Devaney to resign

Earl Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, tasked with tracking Recovery Act spending, announced his resignation Thursday.


Devaney's resignation, which is effective Dec. 31, comes after more than four decades of federal service.

Along with resigning his position as chairman of the RATB, he also said he would be stepping down as the chairman of the Government Accountability and Transparency Board.

That office was launched in August with the broader goal of overseeing all facets of federal spending to cut government waste and increase transparency.

-Jolie Lee, FederalNewsRadio.com

DoD's Wennergren works to drive business process changes

As the Pentagon official charged with reengineering the business operations of the Defense Department, the deputy chief management officer is driving the pursuit of some new business goals for DoD. And those goals are accompanied by a new level of accountability for meeting the seven objectives over the next couple years.


The Pentagon's Strategic Management Plan is an annual document designed to align DoD's business practices with the overarching goals laid out in the Quadrennial Defense Review, the Pentagon's regular study on military strategy. The current version, however covers both fiscal years 2012 and 2013. Some of the areas are updates to goals in previous years' plans, but there are also some new priorities on this year's list, said Dave Wennergren, DoD's assistant deputy chief management officer.

Also new on the list is the goal of rebuilding and using end-to-end business processes, a topic the office of the Deputy Chief Management Officer has been championing.


-Jared Serbu, FederalNewsRadio.com
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