AGA Research Report: Government-wide Financial Reporting

AGA Research Report Addresses Root Causes of a Material-Weakness Cited in the Audit of the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Process for Compiling the Consolidated Financial Statements of the U.S. Government

 
Research team offers short-term and long-term recommendations to help the U.S. government achieve a "clean" audit opinion 
 
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jul 18, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Over the past 15 years, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury), in cooperation with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has issued the annual Financial Report of the U.S. Government (FR), presenting the financial position and condition of the nation. For each of those years, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a disclaimer of audit opinion on the Consolidated Financial Statements (CFS) of the federal government, which is included in the FR.


The Association of Government Accountants (AGA) undertook an independent research study to develop recommendations and a plan of action to address a GAO-cited material weakness that contributes to GAO's disclaimer of opinion on the federal government CFS. Specifically, this long-standing, unresolved issue pertains to the identified weaknesses in the current reconciliation and compilation processes Treasury employs to consolidate some 150 federal agencies' financial data into the CFS.

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The report is the product of AGA's Corporate Partner Advisory Group (CPAG) research project sponsored by Ernst & Young, Grant Thornton, Kearney & Company, KPMG and PwC.