GAO: Many federal financial books are so sloppy they can’t be audited

The Government Accountability Office says many federal agencies’ financial books are in such bad shape that they cannot be audited.

In a report released last week, the GAO said material weaknesses in accounting procedures “hamper the federal government’s ability to reliably report a significant portion of its assets, liabilities, costs and other related information.”

The GAO said its report on the U.S. government’s consolidated financial statements for fiscal years 2015 and 2016 “underscores that much work remains to improve federal financial management.” The agency couldn’t even express an opinion on the balance sheets because of the weak financial reporting.

GAO noted that 34 percent of the federal government’s reported assets and 18 percent of its reported net cost relate to federal entities that were unable to issue audited financial statements, were unable to receive audit opinions on the complete set of financial statements or received a disclaimer of opinion on their statements.

The GAO called out the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense, in particular, for weak internal controls.

The agency also took a shot at the Department of the Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget, noting that some of the “numerous recommendations” GAO made to those agencies in previous years to address internal control deficiencies remain unaddressed. The secretary of the Treasury and director of OMB are required to annually submit financial statements for the U.S. government, audited by the GAO, to the president and Congress.

-Johnny Kampis, Watchdog.org
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DHS faces stiff acquisition, IT management challenges, IG says

The Department of Homeland Security is facing major challenges ensuring employee accountability, streamlining acquisitions and managing its IT projects, according to an annual report released Nov. 18 by the DHS inspector general.

The IG received over 29,000 complaints against DHS employees and opened more than 1,000 investigations — achieving 300 convictions and affecting 100 personnel action. DHS must quickly recognize poor performers and illegal acts and move to stop them, the IG said.

The agency also struggles with delivering its acquisitions on time and on budget with the right capabilities, according to the report. While DHS has made some efforts to better manage its acquisitions it needs to continually improve and assess its efforts, the IG said.

DHS should also work on other management issues, including:

• Financial management: While the agency was able to obtain a clean financial audit for the second year in a row, it required considerable manual effort by the agency to overcome flaws in its financial IT systems, according to the IG. The agency needs to strengthen its financial management programs to eliminate these issues and make it easier to produce a clean audit.

• Grants management: Most of the challenges in grant management rest with the Federal Emergency Management Administration, which did not properly spend and document about 23 percent of disaster-assistance grants.

• Operations integration: The IG identified projects and programs shared between agencies that had weak levels of oversight, and that the agency does not have adequate systems to centrally track some of these shared programs. DHS spent more than $35.3 million on a fleet of cars shared between components that were underused, the IG said.

DHS agreed with many of the IG findings and said that many of the issues are being addressed by the agency-wide effort to coordinate and combine a diverse set of legacy agencies into one cohesive unit. The “Unity of Effort” initiative is building important bridges in DHS’ planning, programming and budgeting processes, according to Jim Crumpacker, the director of the departmental IG liaison office.

-Andy Medici, FederalTimes.com
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DHS management chief nominee's approach is data centric

As Russell Deyo sailed through his nomination hearing Wednesday to be the next undersecretary for management at the Homeland Security Department, his management approach and priorities centered on data.

The retired Johnson & Johnson executive told Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs lawmakers that getting DHS to have standard financial data will lead to better and more strategic decision making.

If confirmed, Deyo would replace Rafael Borras, who left in February after more than four years on the job.

DHS reached a milestone in 2013 when, for the first time ever, it received an unqualified opinion from auditors for its financial management processes.

Deyo said he recognizes that accomplishment and wants to make sure DHS doesn't slip back from there. 

At the same time, he said the next step toward better financial management has to happen sooner than later.

"The next big piece, as far as I can see so far, is we need to have a fully integrated financial management system across all the components. You have to have reliable information, so you can make smart budget decisions and have good analytics to make good strategic decisions. And having ledger sheets that don't match up, and you can't compare apples to apples across the groups, makes it very, very difficult to make informed, strategic decisions," Deyo said. "I think it's critical the agency have a long-term focus, and you can't do that if you don't have reliable data. So that is an existent high priority within the finance group and indeed the leadership of the department, and I strongly embrace that."

He said during his time at Johnson & Johnson, having a common financial system was essential in making strategic decisions.

DHS is heading down a path toward reducing the number of financial management systems used by the agency. Right now, there are 13 separate systems, but three components are moving to Interior's National Business Center, including the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard.

-Jason Miller, FederalNewsRadio.com
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MACFADDEN TO HOST PANEL ON DHS SHARED SERVICES MIGRATION AT 2014 AGA PDT

Macfadden & Associates, Inc. (Macfadden) will be hosting a panel presentation at the Association of Government Accountants’ 2014 Professional Development Training in Orlando, Florida. The panel presentation, titled “Shared Services Migration – Perspectives from the Department of Homeland Security’s Progression toward Financial Shared Services Solutions,” will take place on Tuesday, July 15 – Day 3 of the conference, and will feature three members of the Department of Homeland Security’s executive leadership and a director from the Department of Treasury.

Macfadden’s panel is comprised of four speakers:

1. Elizabeth Angerman, Director at Office of Financial Innovation and Transformation, Department of the Treasury
2. Jeffrey Bobich, Director of Financial Management, Department of Homeland Security
3. Captain Mark Rose, USCG Ret., Director of Financial Operations/Comptroller, U.S. Coast Guard
4. George Asseng, Director of Financial Management, Transportation Security Administration

The panel will be moderated by Doug Davidson, Director of Financial Services at Macfadden.

This panel intends to provide perspectives and insights from DHS entities proceeding toward various shared service solutions. Discussion will include lessons learned through the planning, selection, and due diligence phases of shared services migration. This session will provide the audience with real-world and current experiences from agency implementations in progress.

The annual ADA PDT brings together the top officials in federal, state and local government, as well as from academia and the private sector, for three-and-a-half days of valuable training and networking. Attendees can earn up to 24 Continuing Professional Education (CPE) hours.

This is Macfadden’s first year hosting a panel, as well as its first year as a member of the AGA’s Corporate Partner Advisory Group.

Macfadden is an employee-owned, ISO 9001:2008 certified, international professional services corporation that applies integrated information technology solutions and program/project management expertise to help solve critical issues impacting the health, safety and security of the world around us.

Outdated DHS Financial Systems May Be Inhibiting Internal IT Controls, OIG Audit Says

In recent years, said a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) IT management report for the Fiscal Year 2013 DHS financial statement audit, “DHS’s financial system functionality may be inhibiting the agency’s ability to implement and maintain internal controls, notably IT applications controls supporting financial data processing and reporting at some components.”

“At most components,” OIG report, “the financial systems have not been substantially updated since being inherited from legacy agencies several years ago. Therefore, in FY 2013, we continued to evaluate and consider the impact of financial system functionality over financial reporting.”

In FY 2013, a total of 103 findings were issued, of which approximately 69 percent are repeated from last year.

According to the audit, approximately 35 percent of repeat findings were for IT deficiencies that management represented were corrected during FY 2013. The new findings in FY 2013 resulted both from additional IT systems and business processes within the scope of the audit this year and from control deficiencies identified in areas which were effective in previous years, and were noted at all DHS components.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) had the greatest number of new findings.

OIG reported that “many key DHS financial systems are not compliant with the financial management systems requirements of the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular Number A-127, Financial Management Systems, revised. DHS financial system functionality limitations add substantially to the department’s challenges of addressing systemic internal control weaknesses and limit the department’s ability to leverage IT systems to effectively and efficiently process and report financial data.”

With respect to DHS and its components’ financial systems’ IT controls, the audit “noted certain matters in the areas of security management, access controls, configuration management, segregation of duties and contingency planning.”

During the audit, “certain matters involving financial reporting internal controls (comments not related to IT) and other operational matters, including certain deficiencies in internal control” were discovered that are considered “to be significant deficiencies and material weaknesses,” and were communicated in writing to management and those charged with governance in KPMG’s Independent Auditors’ Report and in a separate letter to the Office of Inspector General and the DHS Chief Financial Officer.

-Anthony Kimery, HStoday.us
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DHS CFO Sherry heading to the IRS

Peggy Sherry is taking her management skills to a new agency.

The Homeland Security Department's CFO is heading to the IRS, the agency confirms.

Sherry will be the deputy commissioner for operations support, replacing Beth Tucker, who retired at the end of September.

Sherry will join the IRS Nov. 4 after spending more than six years at DHS.

In her new role, Sherry will direct IRS' support functions, including the CFO, human capital office, information technology, privacy and agencywide shared services.

The deputy commissioner is one of the top two positions at the IRS under the service's commissioner.

She becomes the fourth senior official to join the agency this year. Werfel became the acting commissioner in May after the scandal involving the IRS improperly singling out conservative groups for special scrutiny.

-Jason Miller, FederalNewsRadio.com
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HR, Financial Management on tap at DHS

Keith Trippie, the Homeland Security Department's executive director of the Enterprise System Development Office, said the agency has invested in more than 10 IT shared services in the cloud, including email, test and development and collaboration tools.

But now DHS also is moving toward financial management and human resources shared services. He said the idea of using shared service providers is much easier now.

Trippie said the culture change is getting people to understand that buying shared services is like buying an airplane ticket: they don't need to own the plane to get across country. They just have to worry about the end result, in this case getting to their destination.


As for DHS' financial management system, Trippie said the desire to consolidate and use shared services is real this time.

DHS has tried two other times unsuccessfully to consolidate financial management systems under programs called Emerge2 and TASC, only to fail. The latest attempt was to bring the components, such as FEMA, which need new systems the most under other component systems that are in better shape.

"There are several shared services providers that are out there. The department has a bunch of legacy financial systems that we've been on," Trippie said. "Culturally over the past year, we've moved the needle where most folks are saying 'We will buy a shared service. We don't have to build that. It's not our core competency. It's not how we want to do business.'"

An executive steering committee, led by the DHS chief financial officer and chief information officer, is leading the effort to move to a shared service for financial management. Trippie said there still is a lot of work that needs to be done including potentially an acquisition.



-Jason Miller, FederalNewsRadio.com
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As sequestration cuts loom, unimplemented IG recommendations could save billions

Over the past few years, unimplemented agency inspector general recommendations that could potentially save the government billions of dollars have piled up.

Now, with $85 billion in automatic budget cuts kicking in, lawmakers on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are telling agencies there's no excuse for them to further delay implementing the cost-saving measures and best practices identified by their IGs.

In 2009, there were 10,894 open IG recommendations, according to a report released by the oversight committee ahead of a hearing Tuesday. But by 2012, that number had grown to 16,906, representing a potential $67 billion in savings.

And if agencies won't act on those recommendations, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the oversight committee, said he will.

Issa's committee has sought to forge close ties with agency watchdogs. In January, a letter from both the House and Senate oversight committees called on the Obama administration to fill persistent vacancies in the IG ranks.

The IG community is also beset by a spate of longstanding vacancies including those at six large agencies: the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Interior, Labor and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

According to the committee, there's a connection between vacancies and unimplemented recommendations. Among the agencies with most unfulfilled recommendations are those with long-term vacancies in their IG offices.

Long-term vacancies "weaken the office of the Inspector General," the report stated. "A permanent IG has the ability to set a long-term strategic plan for the office, including setting investigative and audit priorities. An acting official, on the other hand, is known by all OIG staff to be temporary."



-Jack Moore, FederalNewsRadio.com
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GAO Cannot Audit Federal Government, Cites Department Of Defense Problems

WASHINGTON -- The Government Accountability Office said Thursday that it could not complete an audit of the federal government, pointing to serious problems with the Department of Defense.

Along with the Pentagon, the GAO cited the Department of Homeland Security as having problems so significant that it was impossible for investigators to audit it. The DHS got a qualified audit for fiscal year 2012, and is seeking an unqualified audit for 2013.

The report released by the GAO on Friday indicates serious accounting problems at two of the largest government agencies: the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Defense has a net cost of $799.1 billion to the federal budget, while the Department of Homeland Security has a net cost of $48.7 billion.

"The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) cannot render an opinion on the 2012 consolidated financial statements of the federal government because of widespread material internal control weaknesses, significant uncertainties, and other limitations," the agency said. "As was the case in 2011, the main obstacles to a GAO opinion on the accrual-based consolidated financial statements were: Serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense (DOD) that made its financial statements unauditable. The federal government’s inability to adequately account for and reconcile intragovernmental activity and balances between federal agencies. The federal government’s ineffective process for preparing the consolidated financial statements."

In the report, the GAO also said that the federal government could not reconcile transfers between federal agencies and had an ineffective process for preparing financial statements.

The report lists the Department of Defense as having the third-largest cost to the federal government, at 21 percent. That value is slightly behind the costs of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Social Security Administration, which both have high costs because they run the large social insurance programs Medicare and Social Security.

- Luke Johnson, Ryan Grim, HuffingtonPost.com
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Senate votes to require DHS clean audit by 2013

The Homeland Security Department would be required to conduct and pass a full financial audit under a bill unanimously approved by the Senate on Wednesday.

Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.), Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) — all three high-ranking members of a Senate subcommittee on federal financial management — introduced the  Department of Homeland Security Audit Requirement Target (DART) Act late last year. The DART Act requires the agency, long characterized by the Government Accountability Office as being at high-risk for waste and abuse, to reach a clean audit opinion by 2013.

"Clean, auditable financial statements can provide the roadmap we need to identify potential savings, avoid waste and fraud, and move towards a culture of thrift," Carper, the subcommittee's chairman, said in a statement. "This bill requires some very important, but straightforward steps that will ensure the Department of Homeland Security can pass a financial audit."

The agency announced earlier this month it is audit-ready and "has made an attempt to pass a full-scope audit," according to Carper, but has yet to actually do so.

The bill also requires the agency's chief financial officer to submit to Congress a plan to modernize the agency's financial systems, which will be evaluated by the comptroller general.

A companion bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Todd Platts (R-Penn.) last summer but remains stuck in committee.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, the House passed a somewhat related measure, the DHS Accountability Act, which sets up an advisory commission to making recommend improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of DHS management.

-Jack Moore, FederalNewsRadio.com
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Homeland Security achieves new level in auditability

The Homeland Security Department’s decade-long struggle to integrate components and achieve clean books passed a major milestone with the release this month of DHS’ annual financial report, officials told Government Executive. For the first time, the department was given a “qualified audit opinion,” having submitted five statements of financial management for review.

The key area of improvement was auditing of general property, plant and equipment management, particularly in its Coast Guard organization, officials said.

Undersecretary for Management Rafael Borras praised DHS Chief Financial Officer Peggy Sherry for her “in-depth risk assessment of the issues,” and for working “closely with our component agencies to create mitigation plans” and for meeting “regularly with component CFOs to ensure adherence to the established milestones and remediation plans.” Other partners included DHS’ Office of the Chief Procurement Officer and the Office of the Chief Readiness Support Officer.

When the department was stood up in 2003, auditors faced 30 significant deficiency conditions, of which 18 were material weaknesses, Sherry explained, so progress required work with the Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, Congress, the Office of Management and Budget and GAO to implement the 2004 DHS Financial Accountability Act.

When the 2011 audit produced qualified opinions in two areas, Secretary Janet Napolitano pushed for execution of a “deeper dive” into all five statements in 2012. With billions in property for the whole department spread nationwide, Sherry added, it took major collaboration to audit them all at the same time.

“The full-scope audit opinion,” Sherry said, “is confirmation of DHS’ ongoing commitment to instituting sound financial practices to safeguard taxpayer dollars. We’ve provided reasonable assurance that internal controls over financial reporting as required by law are effective. With the exceptions of a few areas, we have good business practices in place to ensure our financial statements are accurate.”

DHS’ progress in general management reforms drew praise a year ago from Comptroller Danny Werfel, but its audit issues remain on the Government Accountability Office’s high-risk list.

-Charles S. Clark, GovExec.com
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DHS management failures threaten terrorism prevention, experts warn

Management problems at the Homeland Security Department threaten to undermine efforts to prevent terrorism in the U.S., lawmakers and experts with close knowledge of the department's operations said Thursday.


The department has played a key role in stopping all large-scale attacks since 9/11, but it still faces significant integration challenges, said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) at a Thursday hearing by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

She said DHS' continued presence — since its creation — on the Government Accountability Office's High Risk List as evidence.

DHS opened its doors in 2003, consolidating responsibilities from 22 other departments and agencies. The goal of Congress in creating DHS was to eliminate stovepipes that made it difficult for agencies to share information and resources aimed at preventing terrorism.


But nine years later, DHS has failed to adequately support key mission areas, said former department Inspector General Richard Skinner.

Skinner said DHS is lagging especially in the areas of financial management, acquisition management, IT management and grants management-most of which GAO has included on its high risk list.


-Rubin Gomez, FederalNewsRadio.com
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FEMA first DHS component to undergo post-TASC financial modernization

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be the first Homeland Security Department component to undertake a less-ambitious financial system modernization effort following the collapse of a departmentwide effort known as Transformation and Systems Consolidation.

DHS canceled TASC in May 2011 after the Government Accountability Office ruled that DHS improperly gave CACI of Arlington, Va. a $450 million contract to implement the enterprise resource planning system. Cancellation of TASC marked the second time that a DHS attempt at an enterprisewide ERP for financial management purposes has failed; a previous effort, called eMerge2, ended in 2006.

DHS plans for FEMA to migrate its financial systems to a federal shared service provider at the start of fiscal 2015, according to GAO testimony (.pdf) presented March 1 before the House Homeland Security subcommittee on oversight, investigations and management.

-David Perera, FierceHomelandSecurity.com

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Programmer, procurement staff failings contribute to software attacks

When hackers take advantage of a software flaw in a federal financial system to steal credit card numbers, procurement officers and program developers are both to blame for the intrusion, some information security specialists say.

Vulnerabilities stem from the inadequate training of software engineers, as well as inadequate requirements from acquisition officers. In the old days, when software operated in an isolated system, developers thought threats would be limited to that computer's physical area. In today's networked world, however, software is operating in environments that the developer may not have had in mind when building a program.

-Aliya Sternstein, NextGov.com
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Cracks in security leave DHS financial systems vulnerable to abuse

Security weaknesses in the computers that track money for the Homeland Security Department could lead to a substantial mistake in the agency's financial statements, according to a federal audit.


KPMG analysts hired by the DHS inspector general to assess the department's various financial systems for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2010, found about 160 deficiencies, or inadequate controls, most of which -- 65 percent -- were repeats of the previous year's problems. The IG office released a redacted version of the April 26 report on Monday.

Among the information technology inadequacies highlighted: ex-employees were still able to logon to their accounts and unauthorized outsiders successfully acquired user passwords from DHS personnel.

-Alicia Sternstein, NextGov.com
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Today's GAO Publications

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) today released the following reports, correspondence and testimonies:


Information Technology: DHS Needs to Improve Its Independent Acquisition Reviews.
GAO-11-581, July 28.

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-581
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d11581high.pdf

American Battle Monuments Commission: Improvements Needed in Internal Controls and Accounting Procedures-Fiscal Year 2010.
GAO-11-577R, July 28.

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-577R

Improper Payments: Reported Medicare Estimates and Key Remediation Strategies, by Kay L. Daly, director, financial management and assurance, and Kathleen M. King, director, health care, before the Subcommittee on Government Organization, Efficiency, and Financial Management, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
GAO-11-842T, July 28.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-842T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d11842thigh.pdf

DOD Financial Management: Numerous Challenges Must Be Addressed to Achieve Auditability, by Asif A. Khan, director, financial management and assurance, before the Panel on DOD Financial Management, House Committee on Armed Services.
GAO-11-864T, July 28.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-864T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d11864thigh.pdf

Fiscal 2010 DHS Audit Reveals Deficiencies in Financial Practices

A financial audit of the balance sheet of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for fiscal 2010 was inconclusive but yielded a number of recommendations for the department to improve its financial management practices, according to a recent letter released by the DHS inspector general (IG).


DHS hired the major accounting firm KPMG LLC to audit its books for fiscal 2010 and to make recommendations on how to improve financial operations. In a letter released Friday, KMPG indicated that it could not produce an opinion on financial competencies at DHS.

"As stated in our report on internal control over financial reporting, we were unable to perform procedures necessary to form an opinion on DHS' internal control over financial reporting of the balance sheet as of September 30, 2010, and the related statement of custodial activity for the year then ended," KPMG said in its letter, included in the IG report Management Letter for the FY 2010 DHS Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting Audit.

"We aim, however, to use our knowledge of DHS' organization gained during our work to make comments and suggestions that we hope will be useful to you," the firm added.

The audit broke down recommendations by the eight operational components of DHS as well as overall issues. It cited a large number of deficiencies at the various components but the US Secret Service escaped relatively unscathed, receiving only one major criticism. (The audit also turned up relatively few deficiencies at the Management Directorate and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.)

-Mike McCarter, HSToday.com
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OMB recommendation led to TASC protest at DHS

When Homeland Security Department officials agreed late last summer with an Office of Management and Budget recommendation to reduce the planned rollout of the DHS Transformation and Systems Consolidation project, they set themselves up for failure.
It was that agreement--and a failure to accordingly update the requirements of the TASC solicitation--that led in large part to the Government Accountability Office sustaining on March 9 a protest from Global Computer Enterprises of Reston, Va., against the Nov. 19, 2010 award of the $450 million TASC contract to CACI, of Arlington, Va.

The GAO released on March 16 a redacted version of its protest award decision, with source selection sensitive data such as pricing removed.

-David Perera, FierceGovernmentIT.com
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U.S. Department of Homeland Security Budget and Finance Documents Update

FedCFO is subscribed to Budget and Finance Documents for U.S. Department of Homeland Security. This information has recently been updated, and is now available. Added:

• Exhibit 300: Capital Asset Plan and Business Case Summaries for FY 2012

USPS, DHS, DoD contribute to 'dire' finances

When it comes to the federal budget, the GAO's High Risk List and the deficit, Jeanette Franzel isn't pulling any punches.


"The condition of federal finances is really dire right now."

That was the assessment of the Managing Director for Financial Management and Assurance team at the Government Accountability Office speaking with the Federal Drive at the Association of Government Accountants National Leadership Conference.

"We are faced," said Franzel, "with having to deal with both the short term critical issues as well as rethinking programs in the long term and we don't want to damage the short term economic recovery."

Franzel said there is a third factor complicating matters: trying to operate under a continuing resolution that doesn't seem to have any resolution at all. "We at GAO," said Franzel, "have been managing at a very prudent level, hoping to, once we get our budget, be on track, but again, there's risk there."

Difficult financial times, said Franzel, can make it easier to see what's needed for a good financial system to run well. For example, "the importance of good financial data and estimates and regular updates is just really heightened in this type of an environment, and financial people are doing that to the best of their ability given the systems and data available right now."

As for the three major departments she's been concentrating on, Franzel sounded most concerned about the U.S. Postal Service, despite the President's FY 2012 budget request granting relief from early payments into the retirement system they've been asking for.


Saying the Department of Defense has "a long way to go," Franzel explained DoD's being, yet again, on GAO's High Risk List. "DoD has been one of the impediments to GAO's being able to issue an opinion on the Consolidated Financial Report of the federal government, and the reason is that DoD itself does not get audits and because DoD is material to the Consolidated Financial Report, we can't give an opinion."


The Department of Homeland Security is in a similar situation, said Franzel, but for a different reason. "Also unable to have a clean audit opinion," said Franzel, DHS has "some significant issues with financial systems." Franzel said that's understandable "if you think about the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, it came from a lot of different federal agencies across government, so that department is still struggling with integrating its financial management and its systems."

-Suzanne Kubota, FederalNewsRadio.com
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