For years, private-sector organizations have
supported AGA through individual memberships, advertising,
exhibits, sponsorships and registrations for AGA-sponsored
conferences and meetings along with substantial volunteer efforts.
The Corporate Partner program was developed and launched in 2002
to forge a vigorous relationship between private sector
organizations and government leaders - AGA's membership and
constituency.
Each AGA Corporate
Partner has a seat on the Corporate Partner Advisory Group (CPAG).
The mission of the CPAG is to bring industry and government
executives together to exchange information, support professional
development, improve communications and understanding, solve
issues and build partnership and trust, thereby enhancing AGA's
focus on advancing government accountability. AGA’s Corporate
Partner Advisory Group is all about improving access between the
private sector and government. After all, we need each other. We
share common goals, and we can learn from each other’s mistakes
and successes.
Like AGA, the private
sector is interested in improving the financial health of
governments at all levels. Our Corporate Partners are
knowledgeable about the latest industry trends in financial
management, technology, auditing and budgeting. Strategies that
work well in private companies also may work well in a government
setting. The private sector offers services and products that can
help government financial managers do their jobs more efficiently
and effectively.
CPAG Research Program
The AGA CPAG Research
Program creates research projects of value to governments,
industry and the AGA membership. Two major types of research are
conducted under the program: sponsored and cooperative, with
cooperative tending to have a short (90-day) timeframe, and
sponsored being of a longer, continuing nature.
At this time, we would
like to update all AGA members on the progress the CPAG is making
on several of its research projects.
Sponsored Research Projects
Kearney & Company
- Audits of Internal Controls of Federal Agencies
|
(l to r) David Zavada, Neil
Tierney, CGFM, Dennis Duquette, CGFM |
This
research project, to evaluate and assess current internal control
procedures and reporting in the federal community and the
potential impact of Sarbanes-Oxley on the government community,
sponsored by Kearney & Company, is nearing completion. In light
of the recent pronouncements of the PCAOB for the private sector,
the project timeline was accelerated to provide a presentation at
the 2004 PDC to discuss the impact on the federal community.
|
Neil Tierney, CGFM |
A
presentation by Neil Tierney, CGFM and others was one of the most
popular sessions at the June AGA conference. The session, held on
Monday June 28, was entitled Internal Control Auditing and
Reporting and was moderated by CPAG Vice Chair John Cherbini,
CGFM. One of eight breakout sessions, it drew an audience of
about 400 people, almost a third of the conference attendees. The
other speakers were David Zavada of OMB and Dennis Duquette, CGFM
- OIG, HHS. The speakers focused on the developments of the COSO,
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the subsequent creation of the
PCAOB and its proposed standard, An Audit of Internal Control
over Financial Reporting Performed in Conjunction with an Audit of
Financial Statements.
An article on the completed study
will be included in the Winter 2004 issue of AGA’s Journal of
Government Financial Management whose theme is Beyond a Clean Audit Opinion. A
formal report will be produced separately and we are
exploring the possibility of presenting the technical background
and findings of the study to congressional and/or administration
staff.
Discussions are also
underway for follow-on projects to evaluate the viability of
applying a more consolidated approach to internal control reporting
in the Federal government sector. This would seek to extend
the Sarbanes-Oxley approach in an optimal manner to the Federal
government. Two areas are under consideration: the
impact on the federal community and the impact on states and how
they could deal with it. Kearney and Company is considering the first, KPMG the second. The scope of
the state project is part of an integrated strategy covering
internal control and how the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley could be
felt by both federal and state entities. These follow-up studies
are envisaged as part of a larger field of study of the entire
collection of financial management legislation.
Grant Thornton LLP -
Annual CFO Survey – What Keeps CFOs Awake At Night?
This June 2004 survey,
distributed at the 2004 PDC, found some of the reasons… Most
survey participants were CFOs or deputy CFOs of federal
departments and agencies and were in charge of accounting,
budgeting, performance measurement, and related functions. They
included executives from 17 of the 25 Chief Financial Officers Act
(CFO Act) entities (68 percent). AGA members, including federal
CFOs and deputy CFOs, suggested the survey topics. The survey has
been be posted to the Corporate Partner section of the AGA website
at
www.agacgfm.org.
American
Appraisal Associates - Real Property Best Practices and
Performance Measures
AGA will soon
begin a research project, sponsored by American Appraisal
Associates, to ascertain best practices and appropriate performance
measures for government agencies that hold and manage real
property. The focus of the effort will be centered on the
accounting and valuation aspects of real property management.
We are considering
building on the findings documented in the GSA Office of Real
Property’s Best Practices in Real Property Management in State
Governments, issued in March 2003 as a starting point.
That study included information from only a few states. We
propose to refine the findings, and develop a survey to be sent to
states and major corporate entities. We will expand the
scope of the survey beyond the March 2003 document’s scope, using
AGA’s state contacts to increase the number of states responding,
and will include more questions, such as on the use of performance
measures. An independent party hired by AGA will conduct the
research.
This party will develop
and administer the survey, and analyze and report on the results.
The research will
survey federal agencies, states and major private sector
organizations with significant real property holdings. The
research will seek best practices in the specific areas of study.
The research will also seek to find performance measures related
to the areas of study.
Finally, there will be
an effort to link best practices and performance measures around
functional areas involved in the real property management
process. As the research proceeds, the project will be discussed
with the following stakeholders to obtain their insight: OMB, GSA,
the newly formed Federal Real Property Council, NASACT, and others
who have an interest in the work. The project is anticipated to
begin in late summer and to be concluded by the end of 2004.
Cooperative Research Projects
Cooperative research efforts
involve a team of individuals from various Corporate Partners who
contribute their staff support.
2004 IT Survey
The focus of the 2004 IT survey
will highlight IT
acquisition and management by the private sector and state and local governments.
We
are looking for volunteers who are familiar with this aspect of IT
use to lead or help with the project.
The focus of the paper
will be trends in technology and how the trends are impacting
financial systems and operations. The paper will be geared to a
businessman’s view of IT, not a technologist’s view. The paper
will interpret and demystify IT issues and trends, succinctly, for
CFOs and financial managers as well as sensitize CFOs and
financial managers about the financial implications and business
impacts of concepts and technologies taking hold in the IT world
that could or will affect their organizations. Please contact Anna
Miller at amiller@agacgfm.org
if you are interested in participating on this project.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP - Evaluation
of PAR Reporting
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has agreed to be the lead in a
research study on the audience for and usefulness of federal
agency PARs (Performance and Accountability Reports). The intent
is to look at present requirements for PARs and other externally
directed reports. The intended audiences would be analyzed to see
how well their needs are being met. Parallels with private sector
reporting (10K, 10Q, annual reports, etc.) would be studied and
best practices would be sought.
The objective of the
research would be to determine the extent that PARs have utility
for their intended audience(s) and whether and how their
usefulness could be improved. We would try to identify reports
containing best practices that make them clearly useful to their
users, and if so, determine the factors that made them useful. A
secondary purpose would be to ascertain whether the factors thus
isolated would be transferable to the federally mandated reports.
This will be a formal
cooperative project, characterized by the use of volunteers from
AGA CPAG members in good standing, led by Timothy Morgan, Partner,
PwC. PwC intends to dedicate staff to the project, to direct the
work and divide the work up into
different workstreams, with a project manager and steering
committee to guide the research and consolidate the findings.
Other CPAG volunteers will include staff from AOC Solutions and
possibly KPMG or IBM. The task force will ask for advice from
other organizations familiar with the PARs, such as NAPA.
There will be periodic
briefings with stakeholders to ensure that the research remains on
track. The project is likely to last six months, starting around
September 2004. A session at AGA’s National Leadership conference
will inform AGA members about the status and preliminary findings
of the study, and will include updates on the various PwC
workstreams.
New Project
Ernst & Young is
sponsoring an AGA CPAG research project this year. The scope
is yet to be determined and we are very appreciative of their
support.
Projects Under Development
Bank Cards – Benefits of Government
Card Programs
The proposed research
project which would attempt to quantify the benefits of using
credit card programs providing purchase or travel cards to
streamline government entities’ purchasing processes, payment
processes and audit trail capabilities is still in the discussion
phase. Visa USA Inc. has expressed interest in sponsoring the
project.
A federal advisory
panel with representatives from the GAO, GSA, DoD, Commerce, VA,
CFO Council, OMB, and Acquisition Executives Council would be set
up to provide advice on which federal agencies to survey and how
best to ensure that the study would be structured so that results
and findings in each phase can reasonably be extrapolated to other
government sectors. AGA will actively involve banks and card
associations in the research effort to seek their input.
Financial Systems
AGA intends to
undertake a research project on the study area of financial
systems. Specifically, this research will survey the producers of
financial systems software to ascertain:
1.
The areas in which the Federal government seems to lag the
private sector in acquiring and implementing COTS solutions.
2.
Contrasting the life cycle approaches of the Federal and
private sectors with particular emphasis on cost and time to
acquire and implement financial systems.
3.
Best practices in the private sector, which could have
applicability to the Federal sector.
The effort will be
conducted as a cooperative research project. Staff support
will be sought from the major producers of financial management
systems approved for use by the Federal government.
Ideally, this project
would be in two stages, the first would be done from the
manufacturers’ viewpoint, the second from that of the
integrators. We would like to pursue the possibility of having
a meeting with the software vendors who are AGA Corporate Partners
- to discuss the possibility of their cooperating on one phase of
the project.
AGA would also like to
hear from you! Do you know of any area in federal, state, or
local government accounting, auditing, or financial management
where you think there is a real need for up-to-date, relevant
research? Please contact Anna Miller, AGA Technical Manager, if
you have a project idea or would like more information about any
of the projects listed at
amiller@agacgfm.org.