Highlights
There's Still Time to Register for AGA's NLC
If you have already registered for our Sixth Annual National Leadership Conference, we look forward to seeing you. You’ve made a smart investment in yourself and your organization. But if you have not yet registered, don’t worry… there’s still time!
Offering 14 valuable CPE hours, timely topics and an impressive lineup of speakers, NLC 2008 promises to be bigger and better than ever.
Meet the top leaders from federal, state and local governments and the private sector. Visit the Exhibit Hall to see the latest tools to help your agency perform at top efficiency. Enjoy networking events and opportunities to swap ideas, meet colleagues from around the country, and perhaps find solutions to common problems.
Don’t miss out on this one-of-a-kind education and networking event. Show your commitment to a more accountable future—register today!
NLC Speaker Biographies Now Online
AGA’s National Leadership Conference is an excellent learning experience for government financial managers and accountability professionals. One of the best reasons to attend is the unprecedented gathering of top-notch speakers and financial management experts. Take a look at the bios of this year’s dynamic, high-caliber speakers.
Training Opportunities
Environmental Fraud Audio Conference Set for March 5
AGA, in conjunction with the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers and the Association of Local Government Auditors, is pleased to announce a new audio conference, How Fraud Can Undermine the Integrity of Environmental Programs and Create Environmental Risks. The audio conference, worth 2 CPE hours, is set for 2 – 3:50 p.m. EST, March 5, 2008.
Criminal Investigators at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), working with auditors and investigators across the federal, state and local accountability community, have an impressive record addressing fraudulent activities that can affect human health and the environment. Prosecuting these bad actors is just the first step. To prevent future fraud, it is critical to address the systemic weaknesses that allow fraud to occur and prevent the individuals and organizations that commit fraud from continuing to do business with the government.
Speakers include Michael Daggett, Director, EPA OIG Program Integrity Directorate; Larry Valett, Director, EPA OIG Financial Fraud Directorate; and Frank Lane, Director of EPA’s Suspension and Debarment Division.
Cost is $249 per site (unlimited attendance) if you register on or before Feb. 29, and $299 thereafter. Government agencies and CPAG members who register five or more offices can receive a 20 percent discount (pay only $200 per site).
Register online, or print the regular registration form, or the special promotion registration form and fax it to 703.684.6933.
View the entire audio conference schedule.
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February 11, 2008 • News from the Profession
NOTE: Please ‘whitelist’ our newsletters by sending an e-mail to postmaster@303media.net to prevent AGA newsletters from being blocked by e-mail or spam filters. Enjoy our weekly newsletters and feel free to forward them to your government financial management colleagues.
AGA Today is Brought to You by AGA Corporate Partner Clifton Gunderson
 Clifton Gunderson offices in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, MD and Harrisburg, PA are looking for experienced professionals to join our public sector practice. The ideal candidate will have 5+ yrs of Public Accounting or equivalent audit experience along with your BA/BS in Accounting and CPA or CGFM. Duties will include audits of Federal entities, State & Local audits (GASB), A-133 audits, and compliance auditing. To apply please e-mail Michael.Armstrong@cliftoncpa.com.
AGA's FMSB Comments on FASAB Technical Agendas
The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) recently invited AGA’s Financial Management Standards Board (FMSB) to comment on how the FASAB plans its technical agendas. The FMSB has sent a Jan. 31 letter to the FASAB ranking the five projects that in the opinion of the FMSB should be of highest priority in the near future for the FASAB, and providing other comments on the criteria the FASAB uses to rank its projects.
Federal Agencies Cut Payment Errors in 2007
Federal agencies reported an error rate of 3.5 percent, or $55 billion, in 2007 for improper payments for benefits, health care claims and other transactions. But error rates from the original baseline programs reporting in 2004 have steadily fallen from 4.4 percent to 3.1 percent last year. Agencies have expanded each year since 2004 the number of programs reporting error measurements and also reduced a significant amount of improper payments each year in the past four years since agencies have had to report them, the Office of Management and Budget said. In 2007, agencies added to the estimate 14 programs that were susceptible to risk of incorrect payments, but Medicaid’s fee-for-service component accounted for the overwhelming majority. Agencies identified $1.9 trillion in program outlays last year to be measured for improper payments and submitted an additional $330 billion in contract payments to recovery audits. As a result, 80 percent of all federal outlays are measured or reviewed for improper payments, OMB said in a memo released Jan. 31. By the end of this fiscal year, agencies will report on 90 percent of high-risk federal outlays. —Mary Mosquera, Federal Computer Week. Read more.
Read OMB's report,
Improving the Accuracy and Integrity of Federal Payments.
AGA Today is Brought to You by AGA Corporate Partner American Appraisal Associates
American Appraisal is the world's largest independent valuation firm, with 50 offices on 4 continents around the world. Our Federal Government Practice can assist many government agencies with their inventory, valuation and overall asset management reporting requirements for their Real, Personal and Intellectual Property assets.
Contact Kevin J. McHugh at (202) 628-8800 or kmchugh@american-appraisal.com.
Bush Successor to Face Deficit of $400 Billion
President Bush’s proposed $3.1 trillion budget may be dead on arrival in Congress, but the impact of that political deadlock will make life difficult for the man or woman who succeeds him. The next president will inherit a deficit of about $400 billion, and maybe more. Unless the economy rebounds and revenue pours in, deficits will push the cumulative federal debt past $12 trillion in the next five years. He or she will need to spend far more in Iraq and Afghanistan than Bush proposed, because he included only $70 billion—designed to last until Jan. 20, when he leaves office. He or she will face the expiration of Bush’s tax cuts, passed in 2001 and 2003. While the leading candidates opposed them, allowing any to expire after 2010 will feel like a tax increase and has all its political risks. He or she will be closer to the projected fiscal crises facing Medicare and Social Security, which lack the tax flow to pay for benefits promised to baby boomers. —Richard Wolf, USA Today. Read more.
IG Legislation Prompts Debate About Their Role
Some lawmakers from both parties are worried that agency inspectors general are vulnerable to political influences that, unchecked, could diminish IGs’ stature as unbiased and evenhanded overseers. Eager to forestall such occurrences, the House passed in October the Improving Government Accountability Act, the most significant reform proposed to the IG Act in almost 30 years. The Senate is considering its version of the legislation. The president has threatened a veto. Congress is seeking to fix a critical governmental function that some lawmakers have come to view as flawed. They say the rules by which IGs operate provide insufficient autonomy for IGs in some instances and inadequate means for swiftly removing them from office in others. IGs kept on too short a leash become lapdogs, critics of the current regulations say. Yet, IGs who are given too much rope risk hanging themselves in entanglements of the type that have made headlines. “Too often, IGs are subjected to pressure by political appointees who want to stifle negative findings about their agencies,” said U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), sponsor of the Improving Government Accountability Act. “In other cases, errant IGs violate rules with impunity because administrators don’t want to be seen firing the watchdog.” —John Pulley, Federal Computer Week. Read more.
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Q&A: Whistle-Blower Cynthia Cooper
When TIME called Cynthia Cooper in 2002 for an on-the-record interview—her first since she had uncovered massive fraud in the WorldCom accounting books—she was not excited to hear from us. As a WorldCom employee, Cooper had never intended to go public, and the drama she was watching from the inside was the downfall of a hometown company she loved. Cooper relented after we told her we wanted her to meet two other famous women of the moment: Coleen Rowley, the FBI whistleblower from Minneapolis, and Sherron Watkins, the Enron whistle-blower. All three women became TIME's Persons of the Year. Still, there were things Cooper could not say back then, since the Justice Department was actively investigating the company. Now Cooper has told the full, twisting tale in a new book, Extraordinary Circumstances: Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower.
TIME: Most whistle-blowers say they would not do it again. Many end up isolated, depressed and unemployed. Would you do it again the same way?
Cooper: Yes, I would. I really found myself at a crossroads where there was only one right path to take. I think it would have been helpful to me to understand what whistle-blowers go through, and that's why I included a chapter on that.
In the book, you managed to retain a surprising amount of empathy for everyone involved, even the most egregious offenders, like CFO Scott Sullivan. Was that hard to do?
It was easy to empathize with the investors. WorldCom was the only Fortune 500 company headquartered in Mississippi. My parents had invested in the stock. It was not always easy to empathize with the people who committed the fraud. But I wanted to allow readers to put themselves in the minds of others. To minimize fraud, we need to understand what motivates people to participate. Some of these people were average citizens not much different than many of us. —Amanda Ripley, TIME magazine. Read more.
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Bush Budget Lists Programs Slated for Cuts
The Bush administration cited poor performance and redundancy in its proposal to eliminate or slash the budgets of 151 federal programs in fiscal 2009. The cuts, touted during the president's State of the Union address and outlined in budget documents, would save approximately $18 billion. They include the termination of 104 discretionary programs and significant funding reductions for 47
others." These are programs that are frankly just not achieving the results that they need to achieve," said Jim Nussle, director of the Office of Management and Budget, at a press conference last Monday. OMB used results from its Program Assessment Rating Tool, a barometer for gauging performance, to make some of the
recommendations. If history is a guide, Congress likely will approve only a fraction of the proposed cuts. Of the 141 cuts proposed for fiscal 2008, lawmakers enacted just 29. —Elizabeth Newell, Government Executive. Read more.
Read Budget of the U.S. Government Fiscal Year 2009, the White House's first paperless budget.
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