Highlights
Training Opportunities
FASAB, GASB Emerging Issues Topic of Wednesday Audio Conference
AGA, in conjunction NASACT and ALGA, is pleased to announce a new audio
conference,
"Emerging Issues at FASAB and GASB: The Landscape is Changing." The
audio conference, worth 2 CPE hours, is set for 2 – 3:50 p.m. EDT,
Wednesday, March 26.
Hear from two key officials from the Governmental
Accounting Standards Board (GASB) and the Federal Accounting Standards
Advisory Board (FASAB). The speakers will discuss the conceptual
frameworks being developed at the two boards; what future standards may
arise as a result of new concepts; how the new standards may affect
preparers, auditors and users; the impact of international accounting
standards on the two boards; and more.
Speakers include David R. Bean, CPA,
Director of Research and Technical Activities, GASB, and Wendy
M. Payne, CGFM, CPA, Executive Director, FASAB.
Cost is $299 per site (unlimited attendance).
Government agencies and CPAG members who register five or more offices
pay only $200.
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.
AGA's PDC Offers Impressive
Speakers
AGA brings Southern hospitality and sizzle to your summer… Get ready for
PDC 2008 in Hotlanta! With timely topics fitting the theme, “Building on
the Dream: Creating a Culture of Accountability,” and offering 24 CPE
hours, PDC 2008 promises to be one of the Association's best.
One of the top reasons to attend is the unprecedented
gathering of top-notch speakers and financial management experts. This
year’s dynamic, high-profile keynote speakers include:
David S. Broder, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and national
political correspondent, The Washington Post
Elaine Chao, (Invited) U.S. Secretary
of Labor
Kurt Eichenwald, business journalist
and best-selling author, Conspiracy of Fools
Rev. Dr. Bernice King,
internationally acclaimed orator, ordained minister and daughter of
Martin Luther King Jr.
Andrew Young, pastor, civil rights
leader, former U.N. ambassador
In addition to an outstanding technical program, the
PDC provides unparalleled opportunities to network, exchange ideas, have
fun and meet new friends.
Build on the dream… show your commitment a more
accountable future—register today.
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March 24, 2008
• News from the Profession
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.
State Tax Collections Lowest in
Five Years
Tim Watson, 42, of Guernsey, OH, sympathizes with state budget cutters
trying to close a $1 billion gap, but thinks closing down the state
mental health facility in Cambridge, OH, where he has worked for 24
years, is shortsighted. “It just doesn’t make sense,” said Watson, who
as a caseworker will have to drive mentally ill patients to another
facility two hours away if Gov. Ted Strickland’s plan is approved. But
at least Watson would keep his job. In California, teachers’ unions
estimate that nearly 14,000 pink slips already have been sent out and
more are in the offing as the state grapples with a $16 billion
projected deficit for 2009. Some 3,000 state employees in New Jersey and
1,200 in Rhode Island could find themselves in the unemployment line
under proposals to stop the red ink flowing in those states. Economists
and politicians may debate whether the country has technically fallen
into a recession, but new figures to be released next week suggest
states are at the brink with state tax collections the lowest in nearly
five years. —Pamela M. Prah, Stateline.org.
Read more.
Satisfaction with Government
Website's Declines
The government is not keeping up with the private sector in providing
information and services online, and citizens, as a result, are growing
less satisfied with government websites, a new report suggests. Customer
satisfaction with government sites declined for a third consecutive
quarter and has fallen to its lowest overall rating since 2005,
according to the University of Michigan’s E-government Satisfaction
Index for the quarter ending this month, according to a new report
issued Tuesday. Government websites and online services scored 72.4
points—a half-point lower than last quarter and a full point lower than
at this point last year—in customer satisfaction out of the possible 100
points. The government’s all-time high score was 74 in June 2006. The
new score is the lowest the government has ranked since June 2005, when
customers gave it a 71.9. The index measures sites’ functionality,
navigation, search abilities and appearance, based on data gathered from
voluntary online surveys of randomly selected visitors to government
sites.The falling score is “a wake-up call. … It’s slipping and we need
to do something about it,” said report author Larry Freed, chief
executive of ForeSee Results. —Courtney Mabeus, The Federal Times.
Read more.
AGA Today
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GAO:
Major Defense Contracts Cheaper to Cancel than Continue
For years, some U.S. Department of Defense officials have griped that
canceling certain weapons programs would cost more than completing them
and making all obligated payments. After 18 months of research, the
Government Accountability Office (GAO) has quashed that notion. In a
report (GAO-08-379) released last Monday, the congressional watchdog
concluded that, as a general rule, it costs less to end a major weapons
system contract prematurely than to complete it. GAO found that since
1995, eight contracts for weapons systems valued at more than $100
million have been terminated. In none of these cases did the cost of
halting the contract exceed the final settlement paid to the contractor.
—Robert Brodsky, Government Executive.
Read more.
Federal Accounting Corner
Prior-Year Adjustments in FACTS II
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s
Financial Management Services (FMS) has been preparing the consolidated
Financial Report of the U.S. Government for a few decades now, and is
still struggling to get clean data. It's hard enough to consolidate the
activity from dozens of agencies, but since FMS has little control over
what data is submitted and even less ability to research discrepancies,
it is a nearly impossible task. What accountants working with one
entity's books take for granted is only a fond wish for FMS. So FMS has
been tweaking the FACTS interface to capture the information necessary
for consolidation. The latest change is the Prior-Year (PY) Adjustment
field, which allows FMS to compare the beginning balance agencies report
now with what they had reported as their ending balance last year.
—Simcha Kuritzky, CGFM, CPA.
Read the entire column.
Audit Quality Improving After
SOX
Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) has led to big improvements
in audit quality, according to a newly released survey. Seventy-eight
percent of the 253 public company audit committee members surveyed by
the Center for Audit Quality rated overall audit quality as either "very
good" or "excellent." Meanwhile, 82 percent said it has improved
somewhat or significantly in the past several years. Approximately 87
percent said the risk of inaccuracies in financial statements due to
fraud is "not very high," while 60 percent agreed that the risk declined
after the passage of SOX in 2002. Sixty-five percent of the respondents
agreed that investors should have more confidence in the markets as a
result of SOX, while 58 percent said that changes resulting from SOX had
a positive impact. —WebCPA.
Read more.
GASB Recommends Changes in Fund
Balance Reporting
 The
Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has issued an Exposure
Draft of a proposed GASB Statement, Fund Balance Reporting and
Governmental Fund Type Definitions. The proposed Statement is
intended to improve the usefulness of information provided about fund
balance by providing clearer, more structured fund balance
classifications, and by clarifying the definitions of existing
governmental fund types.
The deadline for responding to the proposal is June
30, 2008.
Audio Conference on
Citizen-Centric Reporting
AGA is pleased to announce a new audio conference,
Improving Government Transparency Through Citizen-Centric Reporting,
addressing the need for governments to improve how they report financial
information to taxpayers. The audio conference, worth 2 CPE hours, is
set for 2 – 3:50 EDT, April 23.
AGA’s Citizen-Centric Government Reporting
Program encourages governments to publish an annual “state of the
government” report that is no more than four pages long. The
reports, designed to be visually appealing, provide understandable
information to citizens about the performance and financial
condition of the government, as well as demographics and future
challenges. Hear what tools are available from AGA to produce such a
report and listen to three practitioners who have recently published
such reports: Mary Lechner, CGFM, CPA, Chief,
Internal Control Branch, U.S. Coast Guard; Sam McCall, CGFM,
CPA, City Auditor, Tallahassee, FL; Kim Wallin,
Controller, State of Nevada; and Relmond Van Daniker, DBA,
CPA, AGA Executive Director.
Cost is $249 per site (UNLIMITED ATTENDANCE) if
you register on or before April 18, and $299
thereafter. Government agencies and AGA Corporate Partner members
who register five or more offices will receive a 20 percent
discount. Also,
AGA chapters can register for $200 per site.
Register online, or
print the regular registration form, or the
special promotion registration form and fax it to 703.684.6933.
Coming Soon! AGA's Web
Blog Starts April 1
Beginning April 1, AGA will sponsor a daily web blog where
participants can post a brief essay on a government financial
management or accountability issue and check back during the day to
answer questions posted by readers. Have something you want to say?
Looking for a forum to dialogue with your colleagues? Look no
further! We're registering "guests" for May right now. Join the fun
by e-mailing Marie Force,
director of communications, to get on the schedule. Bookmark
http://aga.typepad.com/aga—the place for government finance
professionals to share ideas and dialogue with some of the top names
in the business.
Single Audit Audio Conference April 2
NASACT, in conjunction with AGA and ALGA, has announced
“Intermediate Single Audit Issues: Planning, Performing, and
Reporting,” This audio conference, worth 2 CPE hours, is the
second of a two-part series on single audit training designed to
address many of the findings identified in a national single audit
quality report released in June 2007.
Join nationally-recognized instructor
Frank Crawford, Crawford & Associates, P.C., from 2 – 3:30
p.m. EDT April 2. Cost is $249 per site (unlimited
attendance) if you register on or before Friday, March 28,
and $299 thereafter.
Register online.
If you have any questions, call NASACT at
859.276.1147 or e-mail
support@nasact.org.
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Find out what's available in an upcoming issue.
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