Highlights
Training Opportunities
Make Plans Now to Attend AGA's PDC
Join us July 27–30, 2008 in Atlanta, GA, for AGA’s Professional
Development Conference & Exposition (PDC) —the government financial
management education and networking event of the year!
AGA has been a leader in providing the best training for more than 57
years, and this is the place where it all comes together. With the theme
“Building on the Dream: Creating a Culture of Accountability,” and
offering 24 valuable CPE hours, PDC 2008 promises to be one of AGA's best.
One of the best reasons to attend
is top-notch speakers and financial management experts. This year’s
dynamic, high-profile keynote speakers include:
Ernest A. Almonte,
CGFM, CPA, Auditor General, State of Rhode Island
David S. Broder,
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and national political correspondent,
The Washington Post
Elaine Chao,
Secretary of Labor, U.S. Department 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
You can register online or print
the registration form to register by fax or mail. Advance registration
discounts apply to all forms received before June 27.
Build on the dream… show your
commitment a more accountable future—register today.
Congratulations to Fiscal Year 2007 CEAR Recipients
AGA's Certificate of Excellence in Accountability Reporting (CEAR) is
awarded to federal agencies whose Performance ad Accountability Reports
(PARS) achieve the highest standards of clarity in communicating
financial information and demonstrating accountability.
The CEAR Awards will be presented
Wednesday to a record 17 agencies at a dinner at the National Press Club
in Washington D.C. Clay Johnson, Managing Director,
U.S. Office of Management and Budget, will deliver remarks.
AGA Executive Director
Relmond Van Daniker said, “Seventeen awards is a record number,
and we welcome it as evidence not only of continuous improvement, but
also of a real commitment to accountability and transparency among
federal government financial managers and their agencies.”
Congratulations to:
Federal Aviation Administration
Federal Trade Commission
U.S. Commodity Futures Trading
Commission
U.S. Department of Education
U.S. Department of Energy
U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development
U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Department of Labor
U.S. General Services
Administration
U.S. Government Accountability
Office
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
U.S. Office of Federal Housing
Enterprise Oversight
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
U.S. Peace Corps
U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission
U.S. Small Business Administration
U.S. Social Security Administration
Learn more.
Federal Agencies
Earn Top Management Grades
Federal agencies are showing consistent
progress in implementing President's Management Agenda, scoring among the
highest grades yet on the administration's quarterly score card, the U.S.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said. For the second quarter of fiscal
2008, which ended March 31, roughly half of the agencies' status scores were
green, the highest grade possible, according to
data released last week
by OMB. —Robert Brodsky, Government Executive.
Read more.
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May 19, 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, Harrisburg, PA, and
Arlington, VA, 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
FMSB Comments on Proposed
International Auditing Standard
AGA's Financial Management Standards Board (FMSB) has commented on the
proposed revised and redrafted International Standard on Auditing,
ISA 402, Audit Considerations Relating to an Entity Using A Third Party
Service Organization. The AICPA is reviewing its guidance for
service organizations (SAS 70) and its proposed new guidance will
probably be similar to that of ISA 402.
Read more.
AGA Research Report Confronts
'Brain Drain'
An industry group with a keen interest in the future of government
accounting is just out with a new study on how to combat the impending
"brain drain." The report, titled 21st Century Financial Managers: A
New Mix of Skills and Educational Levels, was put together by the
Association of Government Accountants, an organization representing
accountants and financial management professionals at both the federal
and state level. Anna Miller is AGA's Director of
Research. She says that when these federal financial managers leave,
"it's not certain how they will be replaced." She goes on to question
whether there is a plan in place to be sure that their replacements have
the skills and knowledge to do the job of their predecessors. Call it
"the golden tsunami", or "the brain drain"... The demographers say that
within the next 10 years, as much as 60 percent of the current workforce
in this country will become eligible for retirement. AGA is concerned
that this projection, if it comes to pass in its entirety, could be a
significant concern for the federal government and federal financial
managers. Miller talked about one possible solution: finding a way to
let older feds continue to contribute. —Max Cacas, FederalNews
Radio.
Read more.
AGA Today is Brought to You by Becker CPA Review
 The
CPA Exam isn’t easy.
Paying for Becker CPA Review is.
If you’re a federal employee, you can prepare for the
CPA Exam with the leading exam prep provider—Becker CPA Review—at a
dramatic tuition discount (visit Contract # GS-02F-0105R). You may even
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Monica Callahan to learn more about this career defining
opportunity.
This Week on AGA's Blog
If you haven't yet checked out the AGA Blog, stop by at
http://aga.typepad.com/aga/.
This week:
Monday: Sheila Weinberg, Truth in Accounting on
"Running Deficits When Your Budgets Are Balanced"
Tuesday: Eric Berman, Deputy Controller,
Commonwealth of Massachusetts and AGA GASAC Representative, on "The
GASB's Technical Agenda"
Wednesday: Steve Fisher, CFO, Federal Trade
Commission, on receiving AGA's Prestigious Certificate of Excellence in
Accountability Reporting (CEAR)
Thursday: Tom Sadowski, CGFM, State Controller,
State of Missouri, on "You’re Not in Public Service—You Get Paid!"
Friday: Jon Desenberg, Consulting Director, The
Performance Institute on “Moving Performance Forward in Government:
Planning from the Top Down / Measuring from the Bottom Up”
Questions about how to post a comment or how to
subscribe to the feed that sends blog entries straight to your e-mail
address?
Find out more. Want to spend a day as our guest on the blog? Contact
Marie Force, communications director.
Five Government Blogs Worth
Reading
We all remember the 1990s when an agency wasn’t cool until it had
something called a website. Today, nearly every agency has a website.
Now it’s all about community, interactivity and collaboration — and
using tools, mostly web-based ones, to make all that happen. The first
federal blogs that we could find came from the Federal Trade Commission
in November 2006. FTC staff members used it to comment on hearings about
protecting consumers in the “Next Tech-ade.” There are now at least 31
active public blogs run by federal agencies, according to the USA.gov
federal government web portal. Another 10 federal blogs have come and
gone. We profile five blogs that we believe are worth reading. —Federal
Computer Week.
Read more.
Mother's Day Marks Official
Launch of EconomistMom.com
The Concord Coalition is pleased to announce the official launch of Chief
Economist Diane Lim Rogers' new blog entitled
EconomistMom.com, "…where analytical rigor meets a mother’s
intuition." The new blog is an initiative by Rogers to combine her Ph.D.
credentials in economics with her acquired knowledge from being the
mother of four children. EconomistMom.com will provide a unique
perspective on topical developments with economic and fiscal matters
figuring prominently among them.
AGA Today is Brought to
You by AGA
Corporate Partner Morgan Franklin
MorganFranklin puts the word “value” back into agency compliance efforts.
Visit
morganfranklin.com/federal for more information.
Federal Accounting
Corner
Positive and Negative Versus Debit and Credit
Preparing the Form and Content reports can be confusing: if a report line is
composed of the balance of several accounts, is the report line shown as
a positive number if these accounts have normal balances, or only if the
balance is a debit? If the sign is based on the normal balance of an
account, then what about lines that are mapped to multiple accounts,
some with normal debit balances and some with normal credit balances?
—Simcha Kuritzsky, CGFM, CPA.
Read the entire column.
Growing Deficits Threaten
Pensions; Accounting Tactics Conceal a Crisis For Public Workers
The funds that pay pension and health benefits to police officers,
teachers and millions of other public employees across the country are
facing a shortfall that could soon run into trillions of dollars. But
the accounting techniques used by state and local governments to balance
their pension books disguise the extent of the crisis facing these
retirees and the taxpayers who may ultimately be called on to pay the
freight, according to a growing number of leading financial analysts.
State governments alone have reported they are already confronting a
deficit of at least $750 billion to cover the cost of the retirement
benefits they have promised. But that figure likely underestimates the
actual shortfall because of the range of methods they use to make their
calculations, including practices that have been barred in the private
sector for decades. Local governments use these same techniques for
their pension funds and face deficits that further contribute to what
some investors and analysts say may be shaping up to be a massive breach
of faith with a generation of public employees. — David Cho, The
Washington Post.
Read more.
AGA Today is Brought to You by the Villa
Julie College Accelerated Forensic Studies Masters Degree Programs
 Villa
Julie College offers one of the country's first and leading Forensic
Studies masters programs with onsite or online degrees in five
distinctive tracks of focus: Accounting, IT, Legal, Investigation &
Interdisciplinary. Visit
www.forensicstudiesonline.org to learn more. Finish in as few as
18 months, part time.
People Say They Want More Sophisticated Interaction with Government
All around the world, residents of major cities want more input in their
municipal officials' decision making, according to a report from the
London-based Accenture Institute for Public Service Value (AIPSV). Based
on day-long panel discussions with residents of large cities like New
York and Los Angeles,
the report shows that people want high-quality, efficient services,
greater engagement with municipal governments on quality of life issues,
and more clarity and accountability from government. The report found
that improving social and economic outcomes, balancing choice and
flexibility with fairness and common good, engaging the public and
clarifying accountability were key components in improving the
relationship between residents and governments. —American City &
County.
Read more.
Report: 'Onboarding'
Helps Retain Federal Employees
A process called “onboarding” is one of the best ways for
federal agencies to retain new employees once they start work, according
to a new report from the Partnership for Public and Booz Allen Hamilton.
In
“Getting on Board: A Model for Integrating and Engaging New Employees,”
issued May 13, researchers concluded that successfully integrating new
employees into the workplace, or onboarding, during their first year
increases retention by up to 25 percent. “What agencies do or don’t do
has a large impact on a new worker’s view of government service,” said
Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service. “And
ultimately that will impact how effective agencies are at getting the
job done.” First impressions have effects; 90 percent of new employees
decide in the first six months on the job whether they will stay or
go, according to the study. —Richard W. Walker, Federal Computer
Week. Read
more.
Integrating Cost,
Performance Audio Conference Set for June 18
AGA, in conjunction with the National Association of State Auditors,
Comptrollers and Treasurers (NASACT) and the Association of Local
Government Auditors (ALGA), is pleased to announce a new audio
conference —Integrating
Cost and Performance in Financial Reporting.
To share their experiences in process-based
accounting and improving financial reporting are Clifton A.
Williams, CGFM, CPA, partner, Grant Thornton LLP, and
James Brimson, MS, founder of Activity Based Management
Institute.
Please join us for two hours of lively
discussion, from 2 – 3:50 p.m., that includes 20 minutes for Q & A.
Cost: $249 per site (UNLIMITED ATTENDANCE) if you register by
June 13 and $299 thereafter. SPECIAL PROMOTION: Register
five or more offices from your government agency or CPAG firm and
receive a 20 percent discount.
Register online,
print the registration form and fax it to 703.684.6933 or
print and fax the Special Promotion Registration form.
Questions regarding registration go to
Maria Lucas at 800.AGA.7211, ext. 308. Direct questions
regarding the program to
Raymond Harris at ext. 339.
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Find out what's available in an upcoming issue.
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