Highlights
Upcoming Audio Conferences
Sept. 29—Improving Program Performance & Accountability Through Cooperative Audit Resolution
Hotel Rooms Reserved for Fraud Conference
AGA has reserved a block of rooms at the Four Points by Sheraton, 1201 K Street, NW, in downtown Washington, D.C., to accommodate attendees of AGA's Fifth Annual Internal Control & Fraud Conference. This newly renovated hotel offers convenient access to some of the city's best monuments, museums, restaurants and cultural venues. The hotel is located a few blocks from the McPherson Square Metro Station, and is just a short walk (about seven blocks) or cab ride to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.
The room rate is $229 (plus tax) for single and double occupancy. Rates are guaranteed until Friday, Sept. 3, 2010, or until the block is sold out. We encourage you to make your hotel reservations early, for the best price and availability.
To make a reservation, please call the hotel at 202.289.7600 or 888.627.8681 and mention you are attending the “AGA Fraud Conference” to ensure you receive the discounted rate.
Early Registration Rates Available Until Aug. 20
AGA's Fifth Annual Internal Control & Fraud Conference, worth 14 CPE hours, will be held Sept. 15–16 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.
Hear leaders in government and private industry discuss the latest discovery techniques and lessons learned from various schemes. Learn how poor internal controls can lead to fraud, waste and abuse. Discover how different levels of government are cooperating to improve services to citizens. The conference will also cover such interesting topics as cyber crime, using suspension and debarment actions for poorly performing contractors, war against improper payments, municipal market enforcement and regulatory reforms, mortgage and bank fraud, Medicaid investigations, managing construction project risks, and
oversight activities of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Speakers include:
Kenneth Donohue, Inspector General, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Jeanette M. Franzel, CGFM, CPA, Managing Director, Financial Management and Assurance, U.S. Government Accountability Office
Erin D. Haney, CIA, Statewide Financial Internal Controls Officer, State of Oregon
Arthur A. Hayes, JD, CGFM, CPA, Director of State Audit, Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury, State of Tennessee
Laura Hirst, Deputy State Auditor, Auditor General’s Office, State of Michigan
David Kotz, Inspector General, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Steve Linick, JD, Deputy Chief, Fraud Section, Criminal Division and Task Force Director, U.S. Department of Justice
Raquel Rutledge, Investigative Reporter, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting
Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Invited)
James Sheehan, JD, Medicaid Inspector General, Office of the Medicaid Inspector General, State of New York
Richard L. Skinner, Inspector General, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Daniel I. Werfel, JD, MBA, Controller, Office of Federal Financial Management, U.S. Office of Management and Budget (Invited)
Fees are $500 for AGA members and $675 for nonmembers until Aug. 20, when they increase by $100.
Register online.
Download the registration form.
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August 16, 2010 • News from the Profession
AGA Today is Brought to You by AGA Corporate Partner Clifton Gunderson
 Clifton Gunderson's offices in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, MD, and Arlington, VA, are seeking experienced professionals to join our public sector practice. Ideal candidates will have 3 yrs of Public Accounting or equivalent audit experience along with a BA/BS in Accounting/IT/IS, CPA, CGFM, CISA and/or CISSP. 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 and Local News
Recovery Board Presents an Intergovernmental Dialogue on ARRA in Sacramento
The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (Recovery Board) is hosting a one-day training and outreach session for individuals and entities with oversight responsibilities over the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. The session will include federal, state and local government officials involved with ARRA.
Featured speakers include Recovery Board Executive Director H. Glen Walker and representatives from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Government Accountability Office. State and local officials, including Nevada Controller Kim Wallin, CMA, CFM, CPA, and other spokespeople from the region, are slated to speak. In addition, representatives of the U.S. Departments of Transportation, Education, and Housing and Urban Development will host breakout sessions to discuss issues of particular relevance to their departments.
The discussion will take place from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., Monday, Aug. 30, 2010 at the Doubletree Hotel Sacramento, 2001 Point West Way, Sacramento, CA 95815.
Registration is free and open to federal, state, or local government employees involved with ARRA implementation, oversight, reporting or compliance. Lunch will be provided.
States Test Whether Public Pension Benefits Can be Taken Away
State legislators are beginning to challenge one of the ironclad tenets of public pension policy: that states cannot legally reduce pension benefits for current and future retirees. Lawmakers in Colorado, Minnesota and South Dakota voted earlier this year to limit cost-of-living increases they previously had promised to thousands of current and future retirees, who courts historically have protected from benefit reductions. Not surprisingly, retirees in each state have filed lawsuits asking judges to restore their annual benefit increases to what they were previously. Lawmakers, state retirement systems, public employee unions and others in the pension policy arena are closely watching the outcome of the legal challenges. If the courts do not reinstate the
retirees benefits, a flood of states could follow the lead of Colorado, Minnesota and South Dakota. The reverse also would be true.
"If the plaintiffs are successful, it may discourage legislators in other states from attempting to diminish benefits," says Keith Brainard, research director at the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. \Stephen C. Fehr, Stateline.org. Read more.
$800,000 for a City Manager? The Pay Scandal in the City of Bell, CA
The absurd salaries paid to the top brass in Bell, Calif., illuminates what happens when self-interest replaces (trumps?) public service. Bell's City Council approved raises that brought the city manager to an annual salary of nearly $800,000, with his assistant city manager earning nearly $400,000 and the police chief more than $450,000. These salaries are by far the highest in California, and obviously outliers, never mind the fact that Bell is a community of only 38,000 residents. So it might be easy to dismiss this scandal as another sorry example of the abuse of power in poor communities without a strong civic culture of accountability. Yet it also bears directly on the escalating debate going on across California and the nation about salaries and benefits in the public sector. It goes to the heart of what "public service" means in the 21st Century.
- Rick Cole, Governing. Read more.
AGA Today is Brought to You by Thomson Reuters
 Checkpoint research and Checkpoint Learning are revolutionizing how government accountability professionals learn and understand complex information, make informed decisions, and use knowledge efficiently. Contact Ruth Apelt at 800-868-1296 and ask how Checkpoint can help your agency develop, train and maintain workforce excellence and improve job performance.
Federal News
U.S. Bailouts Benefited Foreign Firms, Report Says
The federal government's effort to stabilize the financial system in 2008 by flooding money into as many banks as possible resulted in a boon to many foreign firms and left the United States shouldering far more risk than governments that took a narrower approach, according to a new report by a panel overseeing the Treasury's $700 billion bailout fund. Members of the Congressional Oversight Panel, in a report due out Thursday, note that America's broad financial rescues had more impact internationally than the narrower bailout programs of other countries had on U.S. firms. They cite as a case study the bailout of insurance giant American International Group. While the Treasury committed up to $70 billion to AIG through its Troubled Assets Relief Program, the report states, much of that money ended up in the coffers of foreign trading partners in France, Germany and other countries.
- Brady Dennis, The Washington Post. Read more.
Ted Stevens, Former Senator from Alaska, Championed Federal Workers
Ted Stevens died last Monday, when the plane he was on crashed into a remote section of Alaskan wilderness. He left behind a rich legacy as the nation's longest-serving Republican senator, a fierce defender of pork projects for his beloved state and an alleged perjurer whose conviction was dismissed amid charges of prosecutorial misconduct. In the 1980s, as chairman of the Senate subcommittee on civil service issues, the senator from Alaska was a key player in the creation of the Federal Employees Retirement System and the Thrift Savings Program, the retirement investment plan for federal workers. His legislation led to its formation, and that "is why he is, and always will be known as, the father of the TSP," said Thomas Trabucco, the TSP's director of external affairs. In later years, and before Stevens lost reelection in 2008, he sponsored paid parental leave for federal employees and pushed legislation to expand telework.
- Joe Davidson, The Washington Post. Read more.
AGA Today is Brought to You by AGA Corporate Partner Real Asset Management International
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Private Sector News
PCAOB Wants to Make Disciplinary Hearings Public
The acting chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, Daniel L. Goelzer, plans to ask Congress to consider a change to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to allow the
PCAOB's disciplinary hearings of accountants and accounting firms, along with the related proceedings, to be made public. Goelzer has directed the PCAOB staff to develop a proposal that will be sent to Congress requesting the change. Currently, under Sarbanes-Oxley, disciplinary hearings and proceedings are kept private, unless the PCAOB
finds good cause to make them public, and all the parties concerned
agree to open them to the public. That rarely if ever happens. - WebCPA. Read more
Accounting Standards News
Follow GASB Issues on Twitter
 Now you can follow the
Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) on Twitter. Once enrolled, you will receive important GASB news and updates in real time. Visit the GASB website and click on the blue Twitter logo on the top center of the page to sign up.
AGA Extends a BIG eThank Youf to Its PDC 2010 Volunteers
 AGA thanks everyone who participated in our 59th Annual Professional Development Conference & Exposition. Record attendance, nice weather and an outstanding technical education program made this a very successful event. We hope your experience was a good one and hope to see you at next year's PDC in Atlanta.
We thank and gratefully acknowledge the significant contributions all of our PDC 2010 Technical Committee and Orlando Host Committee volunteers who gave their time, talent and enthusiasm to add to the success of the conference. The conference would not have been possible without the many contributions from our volunteers. Congratulations on a job well done! See the complete list of Technical Committee and Host Committee Volunteers.
Audio Conference Fall Schedule Has Been Changed
The audio conference “Achieving Transparency—The Next Step to Integrating Your Data,” originally scheduled for Oct. 20, has been moved to Nov. 17 to accommodate the speakers and audience dealing with Recovery Act reporting.
The audio conference “Was It Fraud or Just Poor Audit Quality?” has been moved to the Oct. 20 slot. It was originally scheduled for Nov. 10. All audio conferences are held from 2 to 3:50 p.m. Eastern time.
If your group cannot accommodate the changes, you can request a credit toward a future audio conference. Please direct such requests to Maria Lucas at mlucas@agacgfm.org or 800.AGA.7211, ext. 308. Questions regarding all audio conferences should be directed to Raymond Harris at rharris@agacgfm.org or 800.AGA.7211, ext. 339.
Read the entire 2010–2011 schedule.
AGA Offers Annual PAR Preparer's Workshop
This intermediate-level training, set for 2 to 4 p.m. Aug. 24 in Washington, D.C., provides information and tools about preparing a Performance and Accountability Report. Hear from a panel of preparers as they share their tips and lessons learned. We'll also discuss the changes in A-136.
Don't miss this valuable workshop, worth 2 CPE hours. Seats are limited, and the last day to register is Aug. 20. Learn more
Compliance with the Yellow Book
AGA is offering a one- or two-day training course on The Yellow Book (also known as GAGAS), which encompasses numerous engagements, such as auditing financial statements, performance auditing and engaging in attest work (reviews, examinations and agreed-upon procedures). Anyone working on a Yellow Book engagement must understand its general, fieldwork and reporting standards. The participants will be able to understand the requirements contained within Yellow Book such as those for financial statement audits, performance audits and attestation engagements.
For more information about this course or any of the other 40 courses that AGA offers, please contact Joe Jozefczyk, AGA's director of education, at 800.AGA.7211, ext. 307, or Lynn Hoffman, programs coordinator, ext. 342.
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