Highlights
Training Opportunities
Call for Nominations for AGA National and Regional Leaders
Interested in the
opportunity to shape the Association’s programs, advance your profession,
and represent members’ interests in the government accountability community?
Submit your nomination TODAY for a National Board of Directors position.
For more information on openings, visit
the governance
section of AGA’s website.
Nomination forms are due to
Michiyo Wheeler by Friday, Oct. 26.
Leadership Awards
Nominations Due Friday
Who do you know that deserves special recognition
for contributions to our field? Help us acknowledge financial professionals
at the federal, state and local level and private sector who are leading the
way. For information on all awards, visit the
National Awards website. For more information, contact
Michiyo Wheeler. Nomination deadline is Friday, Oct. 26.
Audit Efficiency Focus of Next Audio Conference
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 its latest audio conference,
Conducting Performance Audits Efficiently: Tools and Techniques to Improve
Performance Audit Productivity. The audio conference, worth 2 CPE
hours, is set for 2 – 3:50 p.m., EST, Nov. 14.
In an environment in which government auditors are
supposed to "do more with less," how can audit offices efficiently use
their limited resources to produce timely and high-quality performance
audit reports? Learn from two leaders in government performance
auditing: Drummond Kahn, CGFM, CIA, CGAP, Director of
Audit Services for Portland, OR; and Leslie Tanaka, CPA,
City Auditor for the City and County of Honolulu, HI.
Cost is $249 per site (unlimited attendance) if you
register on or before Nov. 9, and $299 thereafter.
Register online or print the
registration form and fax it to 703.684.6933
View the entire audio conference schedule.
Single
Audit Audio Conference Set for Oct. 31
NASACT, in conjunction with AGA and ALGA, is pleased to announce a new
audio conference, Single Audit Fundamentals: A Refresher. Set for 2
– 3:50 p.m. EDT Oct. 31, the audio conference will cover
the essentials of conducting high-quality single audits that comply with the
Single Audit Act Amendments of 1996 and OMB Circular A-133. This is the
first of two parts, with a second audio conference planned for 2008. Speaker
is Frank Crawford, CPA. Cost is $249 per site if you
register before Friday, Oct. 26.
Registration information. |
October 22,
2007• 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
Jennifer.Busse@cliftoncpa.com
Defense Comptroller:
Financial Management Better Than Perceived
 Defense
Comptroller Tina W. Jonas last Wednesday defended her department's
progress in improving financial management, despite the fact the U.S.
Department of Defense and military services have never been able to
produce the kind of financial reporting statements required by law. "We
know where our money is. We track our money. We send accounting reports
to Congress and we tell them by appropriation and line item where the
money went and what it went for," Jonas said at a breakfast in
Washington sponsored by the Association of Government Accountants. The
ability to produce annual consolidated financial statements, as required
by the 1990 Chief Financial Officers Act, has been the holy grail for
federal finance and accounting staff, and agencies have in some cases
gone to extraordinary lengths to garner clean audit opinions from
independent accounting firms. But the Homeland Security and Defense
departments have yet to be able to produce the statements. —Katherine
McIntire Peters, Government Executive.
Read the entire article and see photos from the event.
HUD CFO Discusses AGA CEAR Program on Radio Show
John Cox, chief financial officer of the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), discussed HUD's
progress in finance and accountability on the IBM Business of Government
radio program on Oct. 13. He talked about how HUD received
AGA's prestigious
Certificate of Excellence in Accountability Reporting, or CEAR
Award. Cox said in part, "I think it provided us some validation that in
fact, we're trying to make improvements. Now, I will also be honest with
you and tell you they gave us several pages of suggested improvements
for this year, which we are going through, and so our work is not
complete by any stretch of the imagination. There's a lot more we can do
to simplify it."
Read the transcript.
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Full Disclosure 1, Texas Law 0
Although recent
Texas law gives pension funds an out, the $26 billion Employees
Retirement System of Texas will follow a nationwide accounting rule and
fully disclose the cost of the retirement benefits it has promised to
state workers. Ann Fuelberg, executive director of the system, told
trustees at their meeting Oct. 12 in Bastrop that the system will comply
with Governmental Accounting Standards Board Rule 45, or GASB 45.
Fuelberg mentioned the new Texas law that allows state governmental
entities to shorthand their tally of retirement benefits, but said the
system had decided to follow GASB 45. Texas is the only state to have
rejected the rule. The anti-GASB law allows Texas governmental entities
to bypass the rule if they want to and report only the money they
currently spend on post-retirement benefits. GASB 45, by contrast, calls
for a more detailed forecast of costs and asks governments to outline
plans to pay those costs. —Robert Elder, The Austin
American-Statesman.
Read more.
Texas Opens Online 'Window' to its Finances
An online "window" to Texas state government now allows viewers to climb
in and rummage through the checkbook. Texas this month joined a handful
of states and the federal government in posting detailed financial
information on the Internet. Anyone with strong eyeballs and an
investigative spirit now can search for pork or find out if their
neighbor's business sells widgets to the state. The "Where The Money
Goes" feature on the
comptroller's website is the result of legislation by a group of
thirtysomething, tech-savvy lawmakers. Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, a
technology consultant who founded the first company to register voters
online, wrote the bill that required the online database. He modeled it
after federal legislation passed last year. Texas joins Kansas,
Minnesota, Oklahoma, Hawaii and Missouri in setting up searchable
spending sites. "It's really helpful for voters to be as educated as
they can about how their taxpayer dollars get allocated," Strama said.
—Janet Elliott, The Houston Chronicle.
Read the entire article.
AGA Today
is Brought to You by the Foundation for Accounting Education
Public Schools Accounting and Auditing Conference
Held on Thursday, November 29, 2007 at the Albany Marriott in
Albany, NY, the Public Schools A&A Conference will provide CPAs with an
update on accounting and auditing requirements in the government and
public school sectors.
Learn more.
Federal Accounting Corner
Imprest Fund and Cash Reconciliation: New Guidance
Before FY2002, imprest funds were treated
like an advance. They had to be supported by an obligation and were
reported on the budgetary side by account 4802 Undelivered Orders -
Obligations, Prepaid/Advance. On the FMS-2108 Year-end Closing
Statement, creating an imprest fund reduced the cash at Treasury
(columns 2 and 5) and available funding (column 11). Starting in FY2002,
Treasury guidance required that the balance of the imprest fund be
committed and not obligated. Further, when the funds are transferred
from Treasury to the imprest fund, no advance should be recorded.
—Simcha Kurisky, CGFM, CPA.
Read the entire column.
Housing Downturn Takes
Toll on Cities’ Revenue
Suddenly everyone wants more from Chicago’s taxpayers. Mayor Richard M.
Daley asked for a 15 percent jump in the property tax. Todd H. Stroger,
the president of Cook County’s board, called for increases in sales,
gasoline and parking taxes. And all that does not even begin to address
ways of keeping the financially troubled bus and train systems running.
While Chicago’s case may be extreme, it is by no means unique. Across
the country, local governments are feeling a financial strain driven
largely by the nation’s real estate downturn. City finance officers
predict slowing revenue even as they remain under pressure to keep
spending, especially in areas like health care and pensions, according
to an
annual survey by the National League of Cities. To handle budget
deficits they now expect, many cities are increasing fees for services,
and some are considering raising property taxes, said the report. “We
know what’s coming here,” said one author, Christopher W. Hoene,
director of policy and research for the National League of Cities. “If
the housing market continues to flatten out or even decline, we’re in
for some tough times for cities." —Monica Davey, The New York Times.
Read the entire article.
AGA Today is Brought to You by the Los Angeles Unified School District
Put your talents to work making a difference today for the kids who’ll
make a different tomorrow.
LA Unified School District is seeking a
Forensic Accountant in our Office of Inspector General.
We have a generous benefits package and environment for work/life
balance.
Visit us at www.lausdjobs.org or
(213) 353-4212.
CFOs, IGs Share Best Practices for Financial Reports
Agency chief financial officers and inspectors general have developed a
set of best practices to share for coordinating the preparation and audit of
annual federal financial statements. A key point is to start early. The CFO
Council and the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency produced the
guide to promote clear expectations defined early and often, continuous
communication and a shared commitment to improve agency financial
management. An agency CFO prepares the financial statement according to
federal accounting principles and also evaluates the use of internal
controls to assure financial management under the Office of Management and
Budget’s Circular A-123. The IG audits the financial statement to give an
opinion about its reliability based on the management of risk of its
internal controls, states the
report, posted Oct. 1. “When implemented by CFO and IG management, the
best practices presented in this document can facilitate a more efficient
and effective audit,” the two groups said, especially in planning,
scheduling implementation, new standards and policy, and changes in the
control environment. —Mary Mosquera, Federal Computer News.
Read the entire article.
13 Universities
Competing in AGA's First Government Finance Case Challenge
Thirteen universities from across the U.S. received a government
financial management case last Monday to solve within the next two weeks.
The teams will submit their response to AGA on Oct. 29. A six-member panel
will review the responses and select the top two teams on Nov. 26. Finally,
the top two teams will offer a response of up to 25 minutes at the 2008
National Leadership Conference, Feb. 21-22, 2008.
Learn more.
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