Highlights
Federal Financial Systems Summit—FREE* One-Day Event for Government Executives
AGA is hosting a one-day event that brings together federal financial managers and private sector executives for the second year to discuss federal financial systems. The summit, set for 8:30 a.m. Jan. 10 at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center, will focus on the current state of federal financial management systems initiatives and implementations, as well as the next generation of financial management systems. Speakers will discuss lessons learned, economics, and benefits of migrating to and integrating with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS, shared services) and Software as a Service (SaaS) models. Learn more about the agenda.
* Government executives can register FREE.
Please contact Susan Fritzlen for more information.
Top Officials Lined Up For AGA's 10th Annual National Leadership Conference
The program for AGA's 10th Annual National Leadership Conference features several high-level officials from local, state and federal governments. The event is designed to train government financial managers and accountability professionals to be effective leaders and to take skills and knowledge gained to the next level.
Register today for the conference, Feb. 16–17, 2012, at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center in Washington D.C.
Speakers include:
Barry Anderson, Deputy Director, National Governors Association
Douglas Bennett, CGFM, CPA, CMA, CDFM, Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary, Financial Operations, U.S. Air Force
W. Todd Grams, Executive in Charge, Office of Management, and Chief Financial Officer, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Brian D. Miller, Inspector General, U.S. General Services Administration
James J. Watkins, CPA, CDFM, Director of Accountability and Audit Readiness, Office of the Assistant Secretary, Financial Management and Comptroller, U.S. Army
Daniel I. Werfel, Controller, Office of Federal Financial Management, Office of Management and Budget
For Attendees—Register today!
For Exhibitors and Sponsors—The NLC is the perfect place to reach your target audience. Space is limited.
Reserve your booth space.
AGA Members: Submit Chapter CCRs by Dec. 31
Earn 350 Chapter Recognition Program credits for your chapter by submitting a chapter Citizen-Centric Report by the end of 2011. Learn more or contact Evie Barry.
Upcoming Audio Conferences
Jan. 11: Getting a Handle on Internal Controls
Jan. 25: Jumpstart Your Entity's Performance and Processes with an Extreme Government Makeover,
Feb. 8: The New Stewardship Imperative—Federal Financial Management at the Crossroads
March 7: Data Mining to Prioritize Investigations of Contract Fraud
April 18: Find Strength in Numbers: Sampling Techniques to Improve Financial Audit, Control and Program Performance
2011—2012 Audio Conference Schedule
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December 19, 2011 • News from the Profession
AGA Today is Brought to You by AGA Corporate Partner Clifton Gunderson
 Clifton Gunderson, ranked as one of the nation's largest certified public accounting and consulting firms, is a leader in providing assurance, risk management, IT security, financial accounting and management, and management advisory services for federal, state and local government agencies. Visit our website at www.cliftoncpa.com for more information.
Point of Contact
Patrick Byer, MBA, CGFM, CPA, CISA, CISM
301-931-2050
Pat.Byer@cliftoncpa.com
Federal News
Lawmakers Decry Extended Pay Freeze to Finance Payroll Tax Holiday
Washington-area lawmakers are determined to keep proposals targeting federal pay and benefits from being included in any final legislative deal that extends the payroll tax cut. "We don't want them in the final bill," said Sen. Ben Cardin, D-MD, during a conference call with reporters Wednesday, referring to provisions in House-passed legislation that would prolong the two-year federal pay freeze through 2013 and would increase the amount government workers contribute to their pensions. The House on Tuesday approved the bill that finances the payroll tax holiday partly through the extended salary freeze and higher rates of contributions from feds toward their retirement benefits. The House bill also would freeze lawmakers' pay through 2013 and require members of Congress to contribute more to their pensions. —Kellie Lunney, Government Executive. Read more.
GAO: IT Dashboard Accuracy Improving
The Office of Management and Budget is judging your agency's performance on what's on the IT dashboard. But if the data on the dashboard is wrong, you might be in trouble you shouldn't be in.
But the good news is that performance is often better than what the Dashboard reflects, said David Powner, the director of information technology management issues at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). In previous reviews of the IT Dashboard, which launched in beta format in June 2009, GAO found that much of the data on the site was inaccurate. However, in the third such review of the online tool, GAO has seen a marked improvement. —Federal News Radio. Read more.
AGA Today is Brought to You by AGA Corporate Partner Accenture
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State and Local News
Will State Pension Plans Run Out of Money?
With Christmas just around the corner, here's a column that will surely win me the Pension Grinch of the Year award for 2011. Don't blame me, however, because I'm just the scribe here. This column merely highlights the worrisome implications of a new research report by the prolific scholars at Boston College's Center for Retirement Research, headed by the insightful professor Alicia Munnell. Munnell's Boston College (BC) team has studied the implications of proposed governmental accounting standards on the reported financial condition and funding status of 126 public pension plans. On the face of it, you'd think this stuff would be about as exciting as a typical actuarial report's demographic assumptions or the accounting-basis footnotes to a municipal financial statement. But it contains an appendix that I predict will have tongues wagging in more than a dozen state capitols. That's because of an innocuous and easily overlooked column called theRun-Out Date. That is the calendar year when the pension trust fund would be projected to literally run out of money under the proposed governmental accounting standards methodology for evaluating the funding condition of public pension plans. GASB kibitzers call it the "depletion date." —Girard Miller, Governing. Read more.
How Texas Conquered a Mountain of Food Stamps Applications
Two years ago, the 316 offices in Texas where people go to sign up for food stamps were the very image of a government backlog. Long lines of frustrated people, many of them hungry, snaked through dingy spaces designed to handle much smaller crowds. The back offices weren’t much better. Desks of state employees were littered with piles of applications—in boxes under workers’ desks and stacked on top of them—that hadn’t yet been entered into the state’s computer systems. Today, the system Texas has in place for handling food stamp eligibility is drastically improved — so much so that the old system is almost unrecognizable. —Melissa Maynard, Stateline.org. Read more.
AGA Today is Brought to You by IBM Business Analytics
 Integrated and Automated Budget, Planning and Performance Reporting Solutions by IBM Business Analytics
A recent survey of 26 federal agencies found that they still use disparate financial systems, rely on spreadsheets to manage budgeting, planning and reporting processes and manually generate data, publish budget, program and performance reports. Using IBM Cognos FSR with TM1, budget and finance teams can now automate the generation of complex, process driven reports while maintaining the agency’s current business processes and disclosure management requirements.
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Federal Accounting Corner
Contract Authority
Sometimes agencies need to obligate funds before they receive their appropriation or warrant. Congress may authorize the agencies to obligate in advance of the appropriation, which is called contract authority, though no expenditures or disbursements can take place until new authority (generally an appropriation warrant but it can be reimbursable authority or transferred in) is given. The Standard General Ledger (SGL) accounts and posting entries for contract authority can be confusing. While they have the same three stages (anticipated, authorized and funded) as most funding sources, the accounts are not in strict logical sequence and are squeezed together in a narrow spectrum of the SGL account series. —Simcha Kuritzky, CGFM. Read more.
Private Sector News
The Single Most Important Improvement to your Resume for Landing a Job
When you're job hunting, even small tweaks to your resume can make the difference between getting the attention of a hiring manager and getting thrown in the discard pile. But all tweaks are not created equal. What's the value of a fancy resume template, for example? Marginal. Including a headshot? Unless you're an actor, it's actually detrimental. So what is effective? Where should you spend your time? Simply put, pay attention to customizing the keywords in your resume to specific job descriptions. It turns out that at many companies, your resume is never seen by a human being until after it gets flagged as "interesting" by software that scans your resume for potential matches to skills and experience the company is looking for. —Dave Johnson, MoneyWatch. Read more.
Accounting Standards News
GASB Issues Preliminary Views on Financial Projections
The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has issued a Preliminary Views document proposing that state and local governments present five-year projections of cash inflows, cash outflows and financial obligations to accompany their financial statements as required supplementary information. The document may be viewed at www.gasb.org along with a variety of related resources:
NEC's Bill Miller to Discuss Internal Controls Jan. 11
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—Getting a Handle on Internal Controls, worth 2 CPE hours.
This Jan. 11 audio conference, set for 2–3:50 EST, addresses the elements of internal control from top management to operating levels. It includes the consequences of failing to pay attention to organization operations and the internal control environment, so often overlooked by auditors and management alike. Major inefficiencies creep into organizations with little or no internal controls, creating an environment where fraud, waste and abuse can, and often does, occur.
To share his knowledge and expertise about internal controls is William D. Miller, CGFM, CIA, county auditor, Johnson County, KS, and member of AGA’s National Executive Committee.
Register today.
AGA Updating SEA Guidelines and Scoring Rubric
AGA is updating the guidelines and scoring rubric for preparing and reviewing Service Efforts and Accomplishments (SEA) reports. The update is based on the Governmental Accounting Standards Board's (GASB) Suggested Guidelines for Voluntary Reporting, SEA Performance Information.
AGA and Rutgers Public Performance Measurement and Reporting Network created a website to assist governments in preparing reports using GASB's guidelines as a framework. Preparers are provided with valuable insight and best practices through examples from actual SEA reports, which show how performance information can be presented.
If you are interested in serving on a task force to review the proposed revisions, please contact Louise Kapelewski. The new scoring rubric should be complete by March 15, 2012.
AGA Advertising Opportunities!
Advertise in AGA's electronic newsletters—TOPICS and AGA Today! Get maximum exposure and build your brand. Find out what's available in an upcoming issue. Click here for all the information you need to run your ad. Or, you can contact Christina Camara
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