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Time Running Out to Register for NLC
If you have not yet registered for the 2005 National Leadership Conference, to be held February 7 – 8, it's not too late. With 14 CPE hours and an outstanding technical program—this year's program is not to be missed. There is no better place to get the knowledge you need. This year’s sessions include:
• Will There Be Joy in Mudville? D.C.'s CFO Office Will Make the Call—Deputy CFO N. Anthony Calhoun, CGFM, discusses financial implications of bringing baseball to D.C.
• The Evolving Role of the CFO: What Will the Future Hold?
• Enterprise Architecture
• Homeland Security: The Challenges of Keeping Our Cities Safe and Managing How to Pay for It
• The Presidential Election & Its Impact on Managing Government Operations
• Identity Fraud, A National Nemesis (Status & Outlook for Prevention)
• And many more! Click here to register online.
The NLC is an extraordinary educational and networking event designed for government financial managers by government financial managers. You will come away with a better understanding of how you can work more efficiently and to better serve your agency and government.
Computer-Based Auditing Tools & Techniques—A Special Supplement to the Summer 2005 Journal
Auditors everywhere rely on a variety of computer-based tools and techniques to get their jobs done. The supplement will be bagged and mailed along with the Summer 2005 Annual Technology issue of the Journal of Government Financial Management. Click here for more information.
CGFM Exam 3 Study Guide Now Available!
Be sure to order the new Study Guide for CGFM Exam 3: Governmental Financial Management and Control to help in your preparation for the examination. Click here to learn more.
 ORDER NOW!
A Primer on Internal Controls and Auditing: Crucial to Government and the Economy
By: Wanda A. Wallace, Ph.D., CPA, CMA, CIA
Internal control has never been optional, and now an easy-to-read resource directed to a wide audience is available to understand both what is meant by "internal control" and how an “audit” is conducted. Click here to order your copy.
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January 24, 2005 • News from the Profession
SIGIR Logo
Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction
Auditors for Iraq Reconstruction
Annual Salary Range: $62,886 - $135,136
Overtime, Foreign Post Differential and other premium pays may apply
The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) is seeking United States citizens to fill multiple performance Auditor positions to include senior-level Auditors, Audit Managers, and Senior Audit Managers. Fax resumes to 703.428.0818. Click here for more information.
Bush Nominee Wants States to Get Medicaid Flexibility
President Bush's nominee for secretary of health and human services, Michael O. Leavitt, believes that states could provide health insurance to more people, at no additional cost, if they had "greater flexibility" to reshape the Medicaid program and trim benefits. "We have a substantial obligation to care for the poor," Leavitt told a Senate committee reviewing his nomination last Tuesday. "We can expand the number of people served with quality basic care by giving states additional flexibility." Medicaid spending has shot up 63 percent in the last five years. Lawmakers of both parties and administration officials said Medicaid was likely to be a focus of budget-cutting efforts this year. As governor of Utah, Leavitt said, he devised a program that offered a limited set of health care benefits to people who had no insurance, and he suggested that Utah's experience could be a model for other states. In 2003, the Bush administration proposed to give states a fixed amount of Medicaid money each year, with new latitude to control costs and reduce or eliminate benefits for some recipients. In 1997, Leavitt strenuously resisted a similar proposal, complaining that the federal government was trying to balance its budget "on the backs of the states." Governors today express the same concerns about proposals being developed by the Bush administration. —Robert Pear, The New York Times. Click here to read the entire article.
‘Think Outside the Box’ and Find a New Phrase
Companies claiming to create "synergies" in an effort to develop a "value-added" "paradigm" that leads to new "solutions" may consider another strategy: avoiding bloated, cliche phrases and industry jargon. A recent poll of 150 senior business executives listed the above phrases as some of the most overused buzzwords in the workplace. Other annoying phrases: “at the end of the day,” “metrics,” “take it offline,” “redeployed people,” and “win-win.” The survey, conducted by Accountemps, polled executives in human resources, finance and marketing departments of the nation’s 1,000 largest companies. Part of the motivation to use buzzwords can be attributed to a desire to demonstrate your expertise, but this can often backfire, said Accountemps Chairman Max Messmer. “Even though the terms you use may be clear to you, other people must understand them if you hope to communicate your point effectively,” he said. “For instance, instead of saying a project was a ‘win-win,’ explain why it was successful." —SmartPros. Click here to read the entire article.
Fed Bank President Says Growing Deficit is Risky
A top Federal Reserve official has urged the White House and Congress to restrain the U.S. budget deficit, warning that its continued growth poses risks to international financial markets. Current "troubling" projections of the deficit's growth threaten to shake the confidence of international investors, who might become less willing to finance the nation's burgeoning debt, Timothy F. Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said Jan. 14 in New York at a business forum on global financial risk. "It is important that the United States work to build more confidence that it will act on the fiscal front to achieve a better balance between our commitments and our resources," Geithner said. Geithner, chief of the regional Fed bank that most closely monitors risk in global markets, made his remarks as President Bush prepares to present his budget for the coming fiscal year. —Nell Henderson, The Washington Post. Click here to read entire article.
Congress Spends Billions on Unauthorized Programs
In its annual report to lawmakers on appropriations for unauthorized programs, the Congressional Budget Office said Congress appropriated $170.4 billion in fiscal 2005 for programs with lapsed authorizations. That is up $80 billion from 2002 because of several large authorizations that expired in the last two years, according to the Jan. 14 report. The $170.4 billion comprises 167 different expired authorization laws, with the largest being programs that authorize veterans medical care, Section 8 housing assistance, NASA and the National Institutes of Health. —CongressDaily. Click here to read the entire article.
White House Expected to Lay Out Lean Budget Plan
The fiscal 2006 federal budget President Bush will formally propose next month is likely to be the most austere in years, and will recommend eliminating funding for poor-performing programs, according to Bush administration officials. Bush has promised to halve the deficit by 2009. "We'll send a tough budget up, that really says to the American people: 'We're going to be wise about how we spend your money," he said in an interview with USA Today last week. "And part of being wise about how we spend your money is, we're not going to increase money on programs that aren't working. We're results-oriented people." Some programs "won't be getting any money at all" if the White House has any say, the president added. — Shawn Zeller and Amelia Gruber, Government Executive. Click here to read the entire article.
Simplified Financial Management Reform Bill in the Works
U.S. Rep. Todd Platts, R-PA, chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Efficiency and Financial Management, plans to introduce a comprehensive financial management bill that would replace the hodgepodge of current law. Instead of forcing federal financial managers to wade through 800 pages of text from the past 20 years of financial management law, Platts wants to create a new, streamlined law. His latest effort follows a string of initiatives to increase accountability and efficiency in the federal government. "There's no use generating reports if they just sit on the shelf and aren't looked at," he told Government Executive. While the new bill still is in its nascent stages, Platts said he should be ready to introduce it by early fall. —Kimberly Palmer, Government Executive. Click here to read the entire article.
Expert Says No Performance System is Perfect
Pay for performance. Performance management. The Government Performance and Results Act. The program assessment rating tool to improve performance. They are systems that try to solve performance problems—and reflect the never-ending search by government officials to find the ultimate performance system, Harvard University lecturer Robert D. Behn says. Unfortunately, Behn says, "the magical performance system doesn't exist. Even a good performance system doesn't exist. Systems don't improve performance; leaders do." The idea of creating systems is alluring and seductive, Behn writes in this month's issue of his "Public Management Report," because "a system is like an engine. You push the start button, and the system does the work." But there is no start button for performance systems, Behn argues. Almost all performance systems come loaded with rules and paperwork requirements, and rule-driven approaches are unlikely to be very effective, he contends. If systems fall short of what they promise, as Behn asserts, then the answer is "performance leadership"—efforts by agency leaders to motivate employees "to produce more, or better, or more consequential results that are valued by citizens." Performance leadership is the opposite of performance systems, Behn says. "Once you have started it, you have to keep doing it. You can't stop. To improve performance, you have to keep working at it." —Stephen Barr, The Washington Post. Click here to read the entire article.
OMB Orders Agencies to Tighten Internal Controls
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released new auditing rules that require agencies to review their internal controls over financial management, fix potential shortcomings and submit an annual report on their activities. In the wake of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which calls for publicly held companies to obtain audits of their internal controls, government auditors and financial managers have debated whether they should follow suit. The Government Accountability Office is in the midst of rewriting its auditing guidelines, some auditors have expressed concern that tightening federal auditing practices was unnecessary and resource-consuming. But senior GAO officials supported strengthening internal control audit requirements, and OMB sided with them. OMB Controller Linda Springer said in a statement that effective internal controls were "the foundation of reliable financial reporting.” GAO offers guidelines on auditing standards, while OMB's rules are legally binding. —Kimberly Palmer, Government Executive. Click here to read the entire article.
COSO Names New Chairman
Larry E. Rittenberg, Ph.D., CPA, CIA, has been named the new chairman of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) of the Treadway Commission. Rittenberg, who is currently one of COSO's five board members, replaced John J. Flaherty, CIA, CPA, as of January 1, 2005. "The commission is thrilled to have Dr. Rittenberg assume the role as COSO Chairman," said The Institute of Internal Auditors President Dave Richards. "He has spent his career dedicated to promoting the business ethics and practices COSO stands for and he will provide a strong voice for the organization." Prior to accepting the role of COSO chairman, Rittenberg served as vice president of research and president of The IIA Research Foundation. He currently teaches courses and conducts research at the University of Wisconsin in Madison that focuses on auditing and corporate governance. As chairman, Rittenberg will lead COSO's efforts investing in conceptual frameworks designed to enhance the understanding and management of risk and control. Under his leadership, the organization will provide guidance for cost-effective small business application of COSO's landmark document, Internal Control — Integrated Framework. —The IIA.
FASAB Publishes SFFAS 28
The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) has issued Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Standards (SFFAS) 28, Deferral of the Effective Date of Reclassification of the Statement of Social Insurance. The statement defers for one year the effective dates of SFFAS 25, Reclassification of Stewardship Responsibilities and Eliminating the Current Services Assessment, as well as SFFAS 26, Presentation of Significant Assumptions for the Statement of Social Insurance: Amending SFFAS 25. The requirements of SFFAS 25 and 26 will be effective for periods beginning after Sept. 30, 2005. Click here to read the statement.
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