Highlights
CPE
Opportunities
Looking
for a Job?
It's Not Too Late to Register for AGA's
NLC
Join us at AGA's Third Annual National
Leadership Conference (NLC), set for Thursday and Friday, February 2
– 3, 2006, in Washington, D.C., Earn 14 CPE hours and learn from
the best minds from all levels of government, the private sector and
academia. Share best practices, connect with your peers and view the
latest technologies, services and products in the Exhibit Hall.
• Register online.
• Print registration form to send by fax/mail
(Adobe PDF)
• Visit the
conference website
March 1 Audio Conference on SOX, Auditing
AGA, in conjunction with the
National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers
(NASACT), and the National Association of Local Government Auditors
(N.A.L.G.A.), is offering this audio conference, worth 2 CPE hours, at
2-3:50 p.m. EST March 1. Speakers will cover the
status of audit and internal control efforts for state and local
governments and the possible effects of additional requirements. NASACT
Executive Director Kinney Poynter and Nancy A. Valley, CGFM, Partner
and National Industry Leader, KPMG LLP, will discuss these issues and
the results of a joint AGA/NASACT research project on this topic.
Click here for more information. If you have any
questions regarding registration, please contact Julie Cupp Questions regarding the
program should be directed to Raymond Harris, CGFM.
Submit Your
Work to AGA's Journal
This year, The Journal of
Government Financial Management is focusing on four areas of
critical concern to the government financial management profession. The
Spring issue, out in March, will cover Human Capital. The Summer issue
looks at Education & Research with a sub-theme of Technology.
Articles for the Summer issue are due to Marie Force, editor, by March 1.
If you plan to submit for the Summer issue, please contact Marie. A
Performance Reporting issue is on the calendar for the Fall (writing
deadline June 1) and Citizen-Centric Government for the Winter (writing
deadline September 1). Click here to find out more about any of the
2006 theme issues, and click here for complete author guidelines.
Articles in areas other than the themes are certainly
welcome!
Time to
Apply
for 2006 Scholarships
Are you or a family member pursuing
undergraduate or graduate studies in disciplines such as accounting,
auditing, budgeting, economics, finance, information technology, public
administration, etc.? If so, consider applying for an AGA National
Academic Scholarship today!
Each year, AGA National awards:
—Up to six $1,000 full-time
merit scholarships to AGA members and their family members,
—Up to two $500 part-time merit scholarships to AGA
members
and their family members, and
—One $1,000 community service scholarship.
The deadline for receipt
of applications is March 31, 2006. Apply now and take
full advantage of your AGA membership. Click here for high school applications. Click here for undergraduate/graduate
applications. Questions? Contact
Rosanna Ortiz.
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January 30, 2006
• News from the Profession
AGA Today is Brought to You by AGA
Corporate Partner Clifton Gunderson
 Clifton Gunderson's DC office is 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
Audit
Describes Misuse of Funds in Iraq Projects
A new audit of American financial
practices in Iraq has uncovered irregularities, including millions of
reconstruction dollars stuffed casually into footlockers and filing
cabinets, an American soldier in the Philippines who gambled away cash
belonging to Iraq, and three Iraqis who plunged to their deaths in a
rebuilt hospital elevator that had been improperly certified as safe.
The audit, released Jan. 25 by the office of the Special Inspector
General for Iraq Reconstruction, expands on its previous findings of
fraud, incompetence and confusion as the American occupation poured
money into training and rebuilding programs in 2003 and 2004. Agents
from the inspector general's office found that the living and working
quarters of American occupation officials were awash in shrink-wrapped
stacks of $100 bills, colloquially known as bricks. One official kept
$2 million in a bathroom safe, another more than half a million dollars
in an unlocked footlocker. One contractor received more than $100,000
to completely refurbish an Olympic pool, but only polished the pumps;
even so, local American officials certified the work as completed. More
than 2,000 contracts ranging in value from a few thousand dollars to
more than half a million, some $88 million in all, were examined by
agents from the inspector general's office. The report says that in
some cases the agents found clear indications of potential fraud and
that investigations into those cases are continuing. —James
Glanz, The New York Times. Click here to read the entire article.
Cities Report
Improving
Fiscal Conditions But Remain Cautious
Despite overall signs of improving fiscal health in 2005, half
of
the nation’s cities have been forced to raise new revenues to
address gaps created by rising employee health care and pension costs,
as well as increases in public safety and infrastructure needs,
according to a recent National League of Cities (NLC) survey. Results
from City Fiscal Conditions in 2005 show that nearly half (48 percent)
of the cities surveyed increased fees and charges for city services in
order to balance budgets in 2005. Only 26 percent say they relied on
increases in property taxes, while even smaller numbers increased sales
tax rates, income tax rates, and other tax rates. For the first time
since 2001, city fiscal conditions are showing improvements. But
ongoing revenue constraints and concerns over potential declines in
property tax revenues resulting from slowing real estate markets leave
many city officials cautious as they draw up their budgets for 2006.
—National League of Cities. Click here for
more information and access to the entire report.
States Lead Feds in
Overhauling Lobbying Laws
Stung by their own scandals, lawmakers in many states have
outpaced Washington in enacting new laws intended to curb the cozy and
at times corrupt relationships between lobbyists and politicians.
Measures are under consideration in state legislatures from New England
to California, designed to eliminate privately financed junkets,
require the disclosure of spending on lobbying, ban gift-giving by
private interests and curb the hiring of lawmakers' relatives as an
under-the-table kickback scheme. The Center for Public Integrity, a
nonpartisan group in Washington that studies ethics in politics, said
rules for federal lobbyists were weaker than those in all but a handful
of states. For example, 37 states require some detailed information on
each lobbyist's expenses, while the federal government does not. More
important, the center said, 24 states have independent ethics
commissions, some including members of the public or retired judges, to
investigate and enforce lobbying rules. Congress writes and enforces
its own code of conduct. —John M. Broder, The New York
Times. Click here to read the entire article.
AGA Today is Brought to You by
Microsoft Corporation
 Have you
heard? Everyone’s talking about Microsoft Dynamics™—a
suite of products including an affordable ERP solution that streamlines
financial management and provides better access to reporting, and a CRM
solution that works from with Microsoft® Outlook to helps improve
information sharing and constituent service. Click here
to find out why government agencies are using Microsoft Dynamics™
today.
Readers' Thumbs Up, Down Over Annual Performance
Reviews
The Diary mailbag has been stuffed with comments from readers
who were energized by a recent column headlined: "Is the Annual
Performance Review the Goof-Off's Best Friend?" Readers were about
evenly split on an idea floated by Robert D. Behn, a longtime public
policy analyst who teaches at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy
School of Government. Behn contends that one way to get rid of
"obnoxious goof-offs" is to abolish the annual job appraisal
so that problem workers won't have those satisfactory ratings in their
personnel folder that can thwart efforts by new managers to fire them.
—Stephen Barr, The Washington Post. Click here to read the entire article.
WVU Announces Fraud,
Forensic Accounting Curriculum Model
As a result of recent, highly-publicized financial scandals
and
heightened concerns over money laundering to support terrorism and
racketeering, the demand for entry-level professionals with formal
education in fraud and forensic accounting has grown. Academic
institutions and stakeholder organizations that provide education
related to this subject are faced with a number of questions regarding
the nature, extent and format of a worthwhile curriculum. West Virginia
University, with funding from the National Institute of Justice,
initiated a project to develop model curriculum guidelines for
education in fraud and forensic accounting to assist educators and
others in identifying the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary for
individuals to practice in this field. Sridhar Ramamoorti,
Ph.D., the chairman of the AGA Academy Board, serves as a
member of The Working Group (TWG) that developed this forensic
accounting model curriculum in conjunction with faculty at West
Virginia University.
To receive a "read only" Word file of the document,
send an e-mail request.
Click here to
send comments.
Mayors: Feds Must
Reorganize for Disasters
The federal government must reorganize the way it prepares for
and reacts to natural disasters, including the system for insuring
property owners, according to several local leaders gathered for the
United States Conference of Mayors’ winter meeting in Washington,
D.C. In the opening session of the organization’s 74th annual
winter meeting, mayors from several Gulf Coast cities described the
challenges they have faced from the devastation caused last fall by
Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who
has been an outspoken critic of the federal government’s response
to flooding in his city, warned other mayors at the conference that
“if we don’t reorient [the Federal Emergency Management
Agency] and reset the rules, you could all end up in the same boat as
New Orleans.” In addition to the need to “reorient,
redefine and change FEMA in its organization,” Nagin said local
leaders must work with the federal government to establish chains of
command in an emergency. “We don’t need to do a dance
between a governor and a president while people are suffering,”
he said. Nagin added that the catastrophe in New Orleans was the result
of mismanagement and a failure on the part of the government –
not the natural disaster itself. —Zach Patton, Governing.com.
Click here to
read the entire article.
Recruitment Begins for
2006 Public Sector Financial Management Fellows Program
The Public Sector Financial Management (PSFM) Fellows Program
gives the nation's best graduate students in public affairs and
business administration the opportunity to spend the summer of 2006
working on financial management projects for public agencies and
associations across the country. Recruitment is now under way at more
than 40 of the nation’s top schools of public policy and
administration. This is a great opportunity for state, local and
federal agencies to recruit a "high value" graduate student
at a low reasonable cost for a summer project. Fellows receive a $5,000
stipend and five days of training June 11-15 at Portland State
University’s Hatfield School of Government in Portland, OR, led
by AGA Executive Director Relmond Van Daniker, DBA,
CPA, and other financial management executives and thought
leaders. Click here
to download the application. Applications are due Feb. 17.
Potential sponsors
can click here to complete a notice of interest.
For more information, contact George Beard, Director, Public Sector
Financial Management Fellows Program. Phone: 503.772.0222.
Internal Auditing
Focus
of New University of Maryland Program
The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of
Business intends to offer an Executive Master of Science (MS) in
Accounting program. The program features a focus on internal auditing
and was developed by Smith’s world-class faculty in consultation
with leading public accounting firms and other accounting
professionals. The program will be delivered in an executive format,
with classes meeting on Saturdays for 15 months. Individuals interested
in learning more about Smith's Executive MS Accounting program can call
Neila Gharsallah at 301.405.9564, or send an e-mail. Additional
information can also be found at the Smith School
website.
GAO Offers Execs
Chance
to Experience Government
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is launching a
new executive exchange program that offers private-sector employees a
unique opportunity to work on high-profile projects to help transform
how GAO and the federal government do business. Up to 30 executives and
mid-level employees with backgrounds in accounting, auditing, finance,
information technology, economics, law, and other specialties as well
as general managerial skills were set to be detailed to GAO starting
Jan. 1 to consult on assignments ranging from three months to one year.
—The Daily Pipeline. Click here for more
information.
GASB to Issue Proposed Standards for Pollution Remediation Obligations
 At
its January 24 meeting, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board
(GASB) voted unanimously to issue an Exposure Draft (ED), Accounting
and Financial Reporting for Pollution Remediation Obligations. The ED
proposes new standards that would identify five events—such as
being named in a lawsuit related to pollution or imminent public danger
posed by pollution—that would require a government to consider
whether it should report liabilities and expenses or expenditures
related to the cleaning up of the pollution. The ED also proposes a
probability-weighted approach—the expected cash flow
technique—for measuring the liability. The proposed standards
were first released for public comment as a Preliminary Views document
in 2005. The ED incorporates changes based on the comments received
from the public in response to that document. The ED will be available to download on January 31,
and the deadline for public comment is May 1.
AGA Advertising Opportunities!
Advertise in AGA's electronic
newsletters—TOPICS and AGA Today! Get maximum
exposure and build your brand. Click here for all the information you need to
run your ad! Or, you can contact AGA's Director of Communications,
Marie Force.
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