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NLC Hotel Update
The Marriott at Metro Center Hotel is sold out. If you
still need a room, please call “A Room with a View” at
800.780.4343 for assistance. They will secure the lowest rates
available at an alternate hotel within walking distance to Ronald
Reagan Building. This is a free service for AGA NLC attendees.
Register
Today!
There's still time to register for AGA's Fifth Annual National
Leadership Conference, set for Feb. 12–13 in Washington, D.C.
Check out the Registration Brochure, which includes a list of the
featured speakers, education sessions and events. You can also get
information about registration, hotel accommodations, travel discounts
and more.
Register online
View the brochure
Print the registration form (PDF)
Assessing Risk and
Controls Focus of Upcoming 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 sponsoring an audio conference worth 2 CPE hours,
addressing risk and internal control issues. Speakers include
Frank
W. Crawford, CPA, president, Crawford & Associates, P.C.,
Certified Public Accountants, and chair, AICPA Government Expert Panel
and
Oklahoma Society of CPAs Government Accounting and Auditing Committee;
and Arthur A. Hayes, CGFM, CPA, CFE, director,
Division of State Audit, Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury,
State of Tennessee, who has chaired and served on various committees
and task forces for AGA, GFOA, Southeastern Intergovernmental
Audit Forum and AICPA. Join us from 2 – 3:50 p.m. EST, Feb. 28
for a lively, open discussion. Cost is $249 per site (unlimited
attendance) before Feb. 23, and $299 thereafter. Register online. Visit the
AGA website for the audio conference
schedule.
Get to Know Your AGA
Corporate Partner
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government team is prepared to help your agency take a proactive
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• Speed up your response time, improve efficiency and lower
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The Network's services can be purchased via
GSA contract # GS-02F-0220R.
Approved services include hotlines, case
management systems, insurance claim and incident reporting, employee
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Find out how The Network can help improve the
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February 5, 2007• 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
AGA's FMSB Comments on
GASB Proposal
AGA’s Financial Management Standards Board (FMSB) has sent
a comment letter to the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB)
on its exposure draft, Governmental Accounting Standards Series No.
3-18I, Invitation to Comment on Fund Balance Reporting and
Governmental Fund Type Definitions. The FMSB thinks that this is a
pertinent subject and covers an area that needs clarification. The
majority of members believe that, with respect to fund balances (and to
the financial statements as a whole), the overarching concern should be
simplification for the everyday user. Read
the comment letter.
Government Auditing
Standards, January 2007 Revision
On February 1, 2007, the Comptroller General of the United States
issued the 2007 revision of Government Auditing Standards, which
supersedes the 2003 revision. The January 2007 version contains the
final 2007 revisions to the standards, except for the quality control
and peer review sections in chapter 3. Concurrent with the electronic
issuance of this revision of Government Auditing Standards, GAO is
exposing for comment redrafted sections on quality control and peer
review in response to the wide range of comments we received on those
sections. The printed version of the complete 2007 revision of
Government Auditing Standards will be available after the quality
assurance and peer review sections are finalized and incorporated into
the standards. (Current anticipated time frame is late spring of 2007.)
The effective date for the 2007 revision of Government Auditing
Standards is for financial audits and attestation engagements for
periods beginning on or after January 1, 2008, and for performance
audits beginning on or after January 1, 2008. Early implementation is
permissible and encouraged. Certain standards issued by the AICPA's
Auditing Standards Board (ASB) have earlier effective dates. For
financial statement audits performed under GAGAS, the effective dates
of those new ASB standards will apply. Until the 2007 GAGAS revisions
become effective, auditors should adopt the terminology and definitions
in SAS No. 112 when reporting on internal control deficiencies and
include in their reports material weaknesses and other significant
deficiencies in order to promote consistency in communicating and
reporting on internal control deficiencies. Government Auditing
Standards, January 2007 Revision (GAO-07-162G)
AGA Today is
Brought to You by AGA Corporate Partner
The Graduate School, USDA
 The Graduate School, USDA provides professional
training and educational services to auditors and financial managers in
all levels of government. We offer a wide range of studies in
accounting, budgeting, financial management and performance auditing,
as well as customized services to help you create training that meets
your organization’s unique needs. Stop by and see us in
Booth 9 at the AGA National Leadership Conference, February 12 &
13, 2007, in the Ronald Reagan Building!
For more information
about our programs, call (888) 744-GRAD or visit www.grad.usda.gov.
GASB Considers Urging
States to Report Performance Results, Kicking off a Slugfest
There's a new and higher level of strain in the already-tense
relationship between the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB)
and state and local officials. The latest tussle between GASB, which
writes the rules for the way states and localities account for their
getting and spending, and associations of public interest groups is
over Service Efforts and Accomplishments—SEAs. There have been
behind-the-scenes threats to GASB funding, some not-very-polite name
calling and suggestions that GASB is beholden to one foundation funder
or another—all off the record and most of it said in the heat of
the moment. But clearly, the SEA issue has the big seven
public-interest groups plus the Government Finance Officers Association
united in a stand against GASB. That's because GASB is moving toward a
suggestion—not a ruling, just a suggestion—that government
accounting account for the way a government is performing.
"Governments need to report results, not just how much money they
are spending," says Jay Fountain, who recently retired as
assistant director of research for GASB. "This should be part of
general purpose, external financial reporting." —Penelope
Lemov, The Governing Management Letter. Read the entire
article.
Read a letter from AGA National President
Jeffrey S. Hart, CGFM, CFE, supporting the continuation of GASB's work
in Service Efforts and Accomplishments.
Contractors Take On Biggest Role Ever in
Washington
In June, short of people to process
cases of incompetence and fraud by federal contractors, officials at
the General Services Administration responded with what has become the
government’s reflexive answer to almost every problem. They hired
another contractor. It did not matter that the company they chose, CACI
International, had itself recently avoided a suspension from federal
contracting; or that the work, delving into investigative files on
other contractors, appeared to pose a conflict of interest; or that
each person supplied by the company would cost taxpayers $104 an hour.
Six CACI workers soon joined hundreds of other private-sector workers
at the G.S.A., the government’s management agency. —Scott
Shane and Ron Nixon, The New York Times. Read the entire article.
OPM: Small Agencies
Score Highest in Managing People
Smaller agencies with highly professional work forces and narrow
missions are doing a better job of managing their people, according to
a government analysis of the latest employee satisfaction survey. The
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) ranked agencies based on their
scores in four key areas tied to the strategic management of human
capital, one of the five management initiatives on which agencies are
scored quarterly by the Bush administration. The four areas address job
satisfaction, talent management, leadership and knowledge management,
and results-oriented performance culture. Four agencies placed in the
top 10 in all four areas: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NASA,
National Science Foundation and the Office of Management and Budget.
One trend is that agencies with large percentages of scientific,
technical and professional employees scored higher than others, OPM
Director Linda Springer said in announcing the results at a Jan. 30
press conference. —Tim Kaufffman, The Federal Times. Read the entire
article.
Class of 2007
Gets Plenty
Of Job Offers
This year is shaping up as the strongest for college recruiting
since the downturn earlier this decade, colleges report. Traditionally
heavy recruiters, including management consulting firms, investment
banks and accounting firms, are intensifying college recruiting
efforts. They're also facing more competition from other employers in
such fields as technology, consumer products, government and even
nonprofits. Employers plan to hire 17 percent more graduates from the
class of 2007 than they got from the class of 2006, according to the
National Association of Colleges and Employers. "We now again have
the nice problem of having to help some of our students choose among
multiple job offers," says Jack Tinker, director of recruiting at
the career office of Connecticut College. Behind the increased
recruiting are a relatively strong economy, growing business demands
and heady corporate profits. Some companies are also planning for
future work-force needs as the baby boomers' retirement looms.
Employers "are finally starting to get the message that [they]
really need to do more" with college recruiting as baby boomers
age, says Dan Black, director of campus recruiting for the Americas at
Ernst & Young LLP. —Erin White, The Wall Street
Journal. Read the entire article.
CalPERS to Offer Its
Own Investment Products
The nation's largest public pension fund is getting into the
financial services business. Looking to boost fee income and build off
its global reputation, the influential California Public Employees'
Retirement System has unveiled an ambitious three-year plan to offer
its own lineup of investment products for local government workers with
the potential of rolling out a nationwide program for consumers.
CalPERS plans to introduce its first products in June to 22,600 city,
county, school and other municipal employees who participate in a
voluntary 457 personal retirement plan that CalPERS manages for 582
public agencies across the state. The 457 savings program -- named for
its number in the federal tax code -- has about $614 million in assets.
While these employees -- and state workers -- already have their
government pension money invested by CalPERS, this new initiative gives
local government workers access to the fund managers' expertise in
their personal retirement accounts. —Gilbert Chan, Scripps
News. Read the
entire article.
For Tracking Abusive
Spending, Data is the Detective
When it comes to spotting fraud and abuse of government charge
cards, it’s all about the data. General Services Administration
fleet card managers know this. When an employee uses a fleet card to
fill up a government vehicle, GSA card managers and auditors know a ton
about that transaction: how many gallons of gas were bought, which
station sold the gas and when, and how much was paid. And that
increased level of detail about how the cards are being used has helped
investigators nab employees abusing the cards. In one case, the data
helped fleet managers and investigators spot a car that was getting
more gas than its fuel capacity. IG surveillance revealed a federal
employee and his wife were partaking in what Charles Augone, assistant
inspector general of GSA for investigations, calls the “friends
and family plan”: the employee meets a relative at a service
station, gasses up the government car and then fills up the
relative’s car using the government card. Electronic data
gathering allows the IG to investigate cases in real time, rather than
long after the fact, as was the case when the office was working with
paper receipts, said Gregory Rowe, director of investigations for the
IG’s office. —Elise Castelli, The Federal Times.
Read the
entire article.
Read a research report, The
Federal Purchase Card: Use, Policy & Practice, developed
by AGA's Corporate Partner Advisory Group. It is the first in a
four-part series on purchase/travel cards.
FASAB Seeks Comments
on Accounting for Social Insurance
 The Federal
Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) is seeking input on a
Preliminary Views document, Accounting for Social Insurance,
Revised (PV). Social Insurance comprises five programs; however,
two programs, Social Security and Medicare, are of special significance
because of the high rate of participation among citizens, the fiscal
challenges related to the programs and the challenges associated with
incorporating estimates of future cash flows of this magnitude in
financial statements. The board is presenting two differing views. A
key difference between these views is the point in time that a
liability for social insurance benefits and related expense are
recognized. Six members believe that for social insurance programs an
expense is incurred and a liability arises when participants
substantially meet eligibility requirements during their working lives
in covered employment, and that some portion of the benefits
accumulated at the balance sheet date should be recognized as a
liability. Three members believe that for social insurance programs,
consistent with current reporting requirements, an expense is incurred
and a liability arises when the participants have met all eligibility
requirements and the benefit amount is “due and payable;”
for example, a “due and payable” liability would be
payments due to the participants at the end of a reporting period but
not yet disbursed. The Exposure Draft in PDF format and the specific
questions raised in Word format are available at the FASAB website. Comments
are due April 16, 2007. —FASAB.
Two GASB Proposals
Available for Comment
 GASB has issued two proposals for new accounting
and financial reporting standards for state and local governments. The
first, Pension Disclosures, is intended to revise existing
pension standards to conform to improvements in note disclosures and
supporting information that were made in the standards for other
postemployment benefits (OPEB). For example, governments would be
required to include in the notes the information from the schedule of
funding progress for the most recent valuation, such as the unfunded
actuarial accrued liability and the funded ratio. The comment deadline
for the pension proposal is February 28, 2007.
The second proposal would establish guidance regarding whether
and when certain intangible assets should be considered capital assets
for financial reporting purposes. Accounting and Financial
Reporting for Intangible Assets is intended to bring greater
consistency in the recognition, initial measurement, and amortization
of intangible assets. The deadline for submitting comments is March 23,
2007. The GASB will be holding a public hearing on the proposal during
its regular meeting on April 3.
• Download the
Pension Disclosures Exposure Draft.
• Read
more information about the pension disclosures project.
• Download the
Intangible Assets Exposure Draft.
•
Read more information about the intangible assets project.
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