Highlights
CPE
Opportunities
Looking
for a Job?
Reserve Your Room for AGA's PDC in San
Diego
Why wait? You can reserve your room today
at the San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina, the headquarters for
AGA's PDC, set for June 18 - 21, 2006. The room rate is $120 (plus
tax) per night for single or double occupancy. That rate is
guaranteed until May 19, 2006, or until the room block
sells out. To make reservations call 619.234.1500, or toll-free
800.228.9290. Be sure to mention that you are attending the
"AGA PDC." Click
here to reserve your room online.
For more information about travel discounts
and the San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina, click here.
To check out overflow hotel options, click here.
While you're at it, register for the
conference, which offers 25 CPE hours.
• Register online.
• Print
registration form to send by fax/mail (Adobe PDF)
• Visit
the conference website
Take Advantage of Early-Bird Rate for March 1 Audio
Conference on SOX, Auditing
The early-bird registration
rate of $249 ends on Feb. 24 for this conference, so register today.
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!
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.
2006 Call for National Awards
Nominations
AGA's National Awards Committee is
now
accepting nominations for our 10 National Awards to recognize the
leaders advancing our profession and setting the standards of
excellence:
- Robert W. King Memorial Award
- Einhorn-Gary Award
- Frank Greathouse Distinguished Leadership
Award
- Achievement of the Year Award
- Educator Award
- Cornelius E. Tierney/Ernst & Young
Research Award
- Special Achievement Award
- Chapter Service Award
- Chapter Education Award
- Community Service Award
These awards will be presented during
AGA's Professional Development Conference and Exposition in San Diego,
CA, June 18-21, 2006. In many cases, individuals do not have to be
members of AGA to be eligible. All nominations are due by
Friday, March 3, 2006. Click here for all
nomination forms or for more information contact Rosanna Ortiz at
rortiz@agacgfm.org.
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February 13, 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
FMSB
Considers International Accounting Standard
AGA's Financial Management Standards
Board (FMSB) has commented to the International Public Sector
Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) on its Exposure Draft 25, a
Proposed Amendment to the Preface to International Public Sector
Accounting Standards IPSASs, titled Equal Authority of Paragraphs
in IPSASs. Click
here to read the entire comment letter.
Bush Budget Short on
State Aid
With the federal government swimming in a sea of red ink, states can be
grateful that their own financial pictures have gotten rosier because
there is little extra money to trickle down from Washington, D.C.
President Bush last Monday unveiled a $2.77 trillion budget proposal
for the 2007 fiscal year that squeezes savings from an array of
domestic spending programs—including a number of programs that
benefit state and local governments—while boosting funding for
homeland security and national defense. U.S. Health and Human Services
Secretary Mike Leavitt, a former Utah governor, said that the federal
government can't afford to give as much money to states as it once did.
A few years ago, states faced unprecedented budget shortfalls and
needed federal help, but now states are in better shape financially
while the federal government “is not in a position to help out
states as much as before," Leavitt said. As part of Bush’s
campaign to halve the federal deficit—expected to reach an
all-time high of $423 billion this year—by 2009, he has proposed
a second round of cuts to entitlement programs, government assistance
programs for which spending automatically increases or decreases
according to formulas. The cuts largely target the federal Medicare
program for the elderly, but include $13.6 billion in federal spending
reductions for the state-federal Medicaid program for the poor over the
next five years. —Kathleen Hunter, Stateline.org. Click here to read the
entire article.
Since 2003, CA Has
Saved $8.1 Billion in Workers' Comp Costs
California's dubious distinction as the nation's most expensive
state to treat job-related injuries is history. The state's overhaul of
the once-ailing workers' compensation system has driven insurance rates
to the lowest level since 1996 and generated $8.1 billion in savings
since 2003, according to a new study released by the state Division of
Workers' Compensation. Moreover, employers in Montana, Florida, Alaska
and Texas now pay higher insurance rates on average than California.
Florida's rates, for example, are 27 percent higher than California's.
That's a dramatic reversal when in the early 2000s the state's premiums
far outdistanced those in the rest of the country. "Since the
reforms, the California insurance market has become much more
competitive" and has made "workers' compensation a profitable
line of coverage," said the study conducted by Sacramento-based
Bickmore Risk Services. The study analyzed the effects of the sweeping
legislative changes enacted by lawmakers in 2003 and 2004. Without the
overhaul, employers would have experienced a $15 billion increase in
the cost to provide benefits and treatment for injured workers,
Bickmore found. —Gilbert Chan, Sacramento Bee. Click here to read the entire article.
AGA Today is Brought to You by Datawatch Corporation,
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 INFORMATIVE CASE STUDY: Do you find it difficult to
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"a very intuitive, straightforward tool that I have sworn
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County's success with Monarch, and view a Monarch demo.
To Monitor Internal
Controls, Firms Dig Deeper Into Their Books
The problem, at first, seemed manageable. When auditors at the
Mills Corp. found in late 2004 that the company had mistakes in its
joint venture accounting, it was the type of issue that in another era
might have led the company to adjust a few numbers and tweak a few
procedures, with investors none the wiser. Even when Mills disclosed
the error in early 2005, investors yawned, and Mills' stock price
marched to an all-time high of $66.44 by early August. Fast forward six
months: Mills has had to restate its results a second time, write off a
$4 million loan it could not collect, cancel 10 projects and fire 14
executives; suffered a 40 percent drop in its stock price; and caused a
brief run on the business of its lead investor. An informal Securities
and Exchange Commission inquiry is under way. The 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley
Act was meant to improve corporate accounting with its threat of
criminal penalties for executives. But by upping the consequences for
mistakes, it also has created an environment of near-constant internal
review, a setting in which companies such as Mills might start pulling
on the thread of a problem only to prompt a larger unraveling as other
issues are unearthed. In recent weeks, more than a half-dozen local
publicly traded companies along with Mills have been forced to announce
their numbers could not be trusted. —Terence O'Hara, The
Washington Post. Click here to read the entire article.
Conservative Group
Challenges Sarbanes-Oxley
A free-market advocacy group has filed a lawsuit that challenges
the legal authority of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to
police the accounting profession. The Free Enterprise Fund asserted in
a press release that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002—the landmark
legislation that created the PCAOB—"was rushed into
law" with legitimate intentions but "ultimately has produced
costly unintended consequences for publicly traded U.S. businesses,
entrepreneurs, and capital markets." Joining the efforts to argue
against Sarbanes-Oxley are Kenneth Starr of Pepperdine University; who
presided over the Monica Lewinsky case; Viet D. Dinh of Georgetown
University, a former U.S. assistant attorney general; and Hans Bader,
counsel to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think
tank. Specifically, the organization argues that the PCAOB violates the
appointments clause (Article II, Section 2) of the U.S. Constitution.
"PCAOB members wield significant regulatory powers that bring them
squarely within the meaning of Article II and should be appointed by
the President with the 'advice and consent' of the senate, not the
SEC." —Stephen Taub, CFO.com. Click here to read the entire article.
NASA's IG Subject of
Probe: Failure to Investigate Safety Alleged
An FBI-led watchdog agency has opened an investigation into
multiple complaints accusing NASA Inspector General Robert W. Cobb of
failing to investigate safety violations and retaliating against
whistle-blowers. Most of the complaints were filed by current and
former employees of his own office. Written complaints and supporting
documents from at least 16 people have been given to investigators.
They allege that Cobb, appointed by President Bush in 2002, suppressed
investigations of wrongdoing within NASA, and abused and penalized his
own investigators when they persisted in raising concerns. The
complaints are being reviewed by the Integrity Committee of the
President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency. The complaints
describe efforts by Cobb to shut down or ignore investigations on
issues such as a malfunctioning self-destruct procedure during a space
shuttle launch at the Kennedy Space Center, and the theft of an
estimated $1.9 billion worth of data on rocket engines from NASA
computers. In documents obtained by The Washington Post and in
interviews, NASA employees and former employees said Cobb's actions had
contributed to a lack of attention to safety problems at NASA.
—Guy Gugliotta, The Washington Post. Click here to read the entire article.
AGA Today is Brought to you by the Federal Bureau of
Investigations
 The
Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently seeking to fill the
position of Deputy Section Chief of Accounting. The Deputy Section
Chief (DSC) of the FBI’s Accounting Section is the
organization’s second-most-senior accounting executive. The DSC
serves as a senior advisor to the Chief Financial Officer and other top
executives on all accounting matters and provides leadership for the
Accounting Section staff of approximately 100 financial professionals.
Salary range for this position is $107,521.00 TO $139,744.00. For a
detailed job description please visit our website https://www.fbijobs.gov/ and refer
to Vacancy Announcement #12-2006-0019 (Title: Supervisory
Accountant/Deputy Section Chief). In addition, candidates may also
submit a resume and cover letter to Kimberly Page at kpage2@leo.gov.
Federal Accounting Corner
Prior Period Adjustments
Background
The Standard General Ledger (SGL) Board has designated the
7000
series of accounts as "non-operational items" (my term, not
theirs). They include various items that are outside the normal
activity of an agency, such as gains and losses on disposition,
dividends and extraordinary items. Despite this special status, all but
one of these accounts is included in the Statement of Net Costs along
with operational expenses. Only accounts 7400 and 7401 for prior
period adjustments (PPA), is left out of the Net Costs calculation, and
instead appears on the Statement of Financing as an "other
resource" (line 16). Account 7400 is to be used for material
errors or changes in accounting principles. Account 7401 is only to be
used when the error correction is so material that financial statements
are restated for comparison purposes (per SFFAS 21).
Practice
Many agencies have found it useful to designate certain revenues
and expenses as PPA. Examples include reclassifying prior-year
unidentified deposits as either a vendor refund or reimbursable income,
or correcting a misposting from a prior year. I've recommended that
these agencies set up at least four subaccounts for 7400 and 7401.
—Simcha Kuritzky, CGFM, CPA. Click here to read the entire column.
FASAB Requests
Comments on Proposed Standard
 The
Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) is requesting
comments on the Exposure Draft of a proposed Statement of Federal
Financial Accounting Standards entitled, Consolidated Financial
Report of the United States Government Requirements: Implementing
Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Concepts 4 “Intended
Audience and Qualitative Characteristics for the Consolidated Financial
Report of the United States Government.” This proposed
standard amends previously issued standards to specify disclosure
requirements appropriate for the Consolidated Financial Report of the
United States Government (CFR). This proposed standard is intended to
enable the preparers of the CFR to focus on meeting the basic needs of
citizens for highly summarized information as intended by the Statement
of Federal Financial Accounting Concepts 4 (SFFAC 4). In addition, this
proposed standard would result in useful references to agency financial
reports for further information as appropriate. Comments on this
exposure draft are due by March 1. To review the proposed
standard, click here. Provide comments to FASAB Executive Director Wendy Comes,
CGFM.
GASB Proposes New
Standards to Put the Cost of Cleaning Up Pollution on
Governments’ Financial Statements
The publication of the Governmental
Accounting
Standards Board (GASB) Statement 34 in 1999 introduced full accrual
accounting for the government as a whole. State and local governments
now prepare financial statements that portray a comprehensive picture
of their finances. These government-wide financial statements
contain all of a government’s assets—not just cash and
receivables, but capital assets such as buildings, roads, bridges, and
other infrastructure—and all of its debts—from short-term
accounts payable to long-term bonds outstanding. In the years since,
the GASB has pursued several projects intended to ensure that certain
costs and long-term obligations not specifically addressed by current
accounting standards will be included in the new accrual statements,
including termination benefits (such as early retirement incentives)
and retiree health insurance. One of those projects focuses on
obligations related to cleaning up pollution. Although some governments
are responsible for cleaning up polluted areas (such as brownfields)
and face significant costs to do so, there is no authoritative standard
in the accounting literature that specifically provides guidance on
when to add a liability to the financial statements and how to measure
the size of that liability.
The pollution project has led to the proposal of new standards
in
January 2006 in an Exposure Draft, Accounting and Financial
Reporting for Pollution Remediation Obligations. (The proposal can
be downloaded free from the GASB’s website.) The Exposure
Draft sets forth the circumstances under which a state or local
government would be required to report a liability related to cleaning
up pollution. It also establishes a probability-weighted
method—the expected cash flow technique—that state and
local governments would be required to use to determine the estimated
amount that would be reported. —GASB. Click here to read the entire update.
Time to Apply for 2006 AGA
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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