Highlights
CPE
Opportunities
Looking
for a Job?
See You
in San Diego!
Make plans now to attend AGA’s
55th Annual Professional Development Conference & Exposition (PDC).
With the theme “Navigating the Way to Citizen-Centered
Government,” the PDC promises to be an excellent learning and
networking opportunity for government financial managers and
accountability professionals.
Education sessions will provide technical training, emerging trend
snapshots and leadership secrets from the best in the business.
Speakers will explain current regulations, describe future challenges,
and share lessons learned in disaster recovery and finance, among many
other topics.
In addition to an outstanding technical program, AGA’s PDC
provides unparalleled opportunities to network, exchange ideas with
your peers and meet new friends.
Register today and secure your place at the government financial
management education event of the year!
• Register online.
• Print
registration form to send by fax/mail (Adobe PDF)
• Visit
the conference website
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.
Articles for the Fall issue, which will focus on performance reporting,
are due to Marie Force, editor,
by June 1. If you plan to submit for the Fall issue,
please contact Marie. Citizen-Centric Government will be the focus for
the Winter issue (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 listed 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.
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.
|
March 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
Applauds
Accessibility of CFR of U.S. Government
AGA’s Financial Management
Standards Board (FMSB) has commented on the Federal Accounting
Standards Advisory Board's (FASAB) exposure draft on the Consolidated
Financial Report of the United States Government. The ED addresses
requirements to implement Statement of Federal Financial Accounting
Concepts 4. The FMSB generally agreed with the proposed ED and are very
much in favor of the Consolidated Financial Report (CFR) and, in fact,
all federal reports being "more accessible" to the public. A
"more condensed level" of reporting at the CFR level enhances
the readability and may increase use of the report. Read the entire comment letter.
OPM Produces Government Document
Without Governmentese
The Office of Personnel Management
(OPM)
announced a "to do" list last week. It released a new
five-year strategic and operational plan that is strikingly clear and
simple. Past OPM plans have been filled with dense text, making it
difficult to figure out what the agency's goals were, or featured
glossy photos and mostly rhetorical fluff. The new plan is neither. It
is a 35-page booklet, not a tome. It lists 170 objectives—what
the agency's director, Linda M. Springer, called "to do
items"—each with a deadline. The description of each
objective begins with a verb—issue, develop, set up,
complete—"an actual action we are taking," Springer
said. "It is not a political plan. It is not a director's
plan," she told reporters yesterday. That may be the case, because
Springer stressed that a 50-member task force put the plan together.
But it reflects the no-nonsense, down-to-earth style that Springer has
brought to OPM since her confirmation last summer. She had previously
served as controller at the Office of Management and Budget and has
spent more than 25 years in the life insurance and financial services
industries. Springer's plan is focused on the federal
workforce—how to improve hiring, speed up background
investigations, get pension payments out the door faster to retirees
and roll out new benefits, such as dental and vision packages this
fall. "We didn't set ivory tower goals," she said. "They
are realistic." —Stephen Barr, The Washington Post.
Read the entire article.
D.C. Mayor Says Next City Leader's
Title
Should Match Duties
Forget that old "mayor of
Washington" schtick. In the future, the chief executive of the
District of Columbia should be known as "governor," according
to D.C. Mayor —er, Gov.—Anthony A. Williams. Williams
announced his preference earlier this month at a news conference. Since
the District performs the functions of a state as well as a city, he
said, its leader should be appropriately recognized. "I do believe
that for the next mayor we should consider, and I would support,
changing the title," Williams said. "A number of major
capitals have governors. I think Tokyo, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, and
maybe Berlin is a governing mayor. And we should change the title to
reflect the full responsibility of the office." The subject of the
title and trappings of Williams's office arose after the mayor revealed
that he had yet again been denied admittance to the annual Washington
conference of the National Governors Association. —Lori
Montgomery, The Washington Post. Read the entire article.
Outgoing EPA IG Tells of Search for
Accountability
Nikki L. Tinsley, inspector general of
the Environmental Protection Agency since 1997, retired from the
federal government last Friday after almost 35 years of public service.
An ambitious leader within the inspector general community, Tinsley
shared her reflections on the past decade as a federal auditor in an
interview with Government Executive. Tinsley, a member of
AGA’s Northern Virginia Chapter an
co-chair of the AGA's First National Internal Controland Fraud
Conference in September, said she sees her greatest legacy as one of culture
change at the agency. "When I came to headquarters, our auditors
thought they had done their job when they had identified a
problem," she said. "When I got to EPA, I automatically
thought that programs were supposed to do something," she said,
noting that she has a penchant for program analysis that can be
attributed in part to an early-career stint at the Government
Accountability Office, as well as to a personality type that won't just
leave things alone. Tinsley said she was eager to take government
auditing past the traditional inspector general's realm of fraud, waste
and abuse, to look not just at how money is managed, but also at how
well the spending of that money accomplishes agency objectives.
—Jenny Mandel, Government Executive. Read the entire article.
AGA Today is Brought to You by Data Management
Group
 Free White Paper—To manage
performance, organizations must plan and manage the activities that
drive performance. But establishing the connection between detailed
daily activities, desired high-level outcomes, and budgets is one of
the biggest challenges facing management in the public sector today.
This paper takes a look at lessons learned in the private sector and
how these can be applied to the public sector to transform business
performance management. 888-394-1664 or online at
datamanagementgroup.com.
L.A. County Aims Anti-Terrorism Cash at
Some Unusual Targets
Los Angeles County has spent at least
$2 million in taxpayer dollars intended to prepare for bioterrorism on
buffing up the health department's image, responding to unrelated
health scourges and buying questionable supplies and services, a Los
Angeles Times review has found. When public health officials couldn't
round up enough volunteers to take part in a smallpox vaccination
drill, for instance, they turned to actors from an old Hollywood
standby: Central Casting. To hire extras to play the role of patients
in the half-day drill, the county's Department of Health Services in
2004 paid the aptly named firm $57,045. That's not counting what the
department ponied up to thank the paid actors and volunteers: $10,000
for gift certificates, $13,600 for pens, digital thermometers and bags
to hold the gifts, and thousands more for food and transportation. The
county has spent most of the federal grant money to hire and train
staff to respond to emergencies, which generally is consistent with the
purpose of such funds. Yet at times, the spending has stretched the
definition of terrorism readiness, drawing concern even from the
department's own employees, according to spending requests and other
documents. "Unless we have a compelling public message, this seems
to be a big waste of taxpayer funds," John Wallace, the
department's director of external and government relations, wrote in an
August 2004 e-mail to department leaders about a proposed $1 million
contract for a media campaign. —Charles Ornstein, Los Angeles
Times. Read the entire article.
U.S. Postal Service Most Trusted
Federal
Government Agency
For the second year in a row, Americans
have rated the U.S. Postal Service as the No. 1 agency they trust to
protect their privacy, according to a new study. Ponemon Institute LLC
published its "2006 Privacy Trust Study of the United States
Government" last month. The study sought to understand the level
of confidence Americans have in the many government agencies that
routinely collect and use the public's personal information. The
Postal Service retained the top spot with a privacy trust score of 82
percent. The Federal Trade Commission received the second highest score
at 78 percent, followed by the Internal Revenue Service at 74 percent.
—Government Technology. Read the
entire article.
Execs Tell Job Interview Horror
Stories
While most job seekers strive to make a
positive impression when meeting with hiring managers, a recent survey
suggests others seem to go out of their way to remove themselves from
consideration. Executives were asked to describe the most
inappropriate comments candidates have made during employment
interviews. The responses ranged from the applicant who declared
she didn’t want to work hard to the person who argued the job
requirements were wrong—and then fell asleep.
Executives were asked, “What is the most inappropriate
thing a candidate has said during a job interview?” Here
are some of their responses:
“An individual applied for a customer service job, and when
asked what he might not like about the job, he said, ‘dealing
with people.’ “
“One candidate cursed during the interview.”
“One prospect told me all of the reasons he shouldn’t be
hired.”
“One candidate was 25 minutes late for his interview and was
upset with me for being annoyed by his tardiness.”
“The applicant told me he really was not interested in the
position, but he liked that we allowed for a lot of time
off.”
The national survey includes
responses from 150 senior executives—including those from human
resources, finance and marketing departments—with the
nation’s 1,000 largest companies. It was conducted by an
independent research firm and developed by Accountemps.
—Accountemps.
FAF Announces Appointments to GASB,
GASAC
The Financial Accounting Foundation
(FAF) Trustees have approved
four appointments to the Governmental Accounting Standards
Advisory
Council (GASAC). The new GASAC appointments include
Robert Smith Jr., associate professor of accounting at
Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) and a member of AGA’s
Nashville Chapter, Eric Lupher, director of local
affairs for the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, Thomas
Lee, executive director of the State Retirement and Pension
System of Maryland, and Susan M. Menditto, director of
accounting policy for the National Association of College and
University Business Officers (NACUBO). GASAC's 29 members are primarily
appointed based on nominations from GASB constituent groups and
represent preparers, auditors and users of state and local government
financial information. AGA’s representative on GASAC is
Sharon R. Russell, CGFM, a member of AGA's Montgomery
Chapter. In other news, the FAF Trustees announced the reappointments
of Cynthia B. Green and Richard C. Tracy,
CGFM, a member of AGA’s Portland Chapter, to the GASB
effective July 1, 2006. Green has been reappointed to a one-year term
and Tracy has been reappointed to a three-year term. The reappointments
will extend their GASB services to the maximum 10 years. The FAF
Trustees are responsible for the oversight, administration and finances
of both Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) and the
Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). The Trustees are also
responsible for selecting the members of boards and their respective
Advisory Councils, the GASAC and FASAC.
Help GASB Update Its Constituent
Database
 The Governmental
Accounting Standards Board’s (GASB) constituent database helps
the GASB to notify AGA members and other constituents of proposed and
final pronouncements, to solicit their feedback on proposals, to keep
them up-to-date about current GASB activities, and to engage them in
the standards-setting process. Every so often the database needs to be
updated in order to remain useful. If you have never provided the GASB
with your contact information for the database, or if any of your
information has changed since you last submitted it to the GASB, please
go to GASB website and click on the
“Visitors’ Register” button on the left side. Then
fill out the brief questionnaire and click “Submit.” Your
assistance is greatly appreciated.
|
