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Last Week to Register
Early for March 28 Procurement Fraud 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 offering a March 28 audio
conference, "Procurement Fraud - A Cost of Doing Business We Can
Live Without." Speakers include Bruce N. Crandelmire, CPA,
Senior Consultant, EAM, Inc./Mosley & Associates and
Former Acting Inspector General, U.S. Agency for International
Development; Russell W. Hinton, CGFM, CPA, State
Auditor, State of Georgia; and Janet McHard, MBA, CPA, CPE,
CFD, Manager, Meyners & Company, LLC. Earn 2 CPE hours at
the audio conference, set for 2 - 3:50 pm EDT, March 28. Cost is $249
per site (unlimited attendance) if you register on or before
Friday, March 23, 2007 and $299 thereafter. Register
online. Read the audio conference schedule.
Registration Now Open
for PDC Golf Tournament
Start AGA's 56th Annual Professional Development Conference &
Exposition (PDC) by treating yourself to a relaxing game of golf. This
year's tournament takes place on Saturday, June 23 at the Hermitage
Golf Course-–President's Reserve. The PDC starts the next day and
runs through June 27 at the Nashville Convention Center.
Fee is $35 per
person – Includes greens fees, golf cart, gratuities,
range balls, breakfast, lunch and transportation. The tournament begins
at 8 a.m., shotgun start. Prizes will be awarded at the end of play. Space is
limited to 100 players, so sign up early!
Register for the PDC today and secure your
place at the government financial management education event
of the year!
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Advertise in AGA's electronic newsletters—TOPICS and
AGA Today! Get maximum exposure and build your brand. Find
out what's available in an upcoming issue. 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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March
19, 2007• News from the Profession
AGA Today is
Brought to You by AGA Corporate Partner Clifton Gunderson
 Clifton
Gunderson offices in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, MD and Harrisburg, PA
are 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
Management Agenda will
Set a Course Beyond Bush Administration, OMB Official
Predicts
The president’s management agenda will continue into the
next administration because career employees support it, Clay Johnson,
the Office of Management and Budget’s deputy director for
management, told federal financial managers at a March 13 conference.
“The next administration is going to come in—Republican or
Democrat—and once again the career staff is going to lead the
way,” Johnson said. “The career staff is going to say
‘OK, sit down and let us tell you how to run this place.
Here’s how we hold ourselves accountable.’ “I believe
it’s you, the career staff, in every agency that gets some of
this [institutionalized] for every agency,” he added. “The
real reason it will continue is that it’s good for you and
it’s good for your agencies.” The president’s
management agenda is an OMB-led effort to encourage a series of
initiatives—financial performance, competitive sourcing,
e-government, human capital management and budget-performance
integration. While the PMA is accepted, it is far from universally
popular with managers. Johnson’s pitch appeared aimed at
converting managers into advocates for the effort. He also called for
Congress to fund management reforms. “It costs money to get good
data,” he said. “It costs money to eliminate improper
payments.” Johnson spoke at a Washington conference on financial
management hosted by General Service Administration’s Financial
Systems Integration Office. —Daniel Friedman, Federal
Times. Read the
story.
Texas to End
Outsourcing of Social Services
A contract that put oversight of social services enrollment into
private hands is ending after the state and company couldn't agree on a
price and terms to continue it. Texas still will contract for a number
of services, but in a way that will give the state a stronger
day-to-day management role after the demise of the deal with the Texas
Access Alliance, led by Bermuda-based Accenture, officials said. The
announcement capped a privatization effort beset by complaints of
delays in enrollment and problems getting applications processed as
companies oversaw enrollment and determined eligibility. Critics said
privatization would fail when state leaders pushed for it four years
ago along with changes restricting enrollment. Although some cutbacks
have been restored, close to 200,000 fewer children are enrolled in the
Children's Health Insurance Program than in 2003. The state has yet to
reap the hundreds of millions of dollars in savings once projected.
—Peggy Fikac and Gary Scharrer, Houston Chronicle. Read the story.
AGA Today is Brought to You by the
University of Alabama-Huntsville
 Federal
Contract Management Specialization Program Begins April 4
Learn about the newest issues in government contracting. Explore
current procurement issues, proposal preparation, cost accounting
standards, contract negotiations, the basics of managing subcontracts,
and financial management of government contracts. For detailed
information on this or the Federal Contract Management Essentials
program or to view sample video, visit www.e-trainingsolutions.net or email ann@e-trainingsolutions.net
A Future
Beyond the End of Government
Fifty years from now, the federal
government will be smaller and many of the huge federal buildings in
Washington will be empty of bureaucrats, perhaps replaced by parks and
movie theaters. Elaine C. Kamarck, a veteran of the Clinton
administration, offers this vision in a new book, "The End of
Government . . . As We Know It: Making Public Policy Work."
Kamarck doesn't believe a smaller bureaucracy means that government is
dead. But, she says, "the postbureaucratic state" will
require policymakers to embrace new ways of thinking for the 21st
century. "If we are conscious about what is happening to
government, we can make it happen better," writes Kamarck, who
lectures on public policy at Harvard. "If we are not, we can
proceed to waste a great deal of money and fail a great many
people."—Stephen Barr, The Washington Post. Read the story.
Microsoft to Launch
‘MySpace’ for Accountants
Software giant Microsoft is preparing to
launch an online community site for financial professionals. This was
revealed at the company’s Convergence conference in San Diego
this week. The site, which has yet to get a formal name, is currently
known as the Dynamics Live Beta Community. Microsoft is referring to it
as ‘MySpace for financial pros.’ The site is aimed at
corporate controllers, finance managers, finance staff and accountants
and includes blogs, forums, tagging, RSS syndication and other
community-specific features. —Larry Schlesinger, Accountancy
Age. Read the story.
Study: CEO, Outsiders Lead Financial
Statement Fraud
The overrides of internal controls
leading to financial statement fraud is typically caused by a fraud
network led by the CEO and aided by outsiders, according to a new study
of financial statement fraud. The study by the nonprofit Institute for
Fraud Prevention (IFP), a consortium of universities dedicated to
researching the causes of fraud and how to reduce it, found that these
fraud networks cause extremely large losses that are far greater when
the outside audit firm is alleged to have aided the fraud. Robert
Tillman and Michael Indergaard of St. John’s University in New
York, working under an IFP grant, undertook a review of 834 firms that
filed financial restatements between 1997 and 2002. Download the study for free (bottom of the
page). —Smart Pros. Read the story.
Sarbanes-Oxley Fix
Debated at Competition Summit
Key lawmakers and regulators debated the effectiveness of the
Sarbanes-Oxley anti-fraud law at a summit on American competitiveness
Wednesday, with no quick fix emerging about the often criticized act.
The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee said he's open
to changing parts of the law, which requires costly accounting checks
and has been roundly criticized by businesses for being expensive and
time consuming. If there are needed changes, Rep. Barney Frank said in
a speech before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, "we can go forward
with that" in Congress. But Securities and Exchange Commission
Chairman Christopher Cox defended the law, saying Congress shouldn't
tinker with it. Cox said that the SEC is working to eliminate the
unnecessary costs of the law and that U.S. markets remain world leaders
despite challenges from abroad. —Robert Schroeder,
MarketWatch. Read the
story.
Lawmakers to Renew Push for Public
Service Academy
House and Senate lawmakers plan to
reintroduce legislation in the coming weeks that would draw young
people into government careers through the creation of a public service
academy. The measure would establish a 5,000-person undergraduate
academy, on par with the nation's military academies, to inject
prestige back into public institutions and to highlight the importance
of public service. The academy would be free to students, at a cost of
$205 million a year to taxpayers. Students would be nominated by
members of Congress in a process much like that at the military service
academies, and would be required to study abroad and to complete
internships with nonprofit and military organizations. They also would
undergo a summer of emergency response training. After graduation, they
would repay the country for their free education by spending at least
five years working for the government, at the local, state or federal
level. —Brittany R. Ballenstedt, Government
Executive. Read the story.
Social Insurance: Call
for Public Comment; Public Hearing Set
 In October
2006, the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) released
a Preliminary Views document presenting two perspectives regarding
appropriate liability recognition for obligations arising in social
insurance programs, which are key programs such as Social Security and
Medicare. In addition, the Preliminary Views document includes an
alternative view proposing to require a Statement of Fiscal
Sustainability for the government's consolidated financial report that
would provide projections for the entire government, including
information necessary to assess the sustainability of social insurance
programs and information on intergenerational equity. Comments are due
April 16, 2007. In addition, the board plans to hold a
public hearing on the Preliminary Views
document at the May 23, 2007 FASAB meeting.
AGA
Accepting Scholarship Applications
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 four
$3,000 full-time merit scholarships to AGA members and their family
members; one $1,000 part-time merit scholarships to AGA members and
their family members; and one $3,000 community service scholarship.The
deadline for receipt of applications is March 30,
2007. Apply now and take
full advantage of your AGA membership. Contact Michiyo Wheeler with
questions.
Tell Us
What You're Interested In!
AGA is running a brief survey to gauge
member buying patterns, so we
can improve our efforts to get you the information you want to
have.
The survey will take just a few minutes and will ask your
preferences
about things such as which hotels and rental car companies you
prefer.
If you wish to give us your e-mail address at the end, we'll
enter you
into a drawing for a $50 American Express Gift Card to thank
you for
taking the time to reply. Take the
survey!
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