Highlights
Training
Opportunities
Looking
for a Job?
Ethical Issues Focus
of Next 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 pleased to announce a new audio conference addressing ethical challenges and
dilemmas in today’s work environment. This audio conference,
set for 2 – 3:50 p.m. EDT May 9 and worth 2 CPE hours, will
explore how the power and scope of today’s advancing technology
can leverage ethical decisions and other ethical challenges that may
impact your career and organization. Topics will include ethical risk
taking, working within your organization, handling ethical dilemmas and
managing your workplace ethics, as well as provide you with practical
approaches for these workplace situations.
To discuss the ethics challenge are two industry experts: Alan
Goodman, Master Trainer for the Institute for Global Ethics,
and Leon Young, Associate Professor at the University
of Maryland University College. Cost is $249 per site (unlimited
attendance) if you register on or before Friday, May 4,
2007. and $299 thereafter.
Read the audio conference schedule.
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!
Get to Know Your AGA Corporate Partner
For more than 20 years,
T. Curtis & Company, P.C., has provided
high-quality accounting, audit, IT consulting, and related professional
services that help our clients improve their business performance. We
provide an array of expert services such as CFO Act audits, performance
and compliance audits, assistance with implementing the revised
Circular A-123, enterprise risk management, SAS 70, accounting and
process management support services, preparation of financial
statements, assessments of financial management systems, and financial
advisory services. For additional information, contact:
Tanya R. Curtis, CPA
President and CEO
301.982.4000, ext. 227
tcurtis@tcurtiscpa.com
Richard A. Patrick
Vice President
301.982.4000, ext. 246
rpatrick@tcurtiscpa.com
AGA Advertising Opportunities!
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. |
April
2, 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
FMSB Weighs in on
Intangible Assets
AGA's Financial Management Standards Board (FMSB) sent a comment
letter March 23 to the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB)
on the Exposure Draft of a proposed statement, Accounting and
Financial Reporting for Intangible Assets. In the comment letter,
the FMSB asked that the GASB consider clarifying terms used in the ED
such as “minimal incremental effort” and
“nonfinancial nature” and commented on the
specified-conditions approach to recognizing internally generated
intangible assets. Read the letter.
Glare of
Publicity Finds Inspector General Glenn Fine
After Glenn A. Fine gave up a chance to play for the San
Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association to accept a Rhodes
scholarship in 1979, he stayed in shape as a member of Oxford
University's basketball team. But the 5-foot-9 Fine, always eager for a
challenge, also decided to try out boxing. “A bunch of us went
and watched, and he got his nose bloodied and everything,”
recalled Nancy-Ann DeParle, a fellow Rhodes scholar and an old friend.
“I think he actually won the match, but it wasn’t
pretty.” That mixed verdict might serve as a motto for any
successful inspector general, the pugilistic post Fine has held at the
Justice Department since 2000. As the in-house watchdogs at every
federal agency, the inspectors general have enormous power to expose
government bungling and misconduct. But doing the job requires them to
confront their agency colleagues and bosses, time after time, with the
excruciating details of how they have failed. —Scott Shane,
The New York Times. Read the entire article.
TOPICS is Brought to You by AGA
Corporate Partner MorganFranklin
MorganFranklin is growing
tremendously in the commercial and government marketplace. We are
seeking professionals with expertise in finance and accounting to
assist business and government leaders with high-stakes financial,
operational and IT issues. If this describes you, contact Kelly Hoadley
at 703.564.7525, ext. 270, or visit us online at www.morganfranklin.com.
GAO Wants More
Muscle
Congressional auditors typically don’t expect a
warm welcome when they come calling on federal managers. But U.S.
Government Accountability Office (GAO) auditors say they’ve been
encountering an especially uncooperative reception from managers these
days as they inspect government programs and management. Before forking
over any documents to the GAO, for example, U.S. Department of Homeland
Security officials submit them for thorough and time-consuming legal
scrubbings by a team of lawyers. The U.S. Office of Management and
Budget resisted showing GAO auditors how they score agencies on meeting
the president’s management agenda. And for months, the U.S.
Department of Defense has refused to hand over documents showing how
security forces in Iraq are trained. Comptroller General of the United
States David Walker says he’s had enough. He’s asking
lawmakers to give him more muscle to wrestle information from reticent
agency managers. Specifically, he wants authority to take sworn
testimony from executive branch employees during the course of GAO
audit investigations. —M.Z. Hemingway, The Federal
Times. Read the entire
article.
IRS Chief Says
2006 Tax Season Taxing the Agency
The 2006 tax filing season has been unusually difficult
for the Internal Revenue Service, thanks to late-breaking changes in
the law, a one-time refund and a new deposit service, according to the
top IRS official. IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said Tuesday during a
televised address at the National Press Club that a package of tax
break extensions not finalized until the end of December made the
agency scramble to implement the changes in time for filing deadlines.
In addition, Everson said, the IRS struggled with a one-time telephone
excise tax refund for many taxpayers related to long-distance bills
over the past several years. So far, the agency has had a surprisingly
low claim rate of between 65 and 70 percent for the refund, he said.
—Jenny Mandel, Government Executive. Read the entire article.
TOPICS is Brought to You by the
Foundation for Accounting Education
 The
2007 Governmental Accounting and Auditing Conference,
to be held Tuesday May 8, at the Albany Marriott, will better acquaint
accountants, and government and financial employees with Yellow Book
revisions, new auditing standards, and other changes to government
regulations. Click
here for more information or to register, or call
800.537.3635.
GASB
Proposes New Standard for Endowments
 The GASB has issued a proposal related to the
reporting of land and other real estate investments by endowments.
Current accounting standards require endowments to report those
investments at historical cost, although other entities that exist for
the purpose of generating income—such as pension
plans—report them at their fair value. The proposal would require
permanent and term endowment funds and permanent funds to report these
investments at fair value and to report the changes in their fair value
as investment income. Read the news release.
Download the Exposure Draft.
The deadline for responding to the proposal is June 29,
2007. —GASB.
GASAC Provides
Feedback on SEA Reporting
The Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council
(GASAC), which advises the GASB, met recently at the GASB offices in
Norwalk, CT. Read highlights of the meeting from Sharon R. Russell,
CGFM, AGA's representative to GASAC.
Public Comment
Deadline Approaching for Social Insurance
 Tom Allen,
chairman of the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB),
is seeking comments on Accounting for Social Insurance. He notes that
“programs such as Social Security and Medicare present the most
challenging governmental accounting questions most of us will face in
our lifetimes. This topic has been considered by many illustrious
bodies over the past several decades and should only be resolved by
FASAB after consideration of a broad base of responses. It is
critically important that we hear both from our usual respondents and
those ‘outside the beltway.’ ” FASAB's Preliminary
Views document presents 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.
New PDC Hotel Added;
Registration Brochure Available
 Still need a room for the PDC in Nashville?
We’ve got great news! For your convenience, we have added a block
of rooms at the Holiday
Inn Express Nashville-Downtown Hotel to accommodate PDC attendees.
To make reservations, please call the Holiday Inn Express directly at
800.465.4329. Please be sure to mention the “AGA PDC” to
receive the conference rate.
The preliminary program and registration
brochure for AGA’s 2007 PDC are now available online. The
brochure includes a list of featured speakers, education sessions and
networking events. You can also get information about registration,
hotel accommodations, travel discounts and more!
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