If you are seeing this text, it is because you are using an obsolete browser which does not support current web standards. The site will still function, but some parts of it may look unusual. We recommend upgrading to a current browser version.

About AGA

Membership & Chapters

Outreach

Press Room

Publications

50006) due to a surprise change in funding. This month, I will show the updates for a situation where the agency retroactively adjusts all their journals to show the proper symbol. Click here to read the entire article.

Successful Financial Managers See the Value of Failure
Individuals and organizations experience failure on a continual basis. Most failures are small, a few large and a certain few catastrophic. Financial managers are quick to perceive the cost of failure, typically in the form of wasted money or lost opportunity. But many financial managers "fail" to recognize the significant value that is also present in nearly every failure. As risk and uncertainty increase in our business environment, failures of all kinds are bound to increase. But this is not the threat it seems to be; we can learn a great deal from financial management techniques practiced in industries that have always been immersed in risk and uncertainty. In the complex, unpredictable world of business today, whoever learns the most, the fastest wins. The fundamental value of failure is that we can learn much more, much faster from failure than from success. Of course, the challenge is making sure our failures aren't so costly that they take us out of the game. —Bruce Pounder, Leveraged Logic, as reported in SmartPros.com. Click here to read more.

Sixty-Two Percent of Full-Time Federal Employees get Merit Bonuses
Almost two-thirds of the 1.6 million civilian full-time federal employees received merit bonuses or special time-off awards in fiscal 2002, according to a comprehensive examination of federal records obtained by The Washington Post.
Of the 62 percent who got awards, half received $811 or more. The typical bonus amounted to 1.6 percent of salary. The awards ranged from less than $100 to more than $25,000. At some agencies, more than 90 percent of General Schedule workers collected a bonus. Governmentwide, about 2,900 employees received cash bonuses totaling more than $10,000 each.
The disclosure of the figures brought varying reactions. Some civil service specialists said the proliferation of bonuses reinforces a common belief that many federal workers are rewarded for little more than showing up. Some agency and union officials said it was evidence of a talented work force that performs admirably, and often at salary levels inferior to those of the private sector.
Paul Light, a professor of government at New York University, said he doubts the public will swallow the notion that merit was the driving force behind the awards. "I don't think Americans think that 60 percent of federal employees could possibly be so well above average that they would earn a bonus," Light said in an interview. "This is just going to further confirm what many Americans believe, that the federal government is somehow an island unto itself."
Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said such views are unfounded. "There are an awful lot of federal employees who do a very good job, whether it's on a project or on a consistent annual basis," Kelley said. "And I'm glad to see that managers are looking for some way to recognize and reward them." —Christopher Lee and Hal Straus, The Washington Post. Click here to read more.

California's Bond Rating Upgraded
For the first time in nearly four years, California's worst-in-the-nation credit standing went up instead of down as Moody's Investors Service upgraded the state's general obligation bond rating to A3 from Baa1. Citing a recovering economy, higher tax revenues and the likelihood that the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will agree on a new budget, Moody's Investors Service moved the state back from the brink of junk-bond status. The move, if followed by other Wall Street rating companies, could save taxpayers millions of dollars in interest on debt.
But don't uncork the champagne just yet: California's rating remains lower than that of any other state. Fitch and S&P continue to rank California as BBB. That and the fact that Moody's new rating is only as high as the state's credit ranked last August reflects the continuing fiscal challenge, particularly a sizable structural budget deficit. Several prominent economists cautioned that the continuing imbalance between state revenues and expenditures could discourage Wall Street from lifting the rating much higher.
Moody's highest rating is Aaa—a status California last enjoyed in 1989. Moody's has dropped the state's credit rating five times since May 2001. —Jeffrey L. Rabin, Los Angeles Times. Click here to read more.

OMB: Job Competitions Predicted to Save $1.1B
In a report to Congress released Tuesday, OMB provided its first estimates of savings to be generated by competitive sourcing, a management initiative aimed at letting contractors vie for thousands of federal jobs. Public-private competitions completed at 26 major federal agencies in fiscal 2003 are likely to yield $1.1 billion in net savings over the next three to five years, OMB projected. "These are good returns for an initiative that has faced statutory restrictions, cultural challenges and a large learning curve, especially at civilian agencies that, until recently, had relatively little experience with using competition as a management tool," administration officials stated in the report. The OMB statistics also indicate that in-house workers held onto nearly 89 percent of 17,595 jobs considered for outsourcing in contests finished in fiscal 2003 and the first quarter of fiscal 2004. —Amelia Gruber, Government Executive. Click here to read more.

Public More Frequently Turning to Internet to Contact Governments
Americans' use of the Internet to access government information is growing rapidly, according to a new study. The report, "How Americans Get in Touch With Government," showed a 50 percent growth from 2002 to 2003 in the number of Americans who visited a federal, state or local government website or contacted a government official online. Still, people who reported they had contacted government within the past year said they preferred telephone or in-person visits to the Web or e-mail by a 53 percent to 37 percent margin. The report was based on a survey of almost 3,000 Americans by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. —Elizabeth Newell, Government Executive. Click here to read more.

HHS Wants to Shift $55M in Bioterror Funds from States to Cities
The Bush administration is finalizing an agreement with U.S. postal workers to help deliver antibiotics or antidotes within 48 hours of a biological attack to 21 major cities. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson informed key lawmakers May 20 that he intends to take $55 million from state bioterrorism projects to pay for the new program, dubbed the "Cities Readiness Initiative." In addition to paying for the training of letter carriers, the money would be spent installing sophisticated disease surveillance equipment, purchasing vaccines and building new quarantine stations at U.S. airports, according to documents prepared by Thompson's staff.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on labor, health and human services, praised the move, saying that in a time of tight federal budgets it makes sense to shift money to "high-risk cities" most likely to be targeted by terrorists. But several governors, lawmakers and public health leaders immediately protested what Shelley A. Hearne, head of the Trust for America's Health, a nonpartisan public health advocacy group, called a "shell game" with potentially dangerous consequences. "We should not be in a situation of robbing Peter to pay Paul," she said. Tapping letter carriers to deliver emergency supplies is an "innovative idea with great possibilities," she said, but it should not be paid for with money promised to states. —Ceci Connolly, The Washington Post. Click here to read more.

House Panel Votes to Include Program Reviews in GPRA
The decade-old Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) could be amended to include a requirement for program reviews, under legislation recently approved by a House Government Reform subcommittee. The Efficiency and Financial Management Subcommittee approved the measure—sponsored by Subcommittee Chairman Todd Platts of Pennsylvania—on a voice vote May 19. GPRA "has laid a solid foundation for agencies working with Congress to set strategic goals and being able to utilize performance-based information," said Platts, who added that a recent GAO report however indicated program evaluation is ar area in which federal agencies "consistently come up short." Platt's bill would amend GPRA with a provision requiring every program to be assessed at least once every five years. "By requiring [OMB] to be responsible for overseeing program assessment data, we will take a great step forward in realizing the reform envisioned by GPRA and make the federal government more efficient and results-oriented," Platts said. Subcommittee Ranking Member Edolphus Towns of New York, however, said he is "extremely skeptical that this legislation is going to have any effect." Towns said attempts at performance-based budgeting over the past 10 years have had only a minimal positive impact on government performance. —Zach Patton, Congress Daily. Click here to read more.

Officials Say Recruiting Efforts will Offset Retirement Wave
Stepped-up recruiting efforts will mitigate the effects of an anticipated wave of employee retirements, federal officials say. As droves of civil service baby boomers near retirement, the government has become increasingly concerned about replacing the core of its work force, especially in the face of competition from the private sector. The most pessimistic reports say that as much as 70 percent of the federal work force will be eligible to retire by 2010. U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kay Coles James and Reginald Wells, chief human capital officer for the Social Security Administration, said at a House hearing that the creation of agency human capital officer positions last year, and efforts to step up recruitment programs with quicker hiring, more benefits and better pay are helping address recruiting problems.
James described a target federal employee job applicant as someone with outstanding academic achievement, leadership ability and who has participated in service to the community. A commitment to public service and "making a difference," James said, was particularly important because it enabled the government to compete with the allure of higher salaries and benefits from the private sector. In addition, James emphasized that agencies should send only people with hiring authority to job fairs: "Do not send hostesses to hiring fairs—people to hand out key chains and brochures," she said. James noted that applicants often wait in line for hours and are there for jobs, not agency propaganda. On-the-spot hiring would help the government combat the ability of private companies to hire qualified applicants first, she said. —Elizabeth Newell, Government Executive. Click here to read more.

OMB Consolidates Grants Guidance
OMB has brought together guidance that is currently in seven separate Circulars and other OMB policy documents and co-locates them in Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The OMB is establishing Title 2 in the CFR for grants and other financial assistance and nonprocurement agreements. This provides a good foundation for the streamlining and simplification of the policy framework for grants and agreements required by the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999 (Public Law 106-107). OMB Circulars continue to be available on the OMB website.

AGA Calendar

AGA Staff List

AGA Membership Application

CGFM Application

Other AGA links

CGFM Certification—Take the AGA CGFM Exams today!

Career Center—Post a resume, Post a job, Search for jobs

Conferences—Join AGA at the 53rd Annual
Professional Development Conference

Register Now for the 53^rd Annual Professional Development Conference & Exposition

© Association of Government Accountants 2004

Disclaimer: AGA serves government accountability professionals by providing quality education, fostering professional development and certification, and supporting standards and research to advance government accountability. If you would like to opt off of future AGA mailings, please e-mail agawebmaster@agacgfm.org. Thank you.

Links

National Office

Training Opportunities

Association of Government Accountants 2208 Mount Vernon Avenue Alexandria, VA 22301 PH 703.684.6931 TF 800.AGA.7211 FX 703.548.9367