Highlights
CPE Opportunities
Register Today for AGA's PDC
PDC 2005
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 lessons from the best in the business.
Hotel Update: The Orlando World Center Marriott is sold out of rooms at the AGA group rate. You may still reserve a room at the hotel; however the room rate is $197 per night (plus tax).
Reservations may also be made at our overflow hotel, the SpringHill Suites at the Marriott Village at Lake Buena Vista, located at 8623 Vineland Avenue, just two miles away. The room rate is $149 per night (plus tax). Complimentary shuttle service will be provided to and from the Orlando World Center Marriott. To make reservations, call 407.938.9001 or 800.287.9400. Click here to see the conference program.
Click here to register.
AGA Audio Conference Planned for June 20: Government Contract Auditing Issues
Thousands of participants from hundreds of government agencies, private firms and colleges have been tuning into AGA’s audio conference series this spring. Don’t miss out as AGA, NASACT and N.A.L.G.A. presents this audio conference on Monday, June 20 from 2 – 3:50 p.m. EDT. Expert speakers will be John Brennan, CGFM, audit manager, New York State Comptroller’s Office and Thomas Goodfellow, CPA, TG Associates CPAs, PLLC, and former contract audit director, New York State Department of Transportation. Earn 2 CPE hours in the area of accounting and auditing. The cost is $249 per site (UNLIMITED ATTENDANCE) by June 15; $299 afterward. Questions regarding the program (click here to see the details) should be directed to Raymond Harris, CGFM.
Click here to register. If you have questions regarding registration, please contact Julie Cupp at 800.AGA.7211. Click here to view the 2005-2006 audio conference schedule.
Studying for the CGFM Examinations?
Be sure to order one of the study guides available for CGFM Exams 2 and 3 to help you prepare. Click here to learn more.
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June 13, 2005 • 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
FASB Chair: Accounting Rules So Plentiful 'It's Nuts'
There are perhaps 2,000 accounting rules and standards that, when written out, possibly exceed the U.S. tax code in length. Yet, there are only the Ten Commandments. So Robert Herz, chairman of the rule-setting Financial Accounting Standards Board, is asked this: How come there are 2,000 rules to prepare a financial statement but only 10 for eternal salvation? "It is nuts," Herz allowed, speaking in Denver last Monday to the local chapter of Financial Executives International. "But you're not going to get it down to ten commandments because the transactions are so complicated. . . . And the people on the front lines, the companies and their auditors, are saying: 'Give me principles, but tell me exactly what to do; I don't want to be second-guessed.' " Nonetheless, the FASB is embarking on efforts to simplify and codify accounting rules while improving them and integrating them with international standards under intense political pressure. The battle over the expensing of stock options seems to have come to an end. The FASB crafted a new rule requiring that the cost of the incentives show up in financial statements, but the Securities and Exchange Commission has postponed implementation of the rule. Now, President Bush has nominated Rep. Christopher Cox, a California Republican who has long fought option expensing, as the new SEC chairman to replace the resigning William Donaldson. —David Milstead, Rocky Mountain News. Click here to read the entire article.
GAO Urges Tighter Funding Rules for Pension Plans
Congress should tighten and clarify rules requiring employers to fund traditional pension plans, and it should compel companies to tell workers the true financial condition of their plans, the head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office told a Senate panel Tuesday. Rules allow companies to use different methods to compute a plan's status, resulting in "inconsistent, confusing and competing numbers that increase the risk" that workers and regulators will fail to grasp that a plan is in trouble before it is too late, U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker told a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee. The head of the government's troubled pension insurance agency, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., and the director of the Congressional Budget Office also called for tighter rules. The hearing was one of several on Capitol Hill last week as lawmakers seek ways to shore up the PBGC and the plans it insures without driving companies with healthy pensions out of the system. —Albert B.Crenshaw, The Washington Post. Click here to read the entire article.
Local Governments Say E-Gov Improves Customer Service
Nearly 70 percent of local governments report improved communication with the public as a result of their e-government initiatives, and 56 percent cited improved customer service, according to the results of a comprehensive survey of cities and counties conducted by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). More than 3,400 cities and counties (42 percent) responded to the survey, which covered e-government services (current and future), financing and management; online procurement; geographic information systems (GIS); and use of intranets. Some highlights of the survey include:
• Close to 60 percent provide downloadable forms, online communication with elected and appointed officials, employment information and applications, and codes and ordinances on the local government website; nearly 76 percent post council agendas and minutes.
• Less than 30 percent of respondents accept online requests for local government records or services (such as pothole repair), provide GIS/mapping data, or send electronic newsletters to residents and businesses, but 50 percent to 62 percent of those respondents plan to provide these services in the future. —ICMA. Click here for results of this and other recent ICMA surveys.
Appropriators Wary of Requiring OMB to Rate Programs
A bill to require the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to conduct its ongoing review of government programs is caught up in a dispute between the House Government Reform Committee and the Appropriations Committee, delaying floor action on the White House-backed measure. Appropriators "are ambivalent" about the legislation (H.R. 185), which would require OMB to rate federal programs at least once every five years and submit those reports to Congress with the president's budget request. OMB is doing that now at the president's direction. Appropriators contend the legislation might give the administration justification to cut programs important to lawmakers. Government Reform Subcommittee Chairman Todd Platts, R-PA, the bill's sponsor, has consulted with appropriators, who say they will continue negotiating the bill before it moves to the floor. House Government Reform ranking member Henry Waxman, D-CA who voted against the measure at the panel's markup in March, said he still has concerns. "This bill authorizes OMB to effectively overrule Congress and set the goals for federal agency activities," Waxman said in a statement. "It would shift oversight power and responsibility from Congress to the White House." —Alyson Klein, Congress Daily. Click here to read the entire article.
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Accounting Majors in Highest Demand of all Graduates
While college graduates are facing the best career prospects in three years, it's the grads with accounting degrees who are sitting pretty. No degree is more in demand, Reuters reported. Consider this: A starting salary of roughly $44,000, generous benefits, creative perks and a strong need for new talent. The combination has kept recruiters busy. Ernst & Young, which offers a concierge service for employees too busy to run errands, is looking to hire 4,500 accounting graduates this year, which is up 30 percent from last year, according to Reuters. A spring 2005 report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers states that overall hiring of college grads is expected to rise by 13 percent over one year ago. —AccountingWEB. Click here to read the entire article.
Mass. Implements New State Employee Evaluation System
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Human Resources Division (HRD) has implemented a new employee evaluation system and the state's first pay-for-performance program for 3,000 state managers. The Success Factors-based system allows the Commonwealth to align the organization's management goals with the overall goals of the administration as well as recognize and reward higher-performing managers. The new evaluation process is an attempt to halt the ratings "creep" the Commonwealth had been experiencing in recent years, where the vast majority of managers were rated above average. In addition, HRD wanted to move away from a system that treated all managers the same in terms of wage increases and did not allow for any recognition of those who went above and beyond what was expected in their position. —Government Technology. Click here to read the entire article.
OMB Says Competitive Sourcing to Save $1.4B
Competitive sourcing is generating significant savings for taxpayers, according to a report released Tuesday by OMB. The report shows that public-private competitions completed in FY 2004 alone are expected to yield $1.4 billion in savings over the next five years. This savings represents a 27 percent reduction in the cost of commercial activities performed in government agencies compared to costs prior to conducting competition. Savings have resulted from federal employees reducing costs through innovative approaches to many commercial functions, as well as from private contractors who have offered the best value for a number of these functions. —OMB. Click here to read the report.
NY Comptroller Urges Board to Oversee Erie County
Saying its elected officials needed "adult supervision," the New York state comptroller has recommended creating an oversight board to help New York's largest upstate county, Erie, close an estimated $118.4 million budget gap. The comptroller, Alan G. Hevesi, said a budget review by his office showed that Erie County's remaining deficit for 2005 was nearly double the $60 million estimated by County Executive Joel Giambra's administration and that the shortfall would grow to $279 million by 2010. Erie County had a $202 million surplus when Giambra, the former Democratic city comptroller of Buffalo, who switched parties when he ran for county executive, took office in 2000. His administration, with the unanimous support of the County Legislature, cut property taxes that year by 18 percent and by 16 percent in 2001, while increasing discretionary spending by 21.4 percent during his first five years, Hevesi said. It was not just the shortfall that justified a financial control board for Erie County, Hevesi said. "I think the politics are so toxic and the relationships are so awful, we have to bring in adult supervision in the form of a control board." He also said, "Erie County has been systematically violating the fundamental rules of responsible financial management. The people of Erie County have been ill served by their government." —David Staba, The New York Times. Click here to read the entire article.
 GASB to Hold Hearing on Pollution Remediation Obligations
The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has set a public hearing on its preliminary views (PV) document, Accounting and Financial Reporting for Pollution Remediation Obligations. The PV is intended to provide guidance to report pollution remediation liabilities more completely and consistently. The hearing is set for 9 a.m. June 29 at the Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, TX, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). Anyone interested in speaking at the hearing should notify the GASB and provide a copy of comments by June 17. Written comments are due by June 24, 2005. Additional information about submitting a response or a request to speak at the hearing is included in the Preliminary Views document, which is available on the GASB’s website.
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