Highlights
AGA Seeks Director of Education for National
Office
Click here to find out more.
CPE
Opportunities Organized by Region
Find out More
About AGA's Upcoming PDC
Confirmed Speakers Include:
• Tom Allen,
Chairman, Governmental Accounting Standards Board
• James Carney, Deputy
Managing Editor, Washington Bureau, TIME Magazine
• Robert W. Cobb, Inspector
General, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• John P. Higgins Jr., CGFM,
CISA, Inspector General, U.S. Department of
Education
• Gaston L. Gianni Jr., CGAP,
Inspector General, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
• Wayne Leiss, Chief,
Federal Financial Systems Branch, Office of Federal Financial
Management, U.S. Office of Management and Budget
• Everett L. Mosley, CGFM,
CFE, Inspector General, Office of the Inspector General,
U.S. Agency for International Development
• Catherine Y. Santana,
Director, Resource Management Transformation Office,
Department of Homeland Security
• Gwendolyn Brown, CGFM,
Chief Financial Officer, National Aeronautics and Space
Administration
• Nikki L. Tinsley, CPA,
Inspector General, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Daniel Werfel, Chief,
Federal Financial Integrity and Analysis Branch, Office of Federal
Financial Management, U.S. Office of Management and Budget
• David M. Zavada, Chief,
Financial Standards and Grants Branch, Office of Federal Financial
Management, U.S. Office of Management and Budget
• And many
more…
For more information about the
conference agenda, registration,
hotel and travel discounts, please visit our website.
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
|
|
June 14, 2004
• News from the Profession
GASB at 20—Has
It Accomplished What It Was Established to Do?
 The Governmental Accounting Standards Board
(GASB) was established in 1984 to be the independent setter of
accounting and financial reporting standards for state and local
governments. As the GASB nears its 20th anniversary, it seems an
appropriate time to review what the GASB has accomplished since its
creation. It is also worth recalling the role AGA played in the
founding of GASB and in helping GASB work toward the goals that
prompted its formation. —Sharon Russell, CGFM, AGA’s
representative on the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory
Council.
Click here to read the entire article.
Cumbersome Hiring
Process Can Be Fixed, say OPM, GAO
The federal government will not face a human capital crisis
because of lagging interest in public service, but because agencies
refuse to reform outdated and restrictive hiring practices, says Kay
Coles James, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
In an interview Tuesday, James accused agencies of holding back
federal hiring reform. She rejected the notion that it is difficult to
recruit high-quality workers or keep top-notch civil servants.
According to James, qualified applicants want to join the public
service, but agencies have not met their responsibility for improving
and streamlining the hiring process." From the very beginning, I
have never accepted the thesis that there was this huge crisis,"
James said. "We have no problem attracting people ... the crisis
is the hiring process in the middle."
James' comments reflect an OPM report released last week on
improving hiring at federal agencies. According to the report, agency
personnel chiefs are not taking full advantage of the hiring tools that
are available.
Meanwhile, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) says one of
the biggest barriers is a lack of guidance from OPM. Better
collaboration between OPM and human capital officers is vital to
improving the federal hiring process, said Chris Mihm, managing
director of strategic issues at GAO. "This isn't an issue where we
need to point fingers," Mihm said. "There is plenty for
everyone to do." —David McGlinchey and Elizabeth Newell,
Government Executive. Click here and
here to
read more.
Accounting Majors
Average $42,155 Starting Salary
The average starting salary offer for accounting majors is
$42,155, an increase of 1.9 percent over last year, according to a
quarterly report published by the National Association of Colleges and
Employers (NACE). Most of accounting majors' offers were for public and
private accounting positions and hovered around the overall average,
but those offered jobs in financial/treasury analysis received an
average offer of $46,642.
The increase for accountants and other professionals is
evidence that the job market may be more receptive for 2003-04 college
graduates, according to NACE Executive Director Marily Mackes. "At
the bachelor's degree level, more than half of the disciplines reported
salary increases. Although many of those increases are small, this is a
sign that demand, in some areas, is rising," Mackes said.
In addition, chief financial officers anticipate a net 4 percent
increase in the hiring of accounting and finance professionals during
the third quarter, primarily to accommodate business growth, a new
Robert Half International Financial Hiring Index shows.
—SmartPros. Click here and here to read
more.
With Miles to Go,
Government Makes Progress Toward Telecommuting
Big events, like the services for former president Ronald
Reagan, are a
staple of life in Washington. And most employees summon their
patience and put up
with disruptions to their commuting routines. But working from
home, via
computers and telephones, is a way to stay on the job and also
avoid snarled traffic
and jammed subway trains. Unfortunately, too few federal
employees get to
telecommute.
According to a survey released last month, only 6 percent of
federal
employees work from home or a telework center at least one day
a week. The survey
covered 74 agencies with more than 1.7 million employees.
Still, there was a
glimpse of progress in the survey, conducted by OPM. Although
the percentage
remains small, the number of federal employees who are
telecommuting has doubled in
less than three years. —Stephen Barr, The Washington
Post.
Click here to read more.
Women in SES Consider
Themselves Influential, Study Finds
Women in the Senior Executive Service (SES) rate themselves as
more influential than their male counterparts on a variety of
activities, according to a study published in the current issue of an
academic journal. SES women said they were somewhat better than SES men
in several areas, such as giving advice to agency bosses, persuading
others to follow their recommendations, setting priorities for their
organization, recommending changes to regulations and initiating policy
ideas, the study found.
"The executive women studied here simply do not appear to be stuck
in relatively powerless positions," the study said. ". .
.Instead, this research suggests that women's advancement appears real,
not contrived to produce a semblance of gender diversity in the federal
executive service."
Data for the study come from a survey conducted in the winter of 1996
by researcher Julie Dolan. Although the results are dated, Dolan said
they probably reflect current views in the SES because of the large
sample size and because there is little turnover in SES ranks from year
to year. Dolan's study —"Gender Equity: Illusion or Reality
for Women in the Federal Executive Service?" —was published
in Public Administration Review. Dolan is an assistant professor of
political science at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.
—Stephen Barr, The Washington Post.
Click here to read more.
Drop General Schedule System by 2009, Report
Says
The federal government should convert its entire personnel
structure to a "pay band" system within five years, the
National Academy of Public Administration concludes in a new report.
Citing the example of private personnel systems, the study calls on
federal officials to move away from the existing 15-level General
Schedule, the government's white-collar pay system. The pay band system
would provide "a well-established framework for salary
systems," the report said.
"The federal government's General Schedule salary system no longer
meets federal agency needs and should be replaced," the report
stated. "In the private sector, entitlement cultures and
across-the-board salary increases are dead. There are no guaranteed
salary increases."
Federal officials are implementing personnel systems in DHS and the
Department of Defense. Those systems include a number of
reforms—including pay banding and performance-based
pay—that are designed to produce a more agile civilian work
force. Later this year, DHS officials plan to begin replacing the
55-year-old General Schedule system with 10 to 15 occupational pay
clusters centered around similar jobs and salaries with additional
adjustments for cost of living.
A number of federal workers unions and lawmakers have expressed concern
over pay banding systems. The NAPA report acknowledged that "the
switch from the GS to any new salary system will be followed by a
period of anxiety and apprehension that is largely unrelated to system
design." —David McGlinchey, Government Executive.
Click here
to read more.
San Diego Seeks Line of
Credit
Dogged by questions about its financial fitness, San Diego is
preparing to take out a $150 million line of credit with Bank of
America, an unusual move for a local government. The City Council
approved the transaction with Bank of America last Monday, allowing the
city to bypass the traditional channels it has relied upon for more
than 30 years of interim financing. Cities and counties often float tax
anticipation notes, a form of short-term borrowing, in public offerings
as the fiscal year is about to begin, while waiting for property tax
revenues due from the state.
The difference in this case, said Lisa Briggs, head of the San
Diego County Taxpayers Association, is that the city will have to pay
interest on the line of credit, costs that are usually covered by the
yields on tax anticipation financing. "What the city is doing this
year is like a home equity line of credit," Briggs said. "You
draw down on it as you need funds, but you also pay interest on
it."
The city would pay an adjustable rate of 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent
on the $150 million, which would be available for 13 months. Officials
estimate, however, that they could close the line of credit by
December. — Jennifer Vigil, San Diego Union.
Click here to read more.
GASB to Issue Exposure Draft
on Communication Methods
GASB has approved release of an Exposure Draft
of a proposed Statement of Governmental Accounting Concepts,
Communication Methods, that would provide a conceptual basis for
selecting communication methods to present items of information within
general purpose external financial reports that contain basic financial
statements. These communication methods would include recognition in
basic financial statements, disclosure in notes to basic financial
statements, presentation as required supplementary information (RSI),
and presentation as supplementary information. The comment period will
end on Sept. 30, 2004. The proposed Concepts Statement defines the
communication methods commonly used in general purpose external
financial reports and develops criteria for each communication method.
The definitions and criteria should help the GASB or, in the absence of
authoritative guidance, a preparer of a financial report determine the
appropriate methods to use to communicate an item of information. Using
a consistent approach in the selection of communication methods should
benefit users in understanding the location and nature of information
in financial reports. The Exposure Draft will be available by the end
of June and may be ordered by calling 800.748.0659 or by going to the
GASB website.
|