Highlights
CPE
Opportunities
AGA Members Reach Out
to Katrina Victims
Hurricane Katrina has inflicted catastrophic damage along the
Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast causing loss of life and
property in an area where AGA has several chapters and many
members. In response to calls and e-mails from chapters and
members across the nation wanting to help our colleagues, AGA has
established a Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund.
As we have seen in the days since Katrina
came
ashore, affected families face both immediate and long-term
needs. Right now, they need the basic necessities of
life—food, clothing and shelter. In the long term, many will
have to find new employment and permanent housing. Our hearts, thoughts
and prayers go out to them.
On September 15, the AGA National Executive
Committee will hold its quarterly meeting. I will be seeking
guidance from NEC members on how we can best forward the contributions
received to date and those that will be collected over the coming
months. Please contact your chapter members, request donations at your
chapter meetings, and send your donations to the AGA National
Office. Please rest assured that AGA will get the donations to
where they are needed most. Your generosity will help AGA members and
their families get through this traumatic time.
Sincerely,
Sam M. McCall, CGFM
AGA National President
Submitting Donations: Make
your checks payable to AGA, note "Hurricane Relief Effort" in
the memo and send them to AGA, 2208 Mount Vernon Avenue, Alexandria, VA
22301-1314. If you would like to make a contribution via credit card,
please contact John Harris with the Finance Department at 800.AGA.7211,
ext. 311, or fax your information to 703.519.0039.
Audio Conference Set
for Sept. 21 on Ethics
AGA, NASACT and N.A.L.G.A. present "Ethics—How It
Impacts an Organization" from 2 – 3:50 p.m. EDT Wednesday,
Sept. 21. Speakers will discuss the increased emphasis on ethics, the
reasons why technology may be contributing to ethical issues, how some
situations can be legal but unethical, how ethics can be a positive
challenge for practical people and a recent KPMG study on corporate
ethics. Speakers are Leon Young, Associate Professor, University of
Maryland, and Scott Avelino, Director of Forensic Services, KPMG LLP.
Earn 2 CPE hours. The cost is $249 before Sept. 16 and $299 afterward
for unlimited attendance. Questions regarding the program should be
directed to Raymond Harris,
CGFM. Click here to view the 2005-2006 audio conference
schedule.
AGA is also offering a special package
discount to AGA chapters and Advantage group membership agencies. Click here to learn more.
Studying for the CGFM Examinations?
Study guides for all three CGFM Examinations are now
available. Click here
to learn more.
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. |
September 12, 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
As New Orleans Makes Gains, Breadth of
Damage Is Evident
Stricken New Orleans continued to
determinedly stagger forward as officials announced plans to resume
some commercial flights at the New Orleans airport, the largest levee
breach was fully sealed and floodwaters slowly receded, speeding
recovery but also exposing the breadth of the devastation. President
Bush arrived in New Orleans late Sunday afternoon, and planned to spend
the night on the USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship sitting in
the Mississippi River at New Orleans. He will tour the New Orleans area
and Gulfport, Miss., on Monday. Officials leading the federal
government's response, meanwhile, said that they had made significant
progress over the weekend toward restoring calm, control and some
services in New Orleans. "Things are working wonderfully here on
the ground," Vice Admiral Thad Allen, the United States Coast
Guard official now overseeing federal relief efforts, said on Fox
Television Sunday, in one of the more upbeat assessments offered since
Hurricane Katrina's disastrous passage nearly two weeks ago. Still,
staggering problems remained in the devastated region, not least the
continued recovery of the dead, and the aching needs of the roughly one
million people displaced from their homes. And the receding waters in
New Orleans made clear the extent of storm's damage to individual
neighborhoods. —William Yardley and Sewell Chan, The New York
Times. Click
here to read the entire article.
Another Government
Recruiting Challenge: Accountants
With more than 80 percent of the accounting work force eligible to
retire in the next five years, the federal financial community is
focusing on the challenge of attracting accounting graduates to
government work. Two problems complicate the effort: Most universities
don’t offer classes in government financial management; and
accounting graduates can get higher pay and training in the private
sector. “It’s a very serious issue,” said AGA
Executive Director Relmond Van Daniker. “And it’s going to
get worse when people retire.” AGA issued a White
Paper on Aug. 18 about the top issues facing the government
financial management community. AGA is working to raise awareness among
universities and wants to help them develop financial management
classes or plug a government accounting section in an existing
accounting class. Also, federal agencies need to provide training to
their employees if they want to attract new workers, Van Daniker said.
—Tichakorn Hill, Federal Times. Click here to read the entire article.
Survey: State Salary
Growth Slow
The states’ budget crises have resulted in a median salary
increase over the past year of less than half a percentage point for
state workers in professional and scientific occupations for which
governments must compete with the private sector, according to the
American Federation of Teachers. That contrasted with an increase of
3.6 percent from 2002 to 2003 and 4.6 percent for the past three years
for the same 44 jobs, the union reported in releasing its annual Public
Employee Compensation Survey. And it contrasts with overall U.S. salary
increases averaging more than 3 percent for 2003-2004, according to
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited by the union. The survey
report warns that unless the trends of decreasing staff numbers,
declining salary growth and cuts in job benefits are reversed, the
quality of the government work force will suffer as more employees
leave the public sector and their potential replacements are deterred
from seeking government employment. AFT officials say it is the pay
disparity between public and private sectors that drives the annual
survey. “The goal is comparable wages,” says Jennifer
Porcari, AFT’s assistant director for public employees.
“Public and private employees do the same work. The excuse for
low pay used to be that public employers offered better benefits, but
that is not the case anymore.” —Elizabeth Daigneau,
Governing.com. Click here to read
the entire article. Click here to read the survey.
Federal Employees
Offer
Money, Time to Hurricane Victims
As Hurricane Katrina brought devastation to many in the Gulf
Coast, federal employees quickly offered their assistance. The Federal
Employee Education and Assistance Fund (FEEA), which provides grants
and loans to federal employees in disasters, has received more than
1,000 individual donations since the hurricane struck. "I've been
amazed by the dollar amount of individual donations," FEEA
Executive Director Steve Bauer said. "Usually you get in
allotments of $5, $20...but it is not unusual for $500 or $100 gifts,
sometimes more," to be made for Katrina victims. Bauer said he
received one gift of $2,000 from the head of an agency. "I've had,
literally, people offer homes that they've had, to put people up
in," Bauer said. "I just got a call from an IRS employee
whose wife owns an apartment in Houston and would like to help federal
employees first. People are helping every way they can." FEEA
takes donations through its website
(https://www.givedirect.org/give/givefrm.asp?Action=GC&CID=4683),
choose "Hurricane Fund" on the dropdown list. OPM also is
encouraging employees to donate to hurricane victims through the
Combined Federal Campaign, which runs from Sept. 1 to Dec. 15. In 2004,
federal employees raised about $256 million for charitable causes
through the CFC. —Karen Kutzick, Government Executive.
Click here to read the entire
article.
Louisiana Not Facing
Bankruptcy, Officials Say
Louisiana's government faces enormous financial challenges as a
result of Hurricane Katrina, but the state will be able to pay its
bills and is not facing bankruptcy, top state officials say. Parishes
and other local governments in the storm-damaged areas are under even
greater financial stress, but the state is prepared to help where
necessary, state Treasurer John Kennedy said. With estimated damages
that could top $22 billion, Katrina is the worst storm ever to hit the
United States, according to the New York bond rating firm Standard
& Poor's, which has placed the state, local governments and several
agencies in the area on CreditWatch, indicating they may have problems
in making future debt payments. No state official has predicted how
much of the economy can be restored or how soon that could happen,
drawing into question how the state budget might have to be altered to
keep it balanced, as required by law. "The state is going to meet
its obligations," said Jerry Luke LeBlanc, who as commissioner of
administration acts as the governor's budget chief. As for bankruptcy,
"we're not even close," he said. —Robert Travis Scott,
The Times-Picayune. Click here to read the
entire article. (Scroll down through the web blog.)
Telework Push Fueled
by
Hurricane Katrina
The fuel disruptions and price increases caused by Hurricane
Katrina prompted this warning from President Bush: "Don't buy gas
if you don't need it." But apparently workers in the Washington
area still need it. The day after Labor Day is known as "terrible
traffic Tuesday" in Washington because of commuters returning to
the area after the August congressional recess and students returning
to school after the summer break. With some 1.8 million vehicles on the
roads and gas prices nearing $4 per gallon, the U.S. Office of
Personnel Management has renewed efforts to promote telecommuting
options for federal employees. OPM has issued a memorandum to push
telework, carpooling and other fuel-consumption alternatives after
Bush's admonition for nationwide energy conservation. —Danielle
Belopotosky, National Journal's Technology Daily. Click here to read the entire
article.
Homeland Security
Delays Pay-for-Performance for Some
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced
Wednesday that it will delay implementation of its new
pay-for-performance system for some employees by a year. Employees who
are part of the first wave of personnel reform will not receive their
first performance-based pay raises until January 2008. That group
consists of workers from DHS headquarters, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center,
according to DHS. Those employees were originally scheduled to enter
the performance-based pay system in early 2006, giving them a year of
reviews for which to base their January 2007 raises. The new pay system
would replace the General Schedule for DHS employees. —Karen
Rutzick, Government Executive. Click here to read the entire article.
PMC Registration Brochure Now
Online
 Make plans now to attend AGA’s First National
Performance Management Conference (PMC), Service Efforts &
Accomplishments Reporting: The Cornerstone for Building Trust and
Enhancing Management. The conference is set for November 14-15,
2005, at the Marriott Portland Downtown Waterfront Hotel, and features
presentations by state and local government officials who have been
recognized for preparing top-quality Service Efforts &
Accomplishments (SEA) Reports.
The conference brochure is now
available online. Why wait? Get a sneak preview of the program
and register today! More information about the conference arrives in
your mailbox next month. In the meantime, visit our website, or
click here to download the
brochure.
Register Early & Save! Registration
couldn’t be easier. You can register online or print the
registration form to register by fax or mail. Advance registration
discounts apply to all forms received before October 21, 2005. Register
today for AGA’s PMC and show your commitment to a more
accountable government.
Call for Nominations for AGA’s National and
Regional Leadership Team
Deadline: October 28, 2005
If you're interested in shaping Association
programs, advancing your profession, and representing members’
interests in the government accountability community then submit your
nomination TODAY for these National Board of Directors positions:
• National President-Elect
• National Treasurer-Elect
• Senior Vice President for Regional Services - Section I and
IV
• Regional Vice Presidents-Elect
*Those elected will take office on July 1,
2006 and serve a three-year term of office.
Contact Rosanna Ortiz for more
information.
Call for
National Awards Nominations
Due October 28, 2005
Who do you know that deserves special recognition for contributions
to the field? Please help us acknowledge financial professionals at the
federal, state and local level and private sector who are leading the
way! You might even considerr nominating yourself. Nominations are now
being accepted for Federal Leadership Awards, State and Local
Leadership Awards and Private Sector Leadership Awards.
* Nominees do not have to be AGA members.
These awards will be presented
at
AGA’s 4th Annual National Leadership Conference on
February 2-3, 2006 in Washington, D.C. Submit your nominations
today! Click here
to find out more about the awards and the nomination proces
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