Highlights
CPE
Opportunities
AGA Continues
Hurricane
Relief Effort
AGA has collected more than $6,000 for members in the Gulf
Coast
region who are struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina. The
donations will be distributed to the AGA chapters in the affected
areas. 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. To make a contribution by credit
card or to ask questions, please contact John Harris with the Finance
Department at 800.AGA.7211, or fax your information to 703.519.0039.
Donations are tax deductible. (AGA Federal Tax ID #53-0217158) Thank
you in advance for your generosity. Future issues of TOPICS
will include a list of donors.Click here to view the
reports we have received so far from and about affected members.
Contact Marie Force to update
AGA on the status of Gulf Coast members.
Audio
Conference: Debt Collection and Interception of Federal Payments
NASACT, in
conjunction with AGA and N.A.L.G.A., is pleased to announce the latest
in its series of audio conferences addressing timely issues in
government financial management. "Debt Collection and Interception
of Federal Payments," is scheduled for October 26. This audio
conference will cover the federal offset process currently used by
states to collect delinquent child support and state income tax
obligations. By intercepting debtors' federal income tax refunds and
other federal payments, the U.S. Department of the Treasury collects
over $1.5 billion for states each year. The audio conference will also
cover future initiatives to expand the use of the offset of federal
non-tax payments to collect new types of debt owed to states. Click here to
register.
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.
Call for National Awards Nominations
Due October 28,
2005
Who do you know that deserves special recognition for contributions
to the field? 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 Fourth Annual National Leadership Conference on
February 2-3, 2006 in Washington, D.C. Click here to find out
more about the awards and the nomination process. |
September 26, 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
FMSB Comments on FASAB
Technical Agenda
AGA’s Financial Management Standards Board (FMSB) has
ranked the projects of the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board
(FASAB) in a Sept. 9 letter to the board. The ranking is: Conceptual
Framework Acceleration, the Federal Entity, Appropriate Source for GAAP
and Leases. To read the complete comment
letter, click here.
Agencies Run by Career
Executives Get Better Grades
In the days after political appointee Michael Brown resigned as
head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency amid questions about
his qualifications, a new report from Princeton University finds that
career federal managers do a better job of running their agencies than
their politically appointed counterparts. The study, from David Lewis
of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and
International Affairs, uses scores from the Bush administration's
Program Assessment Rating Tool—a set of 30 questions devised to
help budget examiners write formal program evaluations—to
determine which managers are achieving best results. He then used
biographical data on the 245 bureau chiefs graded by PART to find
explanations for differences in results. Lewis' central finding is that
the politically appointed bureau chiefs "get systematically lower
management grades than bureau chiefs drawn from the civil
service." Two qualities among career executives chiefly account
for the discrepancy, he found: more experience within the specific
bureau they head, and longer tenures. —Karen Rutzick,
Government Executive. Click here to read the entire
article.
Audits of Schools'
Finances to Extend Throughout NY
State auditors, who for two decades ignored the 700 school
districts outside New York City, will now scrutinize all of them, the
New York State comptroller said Tuesday. A multimillion-dollar fraud
case in the Roslyn schools prompted the new audits, said the
comptroller, Alan G. Hevesi. For about 20 years, school districts
outside New York City have operated without the oversight of state
audits, the result of staff cuts in the state comptroller's office.
State officials have said they hoped that a state requirement that
districts hire an outside accountant would suffice to protect public
funds. But Hevesi said the absence of state oversight fostered
sloppiness and even crime. "I find that if there is no watchdog,
the amount of mismanagement will increase dramatically," he said.
Based on early audit findings, Hevesi predicted that his staff would
uncover minor problems as well as serious waste and corruption.
Underscoring the point, Hevesi held a news conference last week with
Nassau County prosecutors. They announced a new indictment involving
the beleaguered Hempstead schools, accusing a contractor of bribing a
school board member. Hempstead is one of 23 districts on Long Island
that Hevesi's office picked to audit after last year’s Roslyn
scandal, in which three former top school officials were indicted on
charges of defrauding the district out of $11 million. —Bruce
Lambert, The New York Times. Click here to read the entire article.
Government Websites
Rank Higher than Private Sector
Overall citizen satisfaction with government websites reached
new
levels during the last four months, as the aggregate government score
nudged ahead of the private sector mark for goods and services in the
third quarter of 2005. A 1.2 percent growth in the satisfaction
index—from 72.6 to 73.5—represents a 3.2 percent increase
from September 2004 and is at an all-time high. The cumulative
nongovernment scores for goods and services measured by the index
averaged out at 73.1. Thirteen agency websites attained scores of 80 or
above on the 100-point scale—four of them new to the
index—while 17 remained below 70. —Daniel Pulliam,
Government Executive. Click here to read the entire
article.
Wisconsin Governor:
New
Contract System Will Save Millions
Wisconsin has signed contracts that will save $16
million or more a year on software, printers, janitorial supplies and
office equipment, Gov. Jim Doyle said. The new contracts with 106
vendors are some of the first under the Democratic governor's
Accountability, Consolidation and Efficiency initiative. That plan,
which was announced in March, is meant to save up to $200 million over
four years by centralizing procurement and information technology
services, streamlining human resources and payroll operations and
selling excess real estate. Under the plan, the state Department of
Administration will buy products for smaller agencies, boosting the
state's purchasing power. The state eliminated 35 jobs by putting the
administration in charge of most of the state's purchasing.
—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Click here
to read the entire article.
Federal Accounting
Corner
Reorganizing the Statement of
Budgetary Resources
For FY2006, the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) has revised the SF-133 Report on Budget Execution, and the
Standard General Ledger (SGL) Board has made similar changes to the
Statement of Budgetary Resources (SBR).
New Format
The new format makes a lot more sense than the old.
The sections are still the same, starting with Budgetary Resources,
then Budgetary Status and ending with changes in balances. However, now
the Budgetary Resources start with unobligated balances brought
forward, then adds in prior-year obligations recovered, and only then
lists current-year authority, transfers and funding restrictions.
—Simcha Kuritzky, CGFM, CPA. Click here to read the entire column.
Survey Shows Why
Accountants Stay, Look for New Jobs
A recent Hudson survey says nearly 70 percent of accounting
workers would leave their employer. So what keeps 30 percent of
accountants loyal to the company? In part, compensation—but
work-life balance, training and good manager relationships are
important, too, the survey found. When workers' needs regarding issues
such as career advancement and training are not met, they are more
likely to look for a new job than when their salary and benefits are
poor. When broken down by occupation, accountants appear satisfied with
their current job, especially when compared to other occupations. Three
in 10 (30 percent) accounting workers would not consider another job
offer, while just one-fifth (19 percent) of human resource and
manufacturing workers feel that way. The average for all occupations is
25 percent. Accounting workers ranked fair salary (79 percent),
benefits (77 percent) and manager relationship (65 percent) as very
important, followed by balance (67 percent), opportunity (56 percent)
and training (49 percent). —SmartPros. Click here to read
the entire article.
Click here to read the survey.
OMB Is Ranked No. 1
Federal Workplace
The Bush administration's top number crunchers have a new piece
of data to ponder: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has
finished No. 1 in a nonprofit group's just-released survey of
"Best Places to Work in the Federal Government." The OMB, a
politically powerful agency that develops the president's annual budget
and helps manage federal agencies, climbed two places in the 2005
rankings by the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan
organization that wants to entice more talented people to work for
Uncle Sam. Clay Johnson III, an OMB deputy director, attributes his
agency's No. 1 ranking to its culture of "engaging employees and
holding managers accountable for results.” The agency, run by a
full-time staff of fewer than 500, most of them in professional
positions, "encourages a fast-paced environment with tight
deadlines and intensive collaboration with high-level agency officials
to make the most of its employees' talents," according to the
group's report. The OMB has a big impact on national policy and gives
younger workers critical responsibilities in an atmosphere that
emphasizes teamwork and matches employees' skills to their missions,
the report said. The National Science Foundation finished second in
this year's list and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission third, with the
Government Accountability Office and the Securities and Exchange
Commission rounding out the top five. —Christopher Lee, The
Washington Post. Click here to read the entire
article.
Research Identifies
Skills for 'Next Generation' Accountants
Recent corporate governance mandates and an emphasis on ethics
and accurate financial reporting have led to heightened scrutiny and a
back-to-basics approach in the accounting profession. Accountants have
become increasingly prominent contributors among organizations, and
their responsibilities and visibility have risen accordingly. What does
this mean for the next generation of accountants? There will continue
to be plentiful opportunities for those who can help companies meet
compliance requirements and support business expansion projects. Also,
a majority of CFOs surveyed said that possessing a professional
designation enhances a candidate’s marketability. "The
ability to build upon one's knowledge base is critical for next
generation accountants. They must dedicate themselves to continuing
education, including the pursuit of additional certifications, in order
to move forward in their careers," said Max Messmer, chairman and
CEO of Robert Half International, which conducted the research.
—SmartPros. Click here to read
the entire article. Find Next Generation Accountant survey
findings, interview excerpts from leading accounting experts, a skills
quiz and other career resources by clicking here.
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.
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