Highlights
CPE
Opportunities
AGA Continues
Hurricane
Relief Effort
AGA has collected more than $13,000 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 list of donors.
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. |
October 11, 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
AGA PMC Registration
Deadline Quickly Approaching!
Join us in Portland, OR for the National Performance
Management Conference (PMC), “Service Efforts &
Accomplishments Reporting: The Cornerstone for Building Trust and
Enhancing Management.”
More and more, government agencies are using
SEA Reports as a tool to improve management and communication with the
public. Excellent reports show taxpayers how their money is being spent
and whether government is achieving its goals. They also provide
government officials with the information they need to better serve
their citizens.
AGA’s PMC will take place on November
14-15, 2005, and will feature presentations by state and local
government officials who have been recognized for preparing top-quality
Service Efforts & Accomplishments (SEA) Reports. Experts in
performance management will outline how to prepare the reports and
demonstrate how reports can be used to improve government operations
and build public trust.
Earn 14.5 CPE hours at dynamic, comprehensive
sessions, share best practices with leaders in the industry and meet
your peers in the field. Join us to learn how others have been telling
their stories through performance reporting and the impacts they have
had. Everyone from first-time preparers to veterans in performance
management can benefit from this important event. Click here to
view the conference program.
The early registration deadline is quickly
approaching. Don't miss your chance to save money! Register by
October 21, 2005. After October 21, fees will increase to $425
for AGA members and $475 for nonmembers. Registration couldn’t be
easier. You can register
online or print the registration form to
send by fax or mail.
Register today for AGA’s PMC and show
your commitment to a more accountable government. See you next
month!
New Orleans Mayor
Pushes
Federal Tax Breaks to Rebuild City
As he tries to reassemble a shattered city, Mayor Ray Nagin says
New Orleans is not looking for a "handout" from the federal
government, only a "hand-up." But a closer look at the wish
list that Nagin has submitted to President Bush shows that he's asking
for quite a handful, from a state-of-the-art light rail system linking
New Orleans and Baton Rouge to a new and improved flood protection
network equipped to handle a Category 5 hurricane. But the centerpiece
of the mayor's request for aid is a package of tax incentives designed
to fuel the repopulation of a city that, five weeks after Hurricane
Katrina forced an unprecedented mass evacuation, is now home to about
75,000 residents, compared with 469,000 before the storm. Under the
proposal, anyone who lives and works in New Orleans would be eligible
for a 50 percent federal tax credit on total taxable wages. The mayor
said he wants a cap of $50,000 for individuals and $100,000 for couples
who file joint income tax returns. The program also would offer a break
for companies that operate in the city now or decide to locate in New
Orleans in the future. —Frank Donze, New Orleans Times-Picayune.
Click here to read the
entire article.
BearingPoint Rebuilds
War-Ravaged Financial Systems
In late 2002, when Lori A. Bittner's team from BearingPoint Inc.
arrived in Afghanistan, the hallways of the Central Bank were dotted
with little fires that had been lit to cook chicken and heat tea. The
only way to transfer money in or out of the country was to hire
messengers who stuffed cash into cases and carried it across the
border. And the salaries of civil servants were hand-delivered by
independent agents, dispatched from Kabul and not exactly known for
their speed or reliability. The 30-person group from BearingPoint of
McLean, VA, was hired to fix and modernize the war-ravaged country's
financial systems, most of which were antiquated if not destroyed. It
might seem an odd job for a company best known for designing software
and hooking together networks, but over the past 15 years BearingPoint
has developed a niche creating economic policies and procedures for
nations in turmoil. "What we do is . . . put all the pieces in
place so that the economy works," said Bittner, a managing
director who oversaw much of BearingPoint's work in Afghanistan. The
work included planning national budgets, setting up a banking system
and helping entrepreneurs start businesses. The economic reform work is
part of a public-sector division that is BearingPoint's most successful
unit and has buoyed the company in recent years. —Ellen
McCarthy, The Washington Post. Click here to read the entire article.
Lawmakers Consider
Splitting Federal Personnel Reform Bill
Some lawmakers and agency leaders are considering splitting a
proposal to reform the personnel system in domestic agencies into two
bills, one concerning compensation and another dealing with labor
relations. David M. Walker, comptroller general of the United States,
told a congressional hearing Wednesday that the government does not
have enough experience with labor reform to move ahead with a new labor
relations scheme until the Homeland Security and Defense departments
implement their new systems. "We believe that it may be prudent
for the Congress to consider what happens with DHS and DoD before we
move forward on [the labor relations] part," Walker told the House
Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce and Agency
Organization. Parts of DHS' labor relations reforms were ruled illegal
by a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in
August. The Pentagon has not yet released its final regulations for
reform. —Karen Rutzick, Government Executive. Click here to read the entire
article.
For Victims, Repairing
ID Theft Can Be Grueling
Paul Fairchild, a 34-year-old Web developer in Edmond, OK, has
never spent $500 on fine tobacco. He has never slaked a shoe fetish
with $1,500 charges at Manolo Blahnik and Neiman Marcus , nor has he
ever bought diamonds online, furs in SoHo, or anything at e-Luxury.com.
Over the last two years, however, his credit report has suggested
otherwise. "Once this happens, you can't believe how deep the
rabbit hole goes," Fairchild said of his ordeal. Indeed, in a year
of prominent cases of stolen or lost consumer information—from
the hacking of university computers and the disappearance of backup
tapes at Citigroup , to fraudulent downloads from the databases of
companies like ChoicePoint and LexisNexis—the rabbit hole seems
to be getting deeper. About 10 million Americans fall victim each
year to identity theft, according to the Federal Trade Commission. And
in about a third of those cases, victims see far more than their
existing credit card accounts tapped. Their private information is used
by thieves to open new accounts, secure loans and otherwise lead
parallel and often luxurious lives. For victims like Fairchild, it can
be an unnerving, protracted whodunit, with collection agents demanding
payment for cars they have never driven, credit card accounts they
never opened, loans they never obtained, and myriad other debts accrued
by shadowy versions of themselves. —Tom Zeller Jr.,
The New York Times. Click here to read
the entire article.
Click here to read about AGA's upcoming Audio
Conference on Identity Theft!
Top Civil Servants
Honored with Service to America Medals
Nine federal employees were honored last month for their
contributions to public service with the 2005 Service to America
medals. The awards program was created in 2002 by the Atlantic Media
Company (publisher of Government Executive, National Journal
and The Atlantic Monthly) and the Partnership for Public
Service, a nonprofit organization committed to revitalizing federal
government service. "Through the Service to America Medals, we
give the best within government their due respect, and honor them for
making a very real difference in the lives of people across our country
and around the world," said Max Stier, president and CEO of the
Partnership. "There is nothing more critical to government's
success than attracting the best and brightest to serve."
—Government Executive. Click here to read the entire
article.
FEMA Shifts, Decides to
Re-Bid Katrina Contracts
The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency told a
Senate
panel on Thursday that the agency would seek new bids on $400 million
worth of contracts that had originally been awarded with no competition
in the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort. In announcing the move, R.
David Paulison, the agency's acting director, responded to sharp
criticism after FEMA suspended normal contracting rules in the frantic
first days of trying to help storm victims and rebuild the Gulf Coast.
The contracts up for bidding—worth up to $100 million
each—were awarded to four giant firms specializing in
construction, engineering and consulting, said Nicol Andrews, an agency
spokeswoman. The businesses have long records of work for the federal
government, and some have executives or lobbyists with close ties to
the Bush administration. Paulison did not indicate that his agency had
found anything inappropriate in the contract awards, but he appeared to
agree with critics who have warned that awarding contracts without bids
could result in abuse and waste. —Raymond Hernandez and Eric
Lipton, The New York Times. Click
here to read the entire article.
Study: Federal Workers
Spend $19 Million a Day Driving to Work
If federal employees worked away from the office twice a week,
12.4 million gallons of gasoline would be saved each week, according to
a new study. Federal workers are spending $19 million every day
commuting to and from their places of work, up from $13.3 million in
April, states the study from the Telework Exchange. Approximately 2.6
million federal employees use about 31.1 million gallons of gas each
week, according to the study. Pump prices averaged $3.15 per gallon in
the Washington, D.C., area Monday, according to the AAA Mid-Atlantic
Daily Fuel Gauge Report, up from $1.94 a year ago. — Daniel
Pulliam, Government Executive. Click here to read the entire
article.
GASB Needs Comments on
Sales and Pledges of Receivables and Future
Revenues
 In
September, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) approved
issuance of an Exposure Draft addressing sales and pledges of
receivables and future revenues. The Exposure Draft proposes accounting
and financial reporting guidance for circumstances in which a
government exchanges its rights to the future cash flows from
collecting specific receivables or specific future revenues for an
immediate cash payment. Specifically, the Exposure Draft addresses
whether such transactions should be regarded as a sale or as a
collateralized borrowing resulting in a liability. —GASB. Click here to read the GASB Update on the Exposure
Draft.
Call for Nominations for AGA’s National
and Regional Leadership Team
Deadline: October 28, 2005
If you're interested in the
opportunity to shape Association programs, advance your profession, and
represent members’ interest 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 for three years.
Click here for more
information on the requirements of each position.
E-submission is preferred.
Submit one package that includes: National Office Nomination Form, leadership
statement and bio to the attention of the National Nominating Committee
Staff Liaison, Rosanna Ortiz.
However, you may mail the documents to: AGA, 2208 Mount Vernon Avenue,
Alexandria, VA 22301-1314. Or fax them to 703.548.9367. |
