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Procurement Cards
Focus of New AGA Audio Conference on Dec. 6
AGA, in conjunction with NASACT and ALGA, is sponsoring an
audio conference, worth 2 CPE hours, addressing the "Successes and
Challenges" and evolution of government procurement cards.
Speakers include Glen B. Gainer III, state auditor,
State of West Virginia; Thomas J. Sadowski, CGFM, CPA,
director of Accounting, State of Missouri, and Current AGA National
Treasurer as well as Past AGA National President and Past National
Treasurer; and Bruce E. Sullivan, Vice President,
Government Services, Visa USA. Join us from 2 - 3:50 p.m. EST, Dec. 6
for a lively, open discussion. Cost is $249 per site if you register on
or before Dec. 1; $299 thereafter. Register online. Visit the AGA website for the audio conference
schedule.
Get to Know Your AGA
Corporate Partner
American Appraisal, founded in 1896, is the largest independent
valuation firm in the world with our Federal Government Practice
headquartered at 1667 K Street, N.W., Suite 420, Washington,
D.C. American Appraisal has a dedicated practice serving the
inventory, costing/valuation and asset management needs for the Federal
Government, specific to Real and Personal Property, as well as Heritage
and Military assets. All Departments and Agencies within the Federal
Government have various compliance, stewardship and financial reporting
requirements that need to be addressed for their Real and Personal
Property assets. American Appraisal is prepared to help meet these
requirements, not only domestically, but internationally as well.
New Leadership Breakfast Set
AGA and its Corporate Partner Advisory Group invite government
executives to a complimentary Leadership Breakfast on Tuesday, Nov. 28.
Speakers include: Johnnie Frazier, Inspector General, U.S. Department
of Commerce; Charles Havekost, Chief Information Officer, U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services; Alexis Stefani, Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Finance and Budget, Office of the Chief
Financial Officer, U.S. Department of Transportation. Learn
more.
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November 13, 2006 • News from the Profession
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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
New Congress Expected to Scrutinize
Government Management
The new Congress will take a more
skeptical view of the Bush administration's approach to managing the
federal government, in particular efforts to contract out federal jobs
and link employee pay raises more closely to job performance. Those
were the post-election predictions offered by a number of public policy
experts, union leaders and Democrats last week. Policy analysts said
they expected that the Democratic takeover of the House and possible
capture of the Senate would lead to more-rigorous oversight to root out
waste, fraud and abuse in government. Federal union leaders saw the
election results as an opportunity to roll back some of the
administration's workforce initiatives. —Stephen Barr, The
Washington Post. Read the entire article.
Once Safe, Public
Pensions Are Now Facing Cuts
After losing a leg in the line of duty, Dan Toneck, a San Diego
police officer, spent nearly a year in rehabilitation before returning
to work, doing his job for another five years with an artificial limb.
Toneck, 37, was granted a disability retirement last year after 16
years on the job. Some of his fellow officers wept as he left
headquarters for the last time. Then, 10 months later, the impossible
happened. San Diego cut his pension by about 10 percent, along with
those of about 180 other disabled city retirees. Across the country,
government workers’ pensions are protected by guarantees even
stouter than those on pensions in the private sector. The legal
promises, often backed up by union contracts, cover more than 15
million people. Years of supporting court interpretations have
enshrined the view that once a public employee has earned a pension, no
one can take it away. But now a number of state and local governments
are quietly challenging those guarantees. Financially troubled San
Diego is the highest-profile example, but a handful of states, cities
and smaller government bodies have also found ways to scale back
existing promises and even shrink some current payments. —Mary
Williams Walsh, The New York Times. Read the entire article.
States Leaning More on
Private Firms
Privatization is flowering at the state and local levels. In a
bid to both save money and increase efficiency, state and local
officials are increasingly tapping private firms to take on bigger
responsibilities. Governments have always turned to companies for
construction and other services, but now they are also asking
businesses to manage more projects and programs. In most cases, the
change has bipartisan backing, in part because privatization frees up
funds for other government programs, including security, education and
health care. In the next few years, for example, private companies will
manage several transportation projects in San Diego, Denver, Portland,
Ore., Dallas and Atlanta. North Carolina will soon let private
businesses manage the operations of state-licensed liquor stores.
Similar moves are under consideration in Virginia and Alabama. Other
publicly run projects ripe for more privatization in coming years
include management of drinking water and wastewater treatment
facilities, electric power plants, public building security, river and
lake ferries, neighborhood transit buses, emergency medical vehicles
and some police and fire functions. — Richard Sammon,
KiplingerForecasts.com. Read the entire article.
Need CPE Hours?
AGA's partnership with MicroMash
offers you high-quality courses in auditing, accounting and more. See the full
listing.
Survey: Young
CPAs Say Firms Fail to Deliver
With the ongoing talent war in the accounting profession, and
no end in sight, accounting firms have a gap to fill as they try to
attract and retain up-and-coming professionals, according to the
findings of the 2006 CCH Young Accounting Professionals Survey.
Conducted by Harris Interactive, the survey measured what is important
to CPAs with four to seven years of experience and how well their firms
were doing at delivering on key attributes in four areas: firm
resources and infrastructure; benefits and compensation; professional
training and development; and firm culture. In nearly every instance,
fewer than one-half of firms received a very good rating on their
ability to deliver on the attributes most important to these
professionals. The most important attributes, according to young CPAs:
74 percent say good compensation; 67 percent say comprehensive
resources to get the job done; 63 percent say an ethical leadership
culture; 51 percent say flexible hours; 49 percent say support for
continuing professional education. "The findings of the CCH survey
show a gap between what is most important to young professionals today,
and how well firms are doing in meeting those needs,” said Mike
Sabbatis, CCH executive vice president of global sales and marketing.
—SmartPros. Read the entire
article.
What Keeps Managers Up
at Night?
A recent survey reveals that 95 percent of managers feel life is
stressful at the office. As a result, stress caused 28 percent to take
time off from work. And stress at work is not restricted to managers.
"Stress in the workplace is a major issue for businesses,”
Managing Director of SoftSkill EMEA, Kevin Young says of the study.
“Helping people to manage stress can have a positive effect on
their effectiveness at work and reduce the number of stress-related
absences." The top causes of managerial stress are workload, at
61.6 percent, and deadlines at 50.3. Managers also cited feeling
undervalued at 38.9 percent and working longer hours than they should
at 37.3 percent. —AccountingWEB. Read the
entire article.
eC3 Announces Annual
Conference
The National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council (eC3) is hosting
its 10th Annual Conference, “Managing Change in a Connected
World: Globalization and Government,” December 4-6, 2006, in
Sacramento, CA. The conference will explore best practices and identify
strategic change within government through presentations, case studies,
and interactive discussions. Register today.
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