AGA TOPICS Newsletter

AGA Members Make Mark on GAO as First Participants in Executive Exchange Program

A new executive exchange program that brought a Big Four accounting firm together with a federal oversight agency is reaping benefits, not only for KPMG and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), but for anyone working on federal financial audits.

Hannah Padilla and Derek Thomas, members of AGA’s Washington, D.C. Chapter and KPMG senior managers with CFO Act audit experience, were the first to participate in GAO’s exchange program. The program was included in the GAO Human Capital Reform Act of 2004 and allows GAO to bring in private-sector professionals to work on special projects for three months to two years.

Padilla and Thomas, who received their pay and benefits from KPMG during their four-month assignment, took on several projects. One involved revising the joint GAO-President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency (PCIE) Financial Audit Manual. They provided “invaluable assistance” in developing protocols to help GAO interact with auditors at the agencies during the consolidated financial audit, said Gary T. Engel, CGFM, who supervised Padilla and Thomas within GAO’s Financial Management and Assurance team.

The Financial Audit Manual is used by everyone who performs financial statement audits of federal entities. Engel said the revised manual helps not only the auditors at GAO and the IGs, but the public accounting firms that assist in the audits. He added that the new protocols will help GAO work more efficiently and effectively with staff.

“I can’t say enough about the contributions they made and the pleasure it was to work with them,” Engel said. “They were both very professional and hard-working.”

“They really did a fantastic job,” Engel said. “They learned some things from us and we certainly learned some things from them.”

Padilla said the accounting, reporting and disclosure checklists in the Financial Audit Manual were re-engineered and she believes they are now more usable. “I think that project went very well. We got a lot of positive feedback outside GAO,” she said.

Thomas said the experience, which included exposure to top-level executives at GAO and inclusion in their internal meetings, gave him a much deeper understanding of how GAO operates. “I don’t think I realized the breadth of things that they do,” he said, noting the experts on staff in education, health and a range of other issues.

KPMG Partner Diane Dudley, CGFM, an AGA Past National Treasurer, nominated Padilla and Thomas for the exchange program. She said GAO is well known for its expertise in the accounting and audit industry. “Any exposure benefits us and improves our understanding of GAO’s operating environment.”

Padilla agrees. “GAO is not just this big oversight agency anymore. That is really their role, but now there are people behind that name and they’re friends, and it opens the door a lot.”

She added that the culture at GAO is to “do the right thing, do it the right way and to be a cut above everyone else.”

“They are holding federal agencies to this standard, and they believe they have to hold each other to an even higher standard. That line of thinking just bleeds into everything they do there. It’s a great organization,” she said. “They walk the walk, they really do.”