AGA TOPICS Newsletter

Comments Made at the PDC By National President Sam M. McCall, MPA, CGFM, CPA, CIA, CGAP
Orlando, Florida
July 13, 2005

First and foremost, as the 2005-2006 AGA National President, I would like to thank AGA chapters and members for allowing me to represent this great Association.

I am honored to represent you for the following reasons.

• You represent the most significant group of government financial managers in the nation.

• You work at the federal, state, and local government level.

• You work in federal and state legislative, executive and judicial branch agencies.

• You work in our military branches of service.

• You work in county government, city government, school systems and higher education.

• You work in nonprofit and for profit organizations.

AGA members work in accounting, auditing, information technology and systems, procurement, budget and other financial management areas. AGA members are located throughout the United States and internationally. AGA members represent the core of government financial management

Each year, one of the responsibilities of the National President is to identify a theme for the upcoming year. My theme for the 2005-2006 year is “Accountability Reporting with a Citizen Focus.” I chose this phrase almost six years ago to describe what I wanted to accomplish as the City Auditor for the City of Tallahassee. The phrase was applicable then and even more now.

First Part of the President’s Theme – Accountability Reporting

I chose the term Accountability Reporting because that is what AGA is all about. We are the organization for Advancing Government Accountability. Tom Sadowski, a previous AGA President and the person that I have to thank for appointing me to a prior term on the NEC recently and correctly commented that “AGA is not about us – it is about what we do.” I firmly agree with his observation.

In terms of accountability reporting, AGA has embraced a broad definition to include both financial and performance reporting. We recognize the important of each. We encourage periodic and annual financial reporting to demonstrate stewardship. We also encourage the reporting of performance measurement information to allow the public to assess the service efforts and accomplishments of our respective governments.

When I think of accountability for AGA I think of the CGFM, the CEAR Program, the SEA Program, Education and Research, and Service.

CGFM - The Professional Certification for Government Financial Managers

1. I am very proud to have been a member of the CGFM Board since its inception in the early 1990’s.

2. I thank Charles Harrison, CGFM, of Tennessee (a former AGA National President) for asking me to be on the Board.

3. My first question to myself was whether the Board and the proposed program had credibility.

4. Each of you that have the certification and those of you that aspire to obtain to the CGFM can take comfort in the fact that the CGFM has been credible since its inception.

5. This Board has had more past Presidents among its membership than any other AGA Board. It has included past Presidents such as Jeff Steinhoff, CGFM, (who had the original idea) and Charles Harrison, Virginia Robinson, CGFM, Virginia Brizendine, CGFM, Bill Broadus, CGFM. The original Board had as one of its members Marty Ives, CGFM, at the time the vice-chairperson and director of Research for GASB. The current chairperson is Bill Taylor, CGFM. Bill is a former chairman of the Board for the Institute of Internal Auditors. Wendy Comes, (my Presidential appointee to the National Executive Committee) has also served as Chairperson for the Board.

6. Bill Anderson, CGFM, a previous AGA National President, and Eva Williams, CGFM, a former AGA National Treasurer, volunteered countless hours to review CGFM applications as we began the work to establish this professional credential.

7. We all took the exams for Beta testing purposes.

8. Personally, Jeff Steinhoff, Bill Broadus, and I worked on Part three of the exam. Jeff and I spent many hours discussing individual questions by phone.

9. Hal Steinberg, CGFM, coordinated the work and has been there to help the program since its inception.

10. The CGFM is truly the preferred designation for government financial managers.

This has been a labor of love—these dedicated professional did not do this for themselves, they did the work on the CGFM exam for you – the early and mid career AGA members that will carry on after we are gone.

Other AGA accountability programs include the CEAR Program—accountability reporting for federal agencies—and the SEA Program—performance measure reporting for state and local government. Our Education and Research Programs include the Corporate Partners Advisory Group and the Academy of Government Accountability.

      To support the accountability theme at the federal level we need to

• Support Financial and Performance Measurement Reporting

• Support FASAB Efforts

• Embrace and Expand the CEAR Program

      To support the theme at the state and local government levels we need to

• Partner with NASACT and NALGA on Educational Programs

• Support GASB Efforts

• Embrace and Expand the SEA Program

      In terms of an Expanded Focus

• We need to draw from the strength that AGA is the only organization representing federal, state, and local government professionals. We need to embrace all government financial management professionals

• We need to move toward establishing a comprehensive research program. We can accomplish this through the Corporate Partners Advisory Group and AGA Academy of Government Accountability. As members you should have the opportunity to fund professional research through your donations – whatever they may be.

• We should be responsive and responsible to our AGA Chapters

Second Part of the President’s Theme—Accountability Reporting with a “Citizen Focus”

The second part of my theme for this year is having a “Citizen Focus.” I am guided by the views of Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, who before her passing was a professor at the University of Texas in the LBJ School of Public Administration and Policy.

• In November 1995, I had the honor of listening to Barbara Jordan address a Management for Results Conference in Austin Texas. She passed away in January 1996. Barbara Jordan was the first Afro-American to serve in the Texas Senate since Reconstruction. She was also the first black woman elected to congress from the south, and the first to deliver the keynote address at a national party convention in 1976. Her view was of America – one people, diverse but bound by a common belief in the Constitution and the ideal of America. She believed strongly that our first responsibility was to serve the citizens. She said “Citizens allow us to be where we are and to do what we do.” As financial managers we need to have a citizen focus in our work.

Her comments are consistent with our own AGA Code of Ethics, which says:

“The distinguishing mark of a profession is its acceptance by the public and the profession’s acceptance of its responsibility to the public. We serve the public interest that is defined as the collective well being of the community of people and institutions the government.”

On the topic of government, I believe that working for the Public means not only working with others but also looking out for others. I am also guided by a comment made by Woodrow Wilson. He said

“Why do we go about criticizing what we should be creating?”

As AGA members we need to be creating government and we should celebrate our accomplishments.

Woodrow Wilson addressed the issue of ethics in 1887 when he asked “How shall government be administered so that it is always in the interest of the public officer to serve not his superior alone, but also the community also with the best efforts of his talents and the soberest service of his conscience.

George Frederickson, The Spirit of Public Administration, once said “We should act as representative citizens.” He also said that we should judge government on economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and “equality.” Okun in his book on Equality and Efficiency describes equality as rights and efficiency as markets.

• As financial managers we need to always act in the best interest of our organization and our citizens.

Plato once asked, “How can government be organized to locate power and wisdom in the same place?” However, before we can organize government, we need to have a better understanding of what government is all about. I think that Abraham Lincoln helped us with that when he said that “the purpose of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done but cannot do at all or cannot do well for themselves in their separate and individual capacities.”

The truth about government financial management is that it is relatively young in the United States. As a financial management organization, we are relatively young. You are making our financial management history. In my state of Florida we conducted the first statewide financial audit in 1985. The State of Tennessee was well ahead of us. The first audit of the United States occurred in 1996.

As a nation, we are in our infancy in the sense that we have yet to obtain an unqualified opinion on our nations financial statements. The point of this is that the accounting principles being established now in GASB and in FASAB will lead government financial reporting for generations to come.

As government financial managers we are ultimately responsible to the citizens. Our commitment to equity and fairness is equally as important as to economy and efficiency, and effectiveness. It is equity and fairness, along with terms such as integrity, professional judgment, and ethics that will bind us to citizens in the present and to the citizens that will make up future generations.

Final Thoughts about AGA and our Responsibility as AGA Members

“Every organization is perfectly designed to expect the results it achieves.”

What is your vision for AGA? If there is anything preventing us from achieving that vision—please provide your suggestions and we will respond! I cannot be successful without your help.

I would like to thank the NEC, the National Board of Directors and each AGA member for allowing me to represent this great organization.