Government Computer News
Federal financial report reveals ongoing reliability gaps
Agencies continue to struggle with major weaknesses in financial reporting in the first year that they have had to account for internal controls, the Treasury Department said in its fiscal 2006 Financial Report of the U.S. Government.
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All major agencies improved financial management by meeting the accelerated Nov. 15 deadline for their financial reports and complied with new requirements to report on their assessment of internal controls over financial reporting under Office of Management and Budget’s Circular A-123.
Of the major agencies, 18 received clean audit opinions this year, while auditors said the information from five agencies was unreliable. These were the Defense, Energy, Homeland Security and State departments, and NASA. The Transportation Department earned a qualified opinion because it had serious weaknesses.
The next scorecard, rating agency performance under the President’s Management Agenda for the period ending Dec. 31, will reflect findings from the government’s financial report, the report said. For example, several agency audit opinions and internal controls declined during the 2006 fiscal year.
OMB will work with the Chief Financial Officers Council over the coming year to identify potential areas for more guidance and to share best practices that agencies found helpful, the report said. OMB also will continue to incorporate key milestones from agencies’ plans for this year’s assessment into the improved financial performance category of the PMA scorecard to ensure that agencies meet their goals.
“Federal agencies continue to show their resolve to implement rigorous corrective action plans to reduce material process, systems and control weakness,” said the report released Friday.
Improved financial business practices, management systems and reporting tools assist agencies in the timeliness, accuracy and reliability of financial information, which better accounts for their use of federal dollars.
Most agencies have improved their IT management, which helps make effective use of the federal government’s $65 billion annual IT investment. For example, agencies certified and accredited 88 percent of their IT systems, up from 85 percent the previous year. In addition, about 83 percent of agencies have an effective enterprise architecture, which helps ensure that IT investments support agency goals and do not duplicate governmentwide IT investments.
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