Management Report: Opportunities for Improvement in the Federal Housing Finance Agency's Internal Controls.
GAO-12-499R, May 16.

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-499R

Leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Thursday asked the General Services Administration to provide details about its financial management and internal controls aimed at preventing waste, fraud and abuse, in the wake of a scathing inspector general report about GSA's 2010 Western Regions Conference (WRC) held near Las Vegas.


Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-Maine), whose committee is tasked with overseeing agency efficiency and effectiveness, requested the information in a nine-page letter, released to the public Monday and filled with questions about conference spending, travel, awards and contracting. They addressed the letter to Acting GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini.

-Ruben Gomez, FederalNewsRadio.com
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One of the Federal government’s most fundamental responsibilities is to serve as a careful steward of taxpayer dollars – to make sure that every dollar is well-spent and directed toward areas of high return. That’s a responsibility this Administration takes seriously. From his first days in office, President Obama has led a concerted and aggressive effort to streamline government and cut wasteful and inefficient spending wherever it exists so that we can focus our resources on serving the American people. From slowing the uncontrolled growth of Federal contracting to getting rid of excess real estate held by agencies and reining in spending on Federal employee travel, this Administration has already cut billions in inefficient spending across the Federal government.


Today, we’re taking another important step forward in that effort. This afternoon, the Office of Management and Budget is issuing guidance to Federal agencies to take additional actions to increase efficiency and strengthen accountability in the areas of travel, conferences, real estate, and fleet management.

Blog Post: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/05/11/continuing-crack-down-government-waste

Guidance: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2012/m-12-12.pdf

Agencies have until Aug. 31 to submit plans showing how they will consolidate and share human resources and email systems, help desk support and other information technology services.

Agencies must begin to share at least two Office of Management and Budget-approved services by December, OMB announced Wednesday in a final version of the Federal IT Shared Services Strategy. And they must update those plans annually with details about ongoing consolidation efforts and their inventories of IT assets, including systems and services.

By October, OMB will launch and maintain an online IT services catalog of services and contracts that agencies can share governmentwide.

Other areas identified by OMB for shared services include financial management, administrative management, geospatial services and records management.

OMB said agencies also must detail in the reports who is accountable for their consolidation efforts, performance goals and how each IT service will be transitioned.


-Nicole Blake Johnson, FederalTimes.com
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Teresa Gerton led an effort for the Army that could help the service avoid spending more than $800 million over the next five years.


Deborah Taylor improved the financial operations of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which led to the return of $850 million to the Medicare Trust Funds.

And Steve Butler led an effort for the Air Force Material Command to improve how they address high-risk aircraft maintenance that could help the service avoid spending $1 billion.


Gerton, Taylor and Butler were among the 2011 Presidential Distinguished Rank Awardees honored Thursday night at the 27th annual Senior Executives Association Banquet in Washington. See full list of winners here.

-Jason Miller, FederalNewsRadio.com
READ MORE...http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=145&sid=2843863

Hard to believe, but the State Department’s Office of Inspector General has been without a permanent head for more than four years.

That fact, highlighted this week by the Project on Government Oversight, puts the office in an unlucky class of four IG agencies that have had vacancies at the top for at least 1,000 days.

The others are the Interior and Labor departments and the Corporation for National and Community Service. While the Obama administration last fall nominated attorney Deborah Jeffrey for the inspector general’s job at the national service corporation, the Senate has yet to confirm her.

But the White House has named no one for the top positions at the other three offices. Although there are undoubtedly plenty of competent career folks to carry on in the meantime, ‘”a permanent IG has the ability to set a long-term strategic plan, . . . including setting investigative and audit priorities,” POGO said on its web site, adding that the administration has “no good excuse” for failing to nominate someone for a post that has been vacant for years.

-Sean Riley, FederalTimes.com
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Office of Management and Budget
Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies

M-12-11 - Reducing Improper Payments through the “Do Not Pay List”

This memorandum directs each agency to develop the agency's plan for using the Do Not Pay solution for pre-payment eligibility reviews. As outlined [within], each agency shall submit a draft of its plan to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by no later than June 30, 2012.

A 2004 law realigning its compensation system also made a change to the very public face of the agency: it's name. GAO would henceforth stand for Government Accountability Office.

Today, as the size of the deficit has become an issue of pressing concern and the size of the government itself has come under scrutiny, GAO's current mission has never seemed more relevant.

GAO produces nearly 1,000 reports a year, recommending improvements to government programs that are estimated to have saved billions. Last year, GAO estimates its recommendations saved $45.7 billion.

The majority of GAO's work is initiated in one of two ways — either because it's mandated by a particular law or because a congressional committee has requested it.

There are 13 different mission teams at GAO and a special office made up of subject-matter and technical experts, the Applied Research and Methods division.

-Jack Moore, FederalNewsRadio.com
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DOD Financial Management:
Reported Status of Department of Defense's Enterprise Resource Planning Systems.
GAO-12-565R, March 30.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-565R

The Federal Government's Long-Term Fiscal Outlook: Spring 2012 Update.
GAO-12-521SP, April 5.

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-521SP

The Government's Long-Term Fiscal Challenge: Implications for Federal Agencies by Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States before the 9th Annual Department of Homeland Security Office of the Chief Financial Officer Symposium in Washington, DC.
GAO-12-617CG, March 14.

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-617CG

So much has changed over the past 30 years. The Cold War has given way to a globalized, interdependent world. Landlines turned into smartphones. The Internet is no longer a research tool for a few. In response, companies have re-engineered themselves for this new digital information era, and governors have redesigned and modernized their states’ governments. 

While change surrounds us, however, the federal government has stayed stuck in the past...

It is in the national interest to approve the president’s consolidation authority, so that we can bring Washington into the 21st century by making it tech savvy and agile, a true partner for U.S. companies, small and large, that will be the source of jobs for years to come.

We have a chance to rethink, reform and remake government in ways that will save taxpayers’ money and help us better meet the challenges of our time. In the weeks ahead, we hope that both parties in Congress can come together to seize this chance.

By JEFF ZIENTS and JOHN ENGLER, Politico.com
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The Government Accountability Office will release a report this morning detailing problems with the Army's payroll system — challenges that threaten the Defense Department's ability to be audit-ready.


GAO found the Army could not identify a "complete population of Army payroll accounts" for fiscal 2010, said Asif Khan, director of financial management and assurance at GAO, in his written testimony,

It took the Army three months to provide a list of servicemembers who receive active-duty Army military pay, Khan said.

DoD also could not locate supporting documentation for some of its pay accounts, according to the GAO testimony.

Active Army military payroll was $46.1 billion for fiscal 2010 and therefore "significant to DoD's audit readiness goals," Khan said.

Congress has told the Pentagon it must reach full auditability of its consolidated financial statements by the end of 2017. Last fall, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the department to have its budgetary resources, one part of the overall audit, ready by 2014.

-Jolie Lee, FederalNewsRadio.com
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The following report was released by GAO.

Financial Management Systems:
Status of OMB's Review of Financial System Projects.
GAO-12-184R, February 8.
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-184R

The Office of Management and Budget's decision to pause major agency financial management projects in 2010 didn't affect most of the programs' cost or timeline.


The Government Accountability Office reviewed the implementation of OMB's July 2010 memo and found 13 projects estimated no change in their long term costs, and 16 said their schedule remained the same.

The audit agency also said OMB approved 17 projects, partially approved six, shut down one and still is reviewing seven others. Of those approved or partially approved, OMB said 20 were considered low or moderate risk projects.

GAO found five agencies said the cost of their projects increased and four said their programs decreased because of OMB's reviews. Seven agencies were unsure of the effect of the pause.


Additionally, six agencies said the pause increased the time it would take to complete implementing the new system, while three said it decreased their time and four were unsure.

Auditors also reported another agency said OMB postponed its modernization efforts for three of its components, and this action increased the cost of achieving unified modernization across the agency and requires additional investments to maintain existing legacy systems for a longer period of time.


GAO also said OMB needs to finalize the revision of A-127. The White House issued a draft revision to agencies in October 2010, but as of October 2011, it did not say when the updated circular would be completed.


- Jason Miller, FederalNewsRadio.com
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be the first Homeland Security Department component to undertake a less-ambitious financial system modernization effort following the collapse of a departmentwide effort known as Transformation and Systems Consolidation.

DHS canceled TASC in May 2011 after the Government Accountability Office ruled that DHS improperly gave CACI of Arlington, Va. a $450 million contract to implement the enterprise resource planning system. Cancellation of TASC marked the second time that a DHS attempt at an enterprisewide ERP for financial management purposes has failed; a previous effort, called eMerge2, ended in 2006.

DHS plans for FEMA to migrate its financial systems to a federal shared service provider at the start of fiscal 2015, according to GAO testimony (.pdf) presented March 1 before the House Homeland Security subcommittee on oversight, investigations and management.

-David Perera, FierceHomelandSecurity.com

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The Federal Government Faces Continuing Financial Management and Long-Term Fiscal Challenges, by Comptroller General Gene L. Dodaro, before the House Committee on Oversight And Government Reform: Government Organization, Efficiency And Financial Management Subcommittee.
GAO-12-444T, March 1.

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-444T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/assets/590/589003.pdf


READ MORE and Download the Report Here...

Consistent with the Administration’s commitment to increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of Federal programs, the reform effort seeks to strengthen the oversight of Federal grant dollars by aligning existing administrative requirements to better address ongoing and emerging risks to program outcomes and integrity. The reform effort further seeks to increase efficiency and effectiveness of grant programs by eliminating unnecessary and duplicative requirements. Through close and sustained collaboration with Federal and non-Federal partners, OMB has developed a series of reform ideas that would standardize information collections across agencies, adopt a risk-based model for Single Audits, and provide new administrative approaches for determining and monitoring the allocation of Federal funds.

This advance notice outlines the reform ideas for which OMB seeks public comment. These comments will assist OMB in its development in the coming months of a further Federal Register notice, to be published for comment later this year, which would propose specific revisions to existing requirements. These reform ideas relate to, and could result in proposed revisions to the following governmentwide issuances: OMB Circulars A-21, A-87, A-110, and A-122 (which have been placed in 2 C.F.R. Parts 220, 225, 215, and 230); Circulars A-89, A-102, and A-133; the guidance in Circular A-50 on Single Audit Act follow-up; and the Cost Principles for Hospitals at 45 C.F.R. Part 74, Appendix E.
 
Download the Advanced Notice of Proposed Guidance Here

The federal government is doing a poor job of coordinating its responsibilities in dozens of areas, including food safety, breast cancer research, assistance to small business owners and home buyers and background investigations for federal job applicants — a disorganization that could be costing taxpayers tens of billions of dollars annually, according to a new report (GAO-12-342SP).


The 428-page study by the Government Accountability Office details several significant cases of duplication, overlap or lack of coordination between agencies and programs.

Since last year’s report, the GAO said the Obama administration has addressed 110 of the 145 actions it proposed could be taken by the White House and federal agencies. Congress has addressed 12 of the 31 steps it proposed lawmakers could take, GAO said.


-Ed O'Keefe, WashingtonPost.com
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The Government Accountability Office says it's found some sloppy accounting in the way Treasury is handling the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. The GAO calls the mistakes in financial reporting "significant" but not "material."


In the report, GAO said the Office of Financial Stability, the Treasury agency which implements TARP, improved its review and approval process for preparing its financial statements, but work still needs to be done to identify errors in draft documents.

The control weaknesses on the part of OFS did not signal a real loss of money, rather they exposed a risk of potential misstatements of the amounts reported in the financial statements.
-Michael O'Connell, FederalNewsRadio.com
READ MORE or LISTEN HERE...

A bill requiring agencies for the first time to post spending at the program level on a central website would cost some $115 million over the next four years, the Congressional Budget Office reported Thursday. The average cost of implementing computer upgrades and administrative changes for the 24 major departments and agencies would be $1 million.


The Government Results Transparency Act (H.R. 3262) was introduced by Rep. Frank Guinta, R-N.H., and cleared the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in November 2011. The bill would amend the Government Performance and Results Act to address “the glaring weaknesses in current federal program performance information posted on Performance.gov by establishing consistent data standards and identifiers across the federal government,” Guinta said in an op-ed written last fall for the Manchester Union-Leader.

Modeled on the broader Digital Accountability and Transparency Act backed by committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the Guinta bill would require agencies to publish their performance data on a website run by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board in a standardized format that makes data downloadable and easier to analyze.

-Charles S. Clark, GovExec.com
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The public rarely sees the inner workings of government agencies. If they did, they'd know, financial management is key to effective mission delivery. One of the most senior practitioners of the art and science of federal finance is Danny Werfel, the controller at the Office of Management and Budget.

Werfel spoke with Federal News Radio's Emily Kopp on The Federal Drive with Tom Temin from the Association of Government Accountants National Leadership conference in Washington. He shared some points from the State of the Union for Financial Management he will be presenting tomorrow at the conference.

-Michael O'Connell, FederalNewsRadio.com
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The White House on Monday said it wanted to consolidate the Bureau of Public Debt and the Financial Management Service within the Fiscal Service, another Treasury division. They say it will “streamline and modernize operations.”


“The consolidation also strengthens Treasury’s leadership of Federal financial management issues, reduces costs, and enhances efficiencies by further modernizing Federal financial management processes,” the White House said. It’s unclear how much money it will actually save.

-Damian Palleta, WSJ.com
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OMB Releases Fiscal Year 2013 Budget to Congress.  Find the budget and tools to review it at the link below.

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