Fiscal Year 2015 U.S. Government Financial Statements: Need to Address the Governments Remaining Financial Management Challenges and Long Term Fiscal Path
Abstract
The Financial Report of the U.S. Government (Financial Report) provides important information to the Congress, federal agencies, and the public, including the governments financial condition and the reliability of data used to help support budget and financial decisions. While significant progress has been made in improving federal financial management over the past 20 years, material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting and other limitations continued to prevent GAO from expressing an opinion on the governments accrual-based financial statements. Three major impediments are: (1) serious financial management problems at DOD, which represented 30 percent and 15 percent of the governments reported total assets and net costs, respectively; (2) the governments inability to adequately account for and reconcile a significant amount of intragovernmental activity and balances between federal entities, which resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars in differences; and (3) the governments ineffective process for preparing the U.S. governments consolidated financial statements (governmentwide financial statements).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 06, 2016
- Accession Number
- AD1013794
Entities
People
- Eugene Louis Dodaro
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office