Auditing the Nation's Finances: Fiscal Year 1999 Results Continue to Highlight Major Issues Needing Resolution

Abstract

I am pleased to be here today to discuss our report on the U.S. governments financial statements for fiscal year 1999. Today's hearing comes at an especially appropriate juncture. First, we are nearing the 10th anniversary of the Chief Financial Officers Acts passage, which has provided the underpinning for financial management reform necessary to help improve the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of government. Also, since the critical transition period to agency-level audited financial statements began in 1996, agencies have gained valuable experience in preparing financial statements, which is beginning to payoff. Then too, the lessons agencies have learned from successfully meeting the Year 2000 computing challenge are fresh in the minds of those who must now focus greater attention to achieve financial and other management improvements. In passing the CFO Act and other financial management legislation, such as the Government Management Reform Act and the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMIA), the Congress sought to overcome the historical lack of reliable, useful, and timely information to assure financial accountability for the federal government. Without such information on the full costs of programs, the government cannot adequately ensure accountability, measure and control costs, manage for results, nor make timely and fully informed decisions about allocating limited resources. A critical financial management reform component established by the Congress entails requirements for annual audited financial statements for 24 major federal departments and agencies beginning with fiscal year 1996. We have seen a steady increase in the number of agencies that have obtained unqualified opinions on their financial statements and in agencies timeliness in issuing them. Thus far, 13 of 24 major agencies have received unqualified opinions on their fiscal year 1999 financial statements--for fiscal year 1996, only 6 agencies achieved that goal.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 31, 2000
Accession Number
AD1174496

Entities

People

  • David M. Walker

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Cyber

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Business Administration
  • Commerce
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Cybersecurity
  • Department Of Defense
  • Financial Management
  • Governments
  • Human-Machine Interaction
  • Information Security
  • Information Systems
  • Management Personnel
  • Money
  • National Governments
  • Security
  • Unauthorized Disclosure
  • United States Government

Fields of Study

  • Business

Readers

  • Defense Financial Management and Audit.
  • Economics