Financial Management USDA Faces Major Financial Management Challenges

Abstract

Improving financial accountability throughout the federal government has been an area of emphasis since implementation of the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990, which required a CFO structure in 24 major agencies and the Office of Management and Budget (0MB) to provide the necessary financial management leadership and focus. To help instill greater accountability and fix pervasive and costly control breakdowns, financial statements were required to be prepared and audited, beginning with those for fiscal year 1991, for revolving and trust funds and commercial activities. For 10 agencies-including USDA-audited financial statements were required as part of a pilot program to test this concept for an agency's entire operations. Since USDA's participation in the pilot program in 1991, USDA and several of its component agencies have received a series of unfavorable financial audit reports due to deficiencies in financial reporting that are attributable primarily to weaknesses in the agency's financial management systems. USDA's Chief Financial Officer recognizes the seriousness of these problems and has a number of efforts underway to address these issues.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 21, 2000
Accession Number
ADA375096

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accounting
  • Business Administration
  • Computer Networks
  • Congress
  • Cost Estimates
  • Electronic Mail
  • Finance
  • Financial Management
  • Food Stamps
  • Governments
  • Information Systems
  • Internet
  • Money
  • National Governments
  • Task Forces
  • United States
  • United States Government

Fields of Study

  • Business

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Defense Financial Management and Audit.