Department of Defense: Implications of Financial Management Issues
Abstract
As an integral part of an effective budget execution system, an agency is responsible for determining and maintaining its available fund balance. Treasury also has information about activity in the agency's accounts, and Treasury's and the agency's records must be periodically reconciled to determine the actual amount of funds available. This is analogous to reconciling one's personal checking account with the monthly bank statement. DOD weaknesses in accounting for its funds include (1) the inability to reconcile its balances to Treasury's, (2) frequent adjustments of recorded payments from one appropriation to another appropriation account, including to canceled appropriations, (3) problem disbursements-disbursements that are not properly matched to specific obligations recorded in the department's records, and (4) obligated balances that are incorrect or unsupported. As a result of these weaknesses, auditors have been unable to verify DOD's Fund Balance With Treasury and its major components -obligate and unobligated balances. This means that DOD does not know with certainty the amount of funding that is available. This information is essential for DOD and the Congress to be able to determine the status of funds and if unobligated balances are available that could be used to reduce current funding requirements or that could be reprogrammed to meet other critical program needs.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 20, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA379859
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office