Recently added articles from The Journal of Government Financial Management:
Tremendous Accountability Opportunities on the Horizon
Oct 01, 2008; ... The information contained in this article is the unofficial view of one of the FASAB members. Official positions of the FASAB are determined only after extensive due process and deliberations. In past columns, I've shared progress reports on two very important projects at the Federal ...
Reforming Financial Management at the DEPARTMENT of DEFENSE
Oct 01, 2008; ... In February 1995, the General Accounting Office (GAO-now the Government Accountability Office) issued a brief report in its High-Risk Series, identifying the six federal government agencies or operations considered most vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement. Prominent on that list ...
Accountability and Oversight: Who's Minding the Store?
Oct 01, 2008; ... Accountability and oversight have become two of the most popular topics in government. Everyone can tell a story in which the absence of these essential functions caused major problems for both government entities and the taxpayers they serve. Still, confusion exists over who is responsible for ...
Reflections from PDC
Oct 01, 2008; ... By the time you read this a month from now, AGA's 57th Annual Professional Development Conference & Exposition in Atlanta will be a memory. This was my 13th PDC, and they seem to just get better and better every year. For the first time in AGA's history, we topped 2,000 attendees. Our ...
The Deterioration of Investor Tools and the Resulting Fiduciary Challenges
Oct 01, 2008; ... Investing assets for the benefit of others is fraught with many challenges and exposures to liability. In the context of public pension plans, entities subject to varying degrees of governmental control are entrusted with the management of more than $3.6 trillion belonging to current and former ...
The Impact of Cuts to Middle Management on Control Environments-The Importance of Effective Monitoring of Controls; Brainstorming for Management Override
Oct 01, 2008; ... This article discusses an issue that is particularly relevant in the economic situation we find ourselves in today. As governments shrink due to budget constraints, we often hear the age-old mantra, "cut middle management." Like "middle men," the term middle management conjures up notions of ...
Controller's Corner
Oct 01, 2008; ... "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts ... for support rather than illumination." -Andrew Lang "Torture numbers and they'll confess to anything." -Gregg Easterbrook If you are reading this column you have done a report-a memo, an e-mail, an analysis, a summary, a ...
Efforts and Accomplishments in Communicating with the Citizenry
Oct 01, 2008; ... Significant budget cuts across all levels of government eventually get the attention of the average citizen. At that point, due to media coverage and/or being personally affected by the shift in resources, citizens start asking many questions about the governments' operations. This is certainly ...
Ask Leon
Oct 01, 2008; ... Educator, trainer and sought-after speaker on ethics in the workplace, Leon Young, responds to reader questions and provides practical answers based on the federal code and years of workplace experience. We hope you enjoy and benefit from this Q&A format. You may contact Leon ...
AGA Calendar
Oct 01, 2008; ... Sept. 22 - 23, 2008 National Internal Control and Fraud Conference Wyndam Phoenix Hotel Phoenix, AZ Oct. 27 - 28, 2008 AGA's Fourth Annual Performance Management Conference Seattle, WA February 19 - 20, 2009 Seventh Annual National Leadership Conference, ...
Top Concerns of Financial Professionals
Oct 01, 2008; ... Rising costs and falling revenues mean that governments will have to make tough budget decisions be more cost effective. As they are structured now, public sector financial and internal control operations are largely irrelevant to those decisions. How can governments change this? Between January ...
Government-wide Information and Operational Accountability
Oct 01, 2008; ... The government-wide financial statements for state and local governments provide new information about operational accountability of a government. Operational accountability measures the economic activity by reporting financial position and results of operations for local government. The ...
Introducing Derivative Accounting for Governments
Oct 01, 2008; ... In June, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued Statement 53, Accounting and Financial Reporting for Derivative Instruments, which details the accounting and financial reporting for derivative instruments. This article is based largely on the requirements of the standard and ...
One Night in Nashville
Jul 01, 2008; ... In the fall of 2000, I traveled to Nashville to interview William R. Snodgrass as part of our 50th Anniversary celebration. Snodgrass, along with his late director of state audit, Frank L. Greathouse, were two of five people to receive AGA's 50th Anniversary Special Recognition Award for ...
Constituent Feedback and the Proposed New Fund Balance Reporting Approach
Jul 01, 2008; ... Earlier this year, the Board of Trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF)-the parent organization of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) and Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)-approved a number of changes to the oversight, structure and operations of FAF, GASB ...
FORENSIC AUDITING: A Window to Identifying and Combating Fraud, Waste and Abuse
Jul 01, 2008; ... "The rapid expansion of our nation's benefit plans and costs over recent years has been accompanied by a parallel growth in the potential for fraud, waste and abuse. Nevertheless, there are ways to fight these troublesome factors, which have invaded federal, state, local and private sector ...
Challenges Remain in Agencies' Efforts to Identify and Reduce Improper Payments
Jul 01, 2008; ... What does a payment to an ineligible grant recipient, an incorrect payment amount for supplemental income paid to a beneficiary, and a duplicate payment to a contractor have in common? They are all examples of the kind of improper payments that are being identified and measured by federal ...
HOTLINES CAN HELP GOVERNMENT AGENCIES CONTROL MISCONDUCT
Jul 01, 2008; ... Illegal and unethical behavior-fraud, theft, discrimination, bribes, kickbacks-can do significant damage to the reputations and bottom lines of any business in any industry. A renewed interest in corporate governance, sparked by legislative mandates like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, has spread beyond ...
Controller's Corner
Jul 01, 2008; ... A discussion about the Journal's article review process got me thinking about managing a large project in my office. The Journal Editorial Board sets the editorial calendar for this magazine, solicits articles and reviews them for publication. A key part of that process is having clear, ...
Using Data Mining to Ensure Payment Integrity
Jul 01, 2008; ... Data mining is the process of analyzing a specific data set with the objective of identifying patterns and establish relationships. Some of the required tools for data mining are importing, analyzing, parsing, matching, summarizing, aging, stratifying, verifying, reporting and documenting ...