Evaluating Federal Accountability Requirements and Practices for Opportunities to Streamline and Enhance Relevance and Effectiveness

Since the early 1980s, Congress has enacted a number of significant laws, such as the Chief Financial Officers Act (CFO Act) in 1990, directed at fundamentally reforming federal financial management accountability, including federal financial and performance reporting. However, as we approach the 20th anniversary of the CFO Act, current federal financial statutory, regulatory, and policy reporting requirements and related federal infrastructure should be reconsidered, including

• identifying opportunities to streamline and enhance their effectiveness,
• focusing federal financial management and accountability resources on areas (1) posing the highest risk, and (2) offering the greatest opportunity to provide the kinds of financial information most relevant and useful to effectively managing and maintaining accountability over federal programs and resources, and
• identifying near-term structural and reporting enhancements that might be a useful first step in helping provide the kinds of financial information most relevant and useful to 21st century federal decision makers.

^ Back to topWhat Needs to Be Done

The new administration should consider undertaking a comprehensive review of existing federal financial accountability reporting requirements with a view toward assuring they provide adequate transparency and accountability over federal operations, financial condition, and fiscal outlook, including exploring whether there are opportunities for improvement with respect to

• providing the kinds of information most useful to deliberate strategies to address the nation's long-term fiscal challenge;
• how items unique to the federal government (such as social insurance commitments) should be reported; and
• determining how financial statements could be tailored to convey information in a more transparent and meaningful manner to could better assist in government decision making and oversight.
  
  Highlights of GAO-08-926T (PDF)

^ Back to topKey Reports

Financial Management: Providing a Foundation for Transition. Association of Government Accountants’ Annual CFO Survey, July 2008

AGA Annual CFO Survey (PDF, 32 pages) (Note: This link goes to a document on the AGA Web site.)

Fiscal Year 2007 U.S. Government Financial Statements

Fiscal Year 2006 U.S. Government Financial Statements

CFO Act of 1990

More Reports