Suchergebnisse

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The District of Columbia is acquiring a new financial management system to improve its accountability over government expenditures. This report assesses the status of the District of Columbia's implementation of important components of this system, including its new core general ledger System of Accounting and Reporting (SOAR). GAO found that although the District is in its fourth year of implementing its new financial management system, essential elements of the system are not yet operational. Two components of SOAR have not been fully implemented: the budget module is on hold, and the fixed assets module is incomplete. The implementation of the systems that feed into SOAR--personnel and payroll, procurement, and tax--is incomplete and the systems lack electronic interfaces with SOAR. Because the financial management system is incomplete, much of the District's financial management and budget information is produced through cumbersome, manual processes and the extraordinary efforts of a few key staff. District officials need to take time to assess the current status of the city's financial system, to identify problems, and to establish a disciplined process to address these problems through the completion of its financial systems implementation."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Internal control is at the heart of accountability for our nation's resources and how effectively government uses them. This testimony outlines the importance of internal control, summarizes the Congress's long-standing interest in internal control and the related statutory framework, discusses GAO's experiences and lessons learned from agency assessments since the early 1980s, and provides GAO's views on the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) recent revisions to its Circular A- 123. GAO highlights six issues important to successful implementation of the revised Circular, specifically, the need for supplemental guidance and implementation tools; vigilance over the broader range of controls covering program objectives; strong support from managers throughout the agency, and at all levels; risk-based assessments and an appropriate balance between the costs and benefits of controls; management testing of controls in operation to assess if they are designed adequately and operating effectively; and management accountability for control breakdowns. Finally, GAO discusses its views on the importance of auditor opinions on internal control over financial reporting."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In passing the 1990 Chief Financial Officers Act and a range of other financial management reform legislation, Congress has sought to overcome the historical lack of reliable, useful, and timely information with which to make informed decisions, measure and control costs, manage for results, and ensure financial accountability on an ongoing basis. Reported capitalization threshold levels at the 14 agencies GAO surveyed ranged from zero to $250,000. Despite the sharp increase in the capitalization threshold, all but one of the 14 agencies responded that they maintained property records for the government's general property, plant, and equipment (PP&E) not capitalized on the balance sheet, citing safeguarding of PP&E and supporting agency operations as the key reasons for maintaining such information. Federal capitalization thresholds are significantly higher than those reported by the private sector entities GAO surveyed. In some cases, the federal capitalization thresholds for real property were up to 50 times higher than those noted in the private sector. In contrast to the wide variance between federal agency and private sector capitalization threshold policies, federal agency useful life policies were generally similar to those found in the private sector. Estimated useful life classifications within the federal government ranged from 2 years to 40 years for personal property and 5 years to 100 years for real property. GAO did identify several differences attributable to the variety of assets owned by the entities that participated in its survey, rather than any systematic differences in useful life classifications."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the internal control and compliance issues related to the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) custodial activities, focusing on: (1) previously reported internal control and compliance issues and related recommendations; (2) new issues identified during GAO's fiscal year (FY) 1998 financial audit, along with new recommendations to address those issues; and (3) additional issues identified from GAO's ongoing FY 1999 financial audit."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Based on its budget, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the largest entity in the federal government that is not subject to the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990. The department, with an estimated $39 billion in assets, an almost $40 billion fiscal year 2004 budget request, and more than 170,000 employees, does not have a presidentially appointed CFO subject to Senate confirmation and is not required to comply with the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMIA) of 1996. In addition, we designated implementation and transformation of DHS as high risk based on three factors: (1) the implementation and transformation of DHS is an enormous undertaking that will take time to achieve in an effective and efficient manner, (2) components to be merged into DHS already face a wide array of existing challenges, and (3) failure to effectively carry out its mission would expose the nation to potentially very serious consequences. In light of these conditions, Congress asked GAO to testify on the financial management challenges facing DHS, steps for establishing sound financial management and business processes at DHS, and GAO's comments on H.R. 2886, The Department of Homeland Security Financial Accountability Act."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the deficiencies in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) internal controls over royalty income that is distributed to institutes and inventors."

AbstractThis paper offers an investigation of the role of information technology (IT) in environmental management, adopting Shrivastava's (1992) 'reform environmentalism' perspective to consider the relationship between business and the socio‐ecological environment. Written in the context of European Community business but focusing in particular upon the experience of organisations in the United Kingdom, it outlines some of the challenges faced when attempting to embrace the concept of sustainable development in the day‐to‐day management of business activities. The paper puts forward the view that the role of Environmental Management is primarily one of risk management and learning where the quality of environmental information is paramount. Management of the data necessary to deliver this information is seen as an area in which flexible IT systems with high communication capability can make a significant contribution. Investigation of the role which IT might play is developed further through a series of metaphors supported by examples; IT as a policeman, IT as a researcher, IT as a prompt, IT as a fortune‐teller, IT as an artist and IT as a team and the paper argues the importance of considering organisational context in any appreciation of the role of IT. Copyright © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "As seen again in Iraq, the excellence of our military forces is unparalleled. This same level of excellence is not yet evident in the Department of Defense's (DOD) financial management and other business areas, impeding DOD's ability to provide complete, reliable, and timely information to the Congress, DOD managers, and other decision makers. Congress asked GAO to testify on the status of DOD's financial management and business process reform efforts. Specifically, GAO was asked to provide an overview of the long-standing financial management weaknesses facing DOD and a summary of the underlying causes of DOD's financial management challenges. In addition, GAO's testimony focused on (1) key actions necessary to correct DOD's financial management problems and (2) the progress DOD is making toward business process reform."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) has historically been unable to accurately account for and record its disbursements. In March 2002, the DOD Comptroller cited metrics that showed dramatic reductions in payment recording errors (57 percent between October 2000 and October 2001), backlogs of commercial payments (41 percent between April and October 2001), and travel card payment delinquencies (34 percent for those individually billed and 86 percent for those centrally billed between January and December 2001). As a result, the Congress asked us to determine whether the cited reductions were (1) calculated using consistent definitions and methodologies, (2) properly supported, and (3) effective indicators of short-term financial management progress."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on improper payments in light of the projected future growth of federal expenditures, focusing on the: (1) amounts reported by agencies as improper payments in their fiscal year (FY) 1998 financial statements prepared pursuant to the Chief Financial Officers (FO) Act of 1990; (2) types of federal programs at risk of disbursing improper payments; (3) reported causes of improper payments across the federal government; and (4) extent to which agencies are addressing improper payments in their performance plans under the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993."

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the financial management of the Department of Defense's (DOD) Chemical Demilitarization Program, focusing on whether: (1) the program will meet the Chemical Weapons Convention timeframes within the costs projected; (2) obligations and liquidations of funds appropriated for the program have been adequately managed; and (3) the management structure of the program allows for coordinated accountability of the program."