Financial Management: CFO Act Is Achieving Meaningful Progress
(Testimony, 06/21/94, GAO/T-AIMD-94-149).

The Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act provides the blueprint for
much-needed financial management reforms. The act's first 3-1/2 years
represent a very successful start and show the relevance of its
provisions to improving government operations. The act's requirement for
producing annual financial statements, in particular, is proving its
worth in several ways, such as providing a more accurate picture of
agencies' financial conditions. Audited financial statements have also
helped to identify management inefficiencies and weaknesses and expose
gaps in how government assets are safeguarded as well as possible
illegal acts. Additionally, CFO Act financial audits have identified
actual and potential savings totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
GAO strongly supports expanding the act's requirements for agencywide
audited financial statements to all 23 CFO Act agencies and to the
government as a whole. The Comptroller General's testimony discusses (1)
the value of the financial statements and audits mandated by the act,
(2) the costs and the funding issues related to implementing the act and
expanding its requirements, (3) the potential impact of future Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) personnel cuts and OMB 2000 on the ability
of OMB to carry out its responsibilities under the act, (4) the quality
and the timeliness of appointments to positions mandated by the act, and
(5) the ability of the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board to
propose meaningful federal accounting standards in a timely manner.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-AIMD-94-149
     TITLE:  Financial Management: CFO Act Is Achieving Meaningful 
             Progress
      DATE:  06/21/94
   SUBJECT:  Financial management
             Financial management systems
             Internal controls
             Federal agency reorganization
             Federal agency accounting systems
             Accountability
             Chief financial officers
             Financial records
             Systems evaluation
             Financial statement audits
IDENTIFIER:  Federal Employees' Compensation Act Program
             Federal Family Education Loan Program
             Pell Grant
             National Performance Review
             Government Reform and Savings Act of 1993
             
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