United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2005-07-22 monographic deposited born digital 20 p. GA 1.13:GAO-05-599R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-05-599R P0b002ee18037dccb f:d05599r DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-GAO-05-599R machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-05-599R GAO-05-599R Audit reports Auditing procedures Auditing standards Financial management Financial records Financial statement audits Financial statements Internal controls Reporting requirements Correspondence A30997

The Secretary of the Treasury, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is required to annually prepare and submit audited financial statements of the U.S. government to the President and the Congress. We are required to audit these consolidated financial statements (CFS) and report on the results of our work. In connection with fulfilling our requirement to audit the fiscal year 2004 CFS, we evaluated the Department of the Treasury's (Treasury) financial reporting procedures and related internal control over the process for compiling the CFS, including the management representation letter provided us by Treasury and OMB. Written representation letters from management, required by U.S. generally accepted government auditing standards, ordinarily confirm oral representations given to the auditor, indicate and document the continuing appropriateness of those representations, and reduce the possibility of a misunderstanding between management and the auditor. The purpose of this report is to communicate our observations on the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) fiscal year 2004 management representation letter. Our objective is to help ensure that future management representation letters submitted by VA are sufficient to help support Treasury and OMB's preparation of the CFS management representation letter and our ability to rely on the representations in that letter in combination with individual federal agency representation letters. We reviewed five key areas in each management representation letter: (1) signatures, (2) materiality thresholds, (3) representations, (4) summary of unadjusted misstatements, and (5) reliability of representations. In reviewing the management representation letters, we applied the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA) Codification of Auditing Standards, AU Section 333, Management Representations; OMB Bulletin 01-02, Audit Requirements for Federal Financial Statements; and the GAO/President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency (PCIE) Financial Audit Manual (FAM) section 1001, entitled "Management Representations." https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-05-599R/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-05-599R.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-05-599R/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-05-599R.pdf GAO-05-599R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-05-599R Correspondence GAO-05-599R; Financial Audit: The Department of Veterans Affairs' Fiscal Year 2004 Management Representation Letter on Its Financial Statements; Audit reports Auditing procedures Auditing standards Financial management Financial records Financial statement audits Financial statements Internal controls Reporting requirements Title 31 Section 3512(c) 31 U.S.C. 3512(c) Volume 118 Page 1275 118 Stat. 1275 Public Law 108-330