The federal government will not get a clean opinion on its 1998 financial statements, U.S. Comptroller General David Walker said Tuesday.
The Treasury Department will release the government's second annual consolidated financial statements next week. The General Accounting Office, which Walker heads, will release an audit of those statements, which attempt to explain how the government manages its assets, liabilities and costs.
The audit "will not result in a clean opinion," Walker said Tuesday at a Washington lecture hosted by the PricewaterhouseCoopers Endowment for the Business of Government. "I will sign it myself."
Last year was the first time the federal government attempted to balance its books. The Clinton administration has set a goal of getting a clean opinion next year on its fiscal 1999 financial statements.
Walker said a clean opinion is an important milestone, but added that when the government does pass an audit, it won't necessarily mean its finances are in order.
"The clean opinion is not an end in and of itself," Walker said. "The purpose of having financial management reform is to make sure that the federal government is in a position to have timely, accurate, useful financial and management information, in order to make decisions to improve economy, efficiency and effectiveness. You don't get there just by having a clean opinion."
Sometimes getting a clean opinion requires herculean number-crunching and manual calculating efforts because organizations' financial systems are so out of whack, Walker noted. That's not an acceptable financial management strategy, he argued.
Next Wednesday, the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology is scheduled to hold a hearing on the 1998 financial statements. Subcommittee Chairman Steve Horn, R-Calif., has invited Walker to testify, along with Office of Management and Budget Director Jacob Lew and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.