USDA's CFO gets praise for tidying department

Both Agriculture Department Inspector General Roger Viadero and the General Accounting Office praised USDA Chief Financial Officer Sally Thompson Wednesday for her efforts in cleaning up the messy financial system in her department.

Thompson is a former Kansas state treasurer who ran unsuccessfully against GOP Sen. Pat Roberts in 1996. Roberts once was chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, and former Rep. Dan Glickman, D-Kansas, is Secretary of Agriculture.

At a Senate Agriculture Research, Nutrition and General Legislation Subcommittee hearing, Viadero said, "Financial information in USDA is, on the whole, not reliable," but added Thompson had done "a remarkable job of working with the inspector general's office. I still don't know what is going on in some of the program."

Linda Calbom, director of the GAO Accounting and Information Management Division, said while USDA continues to have challenges in correcting severe financial management problems, "During the last two years, USDA financial managers have ... made a commitment ... to resolve financial management weaknesses that precluded the agency from receiving an unqualified or 'clean' opinion on its financial statements, but also to begin moving toward a long-term goal of achieving financial accountability."