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Return to Article: Government flunks annual audit, again

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  USAF Engineer, It not only is the DoD IG but spills into your services financial management organization. The Air Force does not have a qualified comptroller to issue meaningful accounting and finance policy. The Air Force financial managers rely on engineers to tell them what is proper accounting (guess what you get).

  Every audit of SAF/FM has listed the total incompetence of the financial management staff as a serious problem for the Air Force. However, those in financial management continue to hire people that are not qualified for the positions. They avoid detection because they continue to do nothing whenever possible. Likewise, they do not administer or provide policy and oversight for the financial functions. The SAF/FM has divested itself of any meaningful policy and oversight function and should be eliminated. SAF/FM has designated DFAS as the financial and accounting arm of the AF. SAF/FM does next to nothing and expects it to be done by DFAS and does not even provide DFAS direction. Whatever DFAS does is what the AF gets and SAF/FM never takes exception to DFAS rulings. SAF/FM has allowed their accounting agent to run the financial affairs of the AF. The AF either should strengthen SAF/FM or get rid of it because in its present state it is worthless!

  Taxpayer Posted January 13, 2006 7:15 AM
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  While some of the accounting problems are the result of carelessness and waste in federal agencies, quite a bit of problem has more to do with federal agencies deliberately misreporting where the money goes. There are agencies in DoD that lose huge amounts of money to mismanagement. Many fudge their annual numbers when they file their annual reports. Otherwise, they risk being shut down.

  The Department of Labor Office of Workers Compensation Programs uses some very interesting accounting practices to cover up the real cost of some of its activities. Otherwise, people might start asking why the funding isn't going to help injured federal employees and why certain doctors get paid thousands of dollars for examinations they don't actually do.

  Cooking the books has been a practice of other forms of organized crime for decades. It won't stop until there is real accountability with real consequences. Some of the most established members of Congress help cover the misdoings. So, I don't see any change coming any time soon.

  Robert M. Posted December 21, 2005 7:30 PM
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  Of course the DoD IG is useless! Do you think they'd actually staff those positions with anyone who'd be able to give an unbiased opinion?

  Accounting in DoD equates to fraud, waste, and abuse. Where'd the $20 billion in Iraq go?

  GovExec.com reader Posted December 21, 2005 2:38 PM
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  rds,
  I guess the GAO was a top notch could do no wrong when Slick Willy and the Democrats were in control? Please come up for air, you've been down in the Kool-Aid tank too long!

  Tom Posted December 20, 2005 9:20 AM
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  rds,
  While true the GAO is a farce, it does what any administration tells it to, be it Democratic or Republican. Quit blaming everything on Bush; Clinton and Gore had their way with GAO for eight years. One thing I can say is that the Bush Administration has failed to do what Clinton's did: Win the Ellen DeGeneres Award unanimously.

  GovExec.com reader Posted December 20, 2005 9:07 AM
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  1. No one but GAO cares about these numbers.
  2. These numbers are meaningless for management and measurement of performance. The GAO and the comptroller general should learn the purpose for accrual accounting and get OMB to stop this madness.
  3. Accrual accounting is designed to report accounting profit for private companies and not allow the company to report a high profit now based on unrecognized costs. No knowledgeable investor cares about this number and they value based on free cash flow not accounting profits.
  4. The government should be on a cash accounting system. Only the limited insight of GAO and Al Gore's reinventing government have any play in this game. The DoD is spending millions of dollars to achieve accrual accounting. However, no one in the financial area of DoD understands accrual accounting and the accounting definitions for the "new" process are incorrect. The accrual system will lead to incorrect decision making. Congress provides money based on an obligation authority and not an accrual for actions. Congress wants to know cash flow to determine how much to appropriate and how much debt to raise to meet current cash needs. Accrual accounting distorts this and hides many cash needs and generates many non-cash expenses.
  5. This is all a waste of my tax money and a diversion of management time and effort from matters that actually mean something.
  6. OMB should declare the accounting system for the government to be the cash system based on funds accounting and get rid of this accrual accounting process that never will be done correctly. You cannot change the entire government accounting system in less than a decade and the White House continually has to mandate that the change be accomplished.
  

  Stop this waste of money now! This is nothing but a full employment act for accountings and auditors. By the way, the auditors are not getting better, they have little idea what they are doing! I have never seen a bunch of less qualified auditors than I have seen in the DoD IG office.

  Taxpayer Posted December 19, 2005 7:00 AM
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  The GAO is a farce. They are not accountable for anything. They simply tell the taxpayers what the Bush Administration wants them to. There is nothing hard about that job. Do as you're told and then get another job when they lose the next election.

  Stack the deck with your friends and it is simple.

  rds Posted December 17, 2005 8:30 PM