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Return to Article: Government fails 10th consecutive audit

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  "Taxpayer" is correct in his/her comments posted on Dec 18, 2006.

  The continuing pursuit of "CFO compliance" for the federal government (i.e., the continuing pursuit of a government-wide accrual-based accounting system able to produce private-sector-style consolidated financial statements for every federal executive agency) arguably represents the largest single source of "waste, fraud, and abuse" currently taking place in federal government contracting.

  Christopher Hanks Posted July 3, 2008 2:06 PM
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  It is likely our entire deficit problem could be solved just by fixing the accounting systems in our various federal agencies. I would support Comptroler General David Walker being given the authority to oversee the installment and review of such new systems on an ongoing basis to find out where money is really spent and cut the waste and probable fraud.

  Scott Posted June 29, 2007 1:49 AM
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  Not a surprise - no accountability - so why should anyone care after all they would not fire anyone as they would in private business.

  GovExec.com reader Posted December 19, 2006 7:08 AM
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  "Walker has spent the past 15 months crisscrossing the country in what he has called a "fiscal wake-up tour" to speak about the problems the nation faces with its social insurance programs."

  And we paid for this! What a waste! Everyone knows that the future liabilities of the social programs far exceeds the earmarked taxes for that purpose but that ignores use of the general fund to cover the liabilities and the American public is not going to allow Congress to ignore that problem because to the so called trust fund.

  Walker needs to spend his time telling the public what a waste the financial statements are and why the government should not be using an accrual accounting system designed to tell outsiders what the profitability of a publicly traded company is so they can establish value. The government does not need to report accruals because they do not represent real money that needs to be provided by the public. For example, when the military buys a plane or builds a building they need all the money then to make the purchase! They do not need to recognize the value and then depreciate it over time because the concept of expenses in the government are cash, not accruals! Walker has pushed for accrual accounting and we are wasting millions and millions on getting to an accrual system that will prove useless for anyone. If congress wants to know the future liability of the social insurance fund all they have to do is ask and it will be calculated for them. It does not have to appear annually on an audited financial report.

  Walker needs to get off accrual accounting and start making sure the government agencies are implementing proper internal control mechanisms so that Congress can rely on the data being forwarded to them for whatever topic is involved. Walker is a major source of fraud, waste and abuse! He perpetuates the fraud that accrual accounting in the government is useful, he perpetuates the waste of millions of dollars for agencies to develop worthless accrual systems and he abuses his power by perpetuating bad decisions concerning accounting data and its usefulness. Make Walker and OPM prove that the accrual accounting system is of any significant value to the government because we are wasting millions and millions to develop an accounting process that basically is useless for government purposes!

  Taxpayer Posted December 18, 2006 9:32 AM