Financial Management: Providing a Foundation for Transition - AGA

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22the top of those that they want continued overthe next 2 to 5 years. Many want to see morestandardization and centralization of systems,especially in business areas in which there is(or should be) a degree of commonality acrossgovernment. Yet, many are not sure they wantto use SSPs, one option for central, standardservices. Those that favor IT outsourcing oftensay they want to see SSPs that specialize incategories of government processes, such asgrants management.New initiatives neededExecutives in the survey made many suggestions for additional or supplementary financialmanagement initiatives. These included:• Simplifying financial reports and making them useful for decision making, including developingcitizen centric reports.• Shifting financial training from transactions and financial reporting to analytics and assessingcosts and risks.• Establishing a CFO Academy, with OMB or the National Defense University as potential sponsors.• Integrating and standardizing reports of budget, program and financial information.• Pressuring vendors to develop government-oriented commercial off-the-shelf ERP software thatmeets OMB’s Financial Systems Integration Office requirements at a detailed transaction level(Some ERP vendors believe they already do this).• Using more cost accounting, such as activity-based costing.• Requiring more integration or linkage between financial and acquisition systems.• Increasing the use of executive dashboards and executive scorecards with financial, performanceand risk information. Also, reporting more productivity and utilization measures.• Increasing the flexibility of the management of funds, to promote better response to changes andincrease transparency (because otherwise such funding shifts are sometimes hidden).• Extending financial management information and duties to non-financial managers and holdingthem accountable.• Clarifying the role and responsibilities of CFOs, controllers and Inspectors General.• Improving the Intra-Governmental Payment and Collection processes.• Conducting fewer audits and instead doing reviews, which are less costly and may be moreeffective in identifying critical problems.
23What to avoid“Enough already!” say several executives whothink the government should avoid introducingany new finance and accounting initiatives untilentities finish addressing the current ones. Otherthings to avoid include those listed below.Stop raising the bar. Several CFOs want theGAO, OMB and IGs to stop raising the baron requirements. Examples of this includeaccelerating the timing of financial reports andlowering materiality thresholds. They wouldlike Congress and the Executive Branch to setclear priorities when promulgating rules foror overseeing entity financial management. Asdiscussed in the earlier section on compliance,they would also like to see more cost/benefitanalysis done before introducing new lawsand rules.No more unfunded mandates. Too many newcompliance requirements arrive with noadditional resources to fulfill them. Someexecutives say that such requirementsshould be funded in the entity budget,instead of taken out of its hide.Avoiding overreaction. Some executivessay that the government-wide initiatives,systems and regulations introduced in thepast few years are starting to identifymore fraud, waste and abuse, whichis good. “However,” says one, “Wemust target this misuse and holdpeople accountable for correctingit, instead of creating additionalinitiatives, systems andregulations.” Another says,“Lawmakers and oversightgroups should stay away fromall niche issues like premium class travel. Theentity that has a niche problem should dealwith it; there don’t have to be new rules orregulations for everyone else.”Requiring data no one uses. CFO Act annualfinancial statements are only one example ofreports that few people read and use, accordingto respondents. There are many others.Cannot go back to not caring. “We need tounderstand the importance of cost,” says a CFOwhose department accounts for a major slice ofthe federal budget. “We can’t say a problem istoo big to solve. If we strive to add value, we cando it. We cannot go back to not caring.”
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Page 4 and 5: 2Table of contentsAbout the Associa
Page 6 and 7: 4Road to transformationReviewing th
Page 8 and 9: 6government decision making. From t
Page 10 and 11: 8Positive opinions on A-123When the
Page 12 and 13: 10more likely to add value to opera
Page 14 and 15: 12• Better guidance and clearer r
Page 16 and 17: 14Cost/benefit analysis and targete
Page 18 and 19: 16• Many executives say their peo
Page 20 and 21: 18Some CFOs report success in reduc
Page 22 and 23: 20SystemsSurvey respondents listed
Page 26 and 27: 24Financial statements and audits:
Page 28 and 29: 26IG office, as it is when the audi
Page 30 and 31: 28ConclusionDesign by www.sparkdesi
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Financial Management: Providing a Foundation for Transition - AGA

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