Financial Management: Providing a Foundation for Transition - AGA

28ConclusionDesign by www.sparkdesign.netIt is time to declare victory and move on, says anexecutive in our survey. Victory includes 7 years ofprogress in improving the accounting, systems andfinancial reporting of the Federal Government. Today,most CFO Act entities get unqualified opinions ontheir annual financial statement audits. Financialand non-financial leaders alike are more consciousof internal controls over financial reporting (A-123,Appendix A). Overall, the government is a bettersteward of public funds than before. It has built a finefoundation for transition to new levels of financialmanagement excellence.Simply following the same path that brought successin the past could be a terrible mistake. Whata hollow victory it would be if, in the future, moreentities succeed in meeting more and tougherfinancial compliance requirements, yet added littlevalue to government missions and operations.It is time to go in a new direction, one in whichprogram offices and non-financial executives arethe main customers for financial information, notjust auditors. This is the path that a CFO musttake to become a trusted advisor to departmentalsecretaries and agency chiefs.For this to happen, CFOs need to have more timeand resources. The best place to find these assetsis to minimize unnecessary compliance activities.Congress, oversight entities and the ExecutiveBranch must cast off “one-size-fits-all” compliancefor the sake of compliance. Instead, they mustwork together to identify, agree on and addressgovernment-wide high-risk areas. This targetedfocus will yield a higher return on investment andwill likely identify major cost savings and programimprovements. In addition, OMB and CFOsshould work together to consolidate and coordinateschedules and work done for compliancereporting, which will reduce duplication of effort.An ability to inspire trust with other top executivesis a prerequisite for federal CFOs. Becausehuman capital is such a critical problem infederal financial management, another criticalattribute for CFOs is how well they can bring inand retain talent, train the workforce and buildan effective team. In addition, CFOs should becapable of becoming their entities’ chief accountabilityofficers. This is because CFOs have accessto the requisite financial and performance dataand a leadership position in controls.Finally, CFOs themselves have to becomecatalysts for change. In the future, the ExecutiveBranch should challenge the federal CFOCouncil to develop solutions that will headfinancial management down to the right pathto relevance and high value to the government.Declare victory, because much has been accomplished.Then strive for even greater success.