The U.S. Government Accountability Office said it could not render an opinion on the 2010 consolidated financial statements of the federal government, because of widespread material internal control weaknesses, significant uncertainties, and other limitations.
Gene Dodaro
“Even though significant progress has been made since the enactment of key financial management reforms in the 1990s, our report on the U.S. government's consolidated financial statement illustrates that much work remains to be done to improve federal financial management,” Acting Comptroller General Gene Dodaro said in a statement. “Shortcomings in three areas again prevented us from expressing an opinion on the accrual-based financial statements.”
The main obstacles to a GAO opinion were: (1) serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense that made its financial statements unauditable, (2) the federal government’s inability to adequately account for and reconcile intragovernmental activity and balances between federal agencies, and (3) the federal government’s ineffective process for preparing the consolidated financial statements.
In addition, the GAO said last week it was unable to render an opinion on the 2010 Statement of Social Insurance because of significant uncertainties, primarily related to the achievement of projected reductions in Medicare cost growth. The consolidated financial statements discuss these uncertainties, which relate to reductions in physician payment rates and to productivity improvements, and provide an illustrative alternative projection to illustrate the uncertainties.
Dodaro also cited material weaknesses involving an estimated $125.4 billion in improper payments, information security across government, and tax collection activities. He noted that three major agencies — the DOD, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Labor — did not get clean opinions. Nineteen of 24 major agencies did get clean opinions on all their statements.
“Given the federal government’s fiscal challenges, it’s imperative that Congress, the administration, and federal managers have reliable, useful, and timely financial and performance information,” Dodaro said. “Improved accuracy and transparency in financial reporting are urgently needed.”
3 Comments
This has been totally out of control for a very long time. Being a CPA I am now informed that itemized cannot be filed till mid to late February, keeping that money boxed up thart could provide jobs.
Also the $100,000 write of of machinery only passed at the last minute, 13 days before year end. Thus it provided no stimulous. But businesses that replaced machimery in the regular course of business happened to get the tax bonus, which only added to the debt and caused no growth.
Obama needs to get a seasoned CPA in their to tell him what to do to get this economy moving.
Oh, and the estate tax. All the self made millionaire business owners had no idea what they would be facing in terms of estate tax so they have been sitting on cash in the event of the worse.
But the bad news is that now that we do have long awaited tax laws in place, Obama then announced that he was going to completely rewrite the IRS code, providing even more uncertainty.
This guy is a job killer like the US had not seen since CArter raised the interest rate to 21%.
He is a disaster of biblical proportions and now iwth the TSA out of control and the Feds flipping the bird at Arizona, it is like they are saying "We double dare you to try a tax revolt".
Think we got trouble now. Let a tax revolt start.
Posted by: tsar777 | December 30, 2010 7:32 AM
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Has nothing to do with the current Administration, mendelay.
This is a long running story. The key operative word is "again." "Shortcomings in three areas again prevented us from expressing an opinion on the accrual-based financial statements."
Prior years are at http://www.gao.gov/financial.html President Bush's last full year FY2008 http://www.gao.gov/financial/fy2008financialreport.html http://www.gao.gov/financial/fy2008/08gao1.pdf Bush's last for FY2008 Statement of the Comptroller General of the United States December 15, 2008 ... Our report on the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements for fiscal years 2008 and 2007 is enclosed. In summary we found the following: - Certain material weaknesses in financial reporting and other limitations on the scope of our work resulted in conditions that prevented us from expressing an opinion on the financial statements other than the 2008 and 2007 Statements of Social Insurance. About $847 billion, or 43 percent, of the federal government's reported total assets as of September 30, 2008, and approximately $833 billion, or 23 percent, of the federal government's reported net cost for fiscal year 2008 relate to four of the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act agencies' fiscal year 2008 financial statements that, as of the date of our report, received disclaimers of opinion or were not audited.1 ... The federal government did not maintain effective internal control over financial reporting (including safeguarding assets) and compliance with significant laws and regulations as of September 30, 2008.
Posted by: EnrolledAgent | December 28, 2010 2:18 PM
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Thanks, Obama!
Posted by: mendelay | December 27, 2010 7:55 PM
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