Washington (Nov. 17, 2003) -- The General Accounting Office said that fiscal 2003 financials from the IRS were “fairly presented in all material aspects.” However, the GAO said that the service "had to rely on resource-intensive compensating processes" to prepare its financial statements due to serious deficiencies in financial systems and internal control weaknesses.
While the GAO said the IRS in fiscal 2003 continued to make great strides in a number of areas, such as property and equipment inventory records and control of software licenses, it also added that “Lack of a financial management system that can produce timely, accurate, and useful information needed for day-to-day decisions continues to be one of the largest obstacles facing IRS management."
The GAO concluded that the IRS remains “unable to produce reliable, timely financial and cost-based performance information for decision-making, or to fully address the financial management and operational issues that affect its ability to fulfill its responsibilities as the nation’s tax collector.”
For its part, the IRS agreed with the report and said that only by integrating its new financial management systems could it overcome the majority of weaknesses cited in the auditor general’s report.
-- WebCPA staff
