Government accounting

Government budgets are prepared with “wild, wild west” accounting rules.

The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board released a standard for accounting and financial reporting on government-owned land and delayed the effective date due to the pandemic.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board released a proposed concepts statement to guide GASB when establishing note disclosure requirements for state and local governments.

The exposure draft covers various accounting and financial reporting issues that were identified during implementation, application, and due process on GASB standards.

The board released updated implementation guidance for its leases standard, along with other accounting standards for state and local governments.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board issued a proposal to improve the accounting and financial reporting requirements for state and local governments.

The international board released four proposals for improving various aspects of government accounting.

The board proposed changing “comprehensive annual financial report” to “annual comprehensive financial report” because the abbreviation sounds like a racist term in South Africa.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board is looking for feedback on a proposal to improve the guidance on compensated absences for state and local government employees, along with disclosure requirements.

To the detriment of many state and local governments, budget decisions are being made based on bad accounting information.