Archive

Improving Financial Management

Appendix A: Summary of Actions by Implementation Category

(1) Agency heads can do themselves

FM03.1: Ensure that agency financial systems are in compliance with the revised OMB Circular A-127.

FM04.1: Issue all federal employee pay and expense reimbursement through EFT.

FM04.2: Handle all interagency payments through the On-line Payment and Collection (OPAC) system.

FM04.3: Handle all payments to state or local governments through EFT.

FM04.4: Include the EFT payment clause from the Federal Acquisition .Regulations in all contracts.

FM04.5: Issue all payments to individuals through EFT or EBT.

FM04.6: Simplify, redirect and reengineer agency financial processes to make them fully electronic and reduce the paperwork burden.

FM05.1: Ensure that all financial management personnel are fully qualified.

FM05.2: Coordinate efforts to provide low-cost, effective training for financial management personnel.

FM05.3: Ensure that the information being collected, disseminated, and reported on is useful, objective, timely, and accurate for the benefit of program managers.

FM08.1: Allow the use of commercial checking accounts.

FM08.4: Eliminate time sheets and time cards, and use technology to enter payroll data on an exception basis.

FM10.1: Provide a consolidated annual report on the finances of the federal government, including contingent liabilities.

FM11.3: Expand agency litigation for debt collection through the special assistant U.S. attorney process.

FM11.4: Establish a credit management function.

FM11.6: Improve estimates for the allowance for doubtful accounts.

(2) President, Executive Office of the President, or Office of Management and Budget can do.

FM01.1: Issue a comprehensive set of federal financial accounting standards within 18 months.

FM01.3: Dedicate staff to the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) to develop a high-level set of cost accounting standards.

FM02.1: Develop a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to clarify central agency roles and responsibilities for financial management.

FM02.2: Develop and publish a strategic plan for improving financial management.

FM02.3: Create a governmentwide budget and financial information steering group.

FM02.4: Develop and publish a definition of an integrated budget and financial system.

FM02.5: Develop an integrated budget and financial information strategic plan.

FM03.4: Establish a clearinghouse of financial systems applications, cross-servicing, and best practices.

FM03.5: Dedicate a core of financial systems personnel to develop cost accounting systems requirements.

FM05.4: The OMB Deputy Director for Management, meet periodically with departmental deputy secretaries to discuss financial management issues.

FM05.5: Identify the set of financial management functions that should report to agency CFOs.

FM06.1: Implement franchising for service functions at the agency head's discretion.

FM06.2: Establish an implementation team under the President's Management Council (PMC).

FM07.2: Establish working capital funds (WCFs) for all federal agencies.

FM07.3: Convene a working capital fund (WCF) forum.

FM08.2: Give agency heads the flexibility to determine when to do alternative pay and work out any problems with the vendor.

FM08.3: Revise Circular A-50 to incorporate an audit resolution threshold. CFOs should establish these thresholds with their inspectors general or heads of audit.

FM09.3: Ensure that any future financial management reporting requirements be addressed in either the planning or accountability reports.

FM10.2: Issue an annual financial report to the taxpayers.

FM10.3: Develop a method of identifying and budgeting for the expected costs of contingent liabilities of the federal government.

FM11.5: Expand the Credit Alert Interactive Voice Response System.

FM11.7: Establish performance agreements on each major loan and debt collection program.

FM12.1: Establish a long-term fixed asset planning and analysis process.

FM12.2: Incorporate fixed asset long-term planning into the federal budget process.

FM12.3: Ensure that there is no budget bias against long-term investments.

FM12.4: Provide more flexible funding mechanisms for the acquisition of fixed assets.

FM12.5: Consider revisions to budget scoring.

FM13.2: Research the possibility of charging agencies the full accruing cost for civilian and military retiree health benefits.

(3) Requires Legislative Action

FM01.2: Create an independent federal financial accounting standards board with the power to develop, publish, and interpret accounting principles and standards for the federal government, if a comprehensive set of accounting standards is not issued within 18 months.

FM03.2: Establish an innovation fund for financial systems development.

FM03.3: Provide interagency funding mechanisms for joint development financial systems projects.

FM07.1: Allow agencies to create innovation capital funds.

FM07.4: Allow agencies to match funds.

FM09.1: Propose legislation to permit OMB, in consultation with appropriate congressional committees, to grant OMB the flexibility to consolidate and simplify statutory reports to Congress and the President.

FM09.2: Require agency heads to provide two reports annually, a planning report and an accountability report.

FM11.1: Enact legislation to allow (a) debt collection activities to be funded by the revenues generated from collections and (b) the agencies to keep a certain percentage of any increased collection amounts, primarily for improvements in debt collection as well as other agency priorities.

FM11.2: Enact legislation to increase agencies' access to private collection contractors by eliminating any restrictions.

FM13.1: Require all agencies to pay the full accruing cost of Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) pensions.

Return To Report Index