Re: Das ist wirklich ein Hammer

verfasst von ---Elli---, 09.09.2004, 16:34

-->Hier der Text Seiten 32 - 35:

There are three primary reasons why the consolidated financial statements remained
unauditable for fiscal year 2003: (1) serious financial management problems at the
Department of Defense (DOD), (2) the federal government’s inability to account for
billions of dollars of transactions between federal government entities, and (3) the federal
government’s ineffective process for preparing the consolidated financial statements.
First, we have designated the serious financial management problems at DOD as high
risk8 since 1995. Overhauling DOD’s financial management operations represents a
challenge that goes far beyond financial accounting to the very fiber of DOD’s range of
business operations, management information systems, and culture. DOD’s financial
management problems are pervasive, complex, long-standing, and deeply rooted in
virtually all business operations throughout the department. To date, none of the military
services or major DOD components has passed the test of an independent financial audit9
because of pervasive weaknesses in financial management systems, operations, and
controls. To address these problems, DOD has taken several positive steps in many key
areas. For example, the Secretary of Defense has included improving DOD’s financial
management as one of his top 10 priorities, and the department has taken a number of
actions under its Business Management Modernization Program, including development
in April 2003 of an initial business enterprise architecture to guide operational and
technological changes. DOD is currently working to refine and implement that
architecture and expects to issue new versions of it during 2004. DOD reports that it is
also developing detailed financial improvement plans intended to provide disciplined
leadership, identify corrective actions, implement solutions, and result in a favorable
audit opinion on the fiscal year 2007 DOD-wide financial statements. But DOD still has a
long way to go, and top leadership must continue to stress the importance of achieving
lasting improvement that truly transforms the department’s business systems and
operations. Only through major transformation will DOD be able to meet the mandate of
the CFO Act and achieve the President’s Management Agenda goal of improved financial
performance.
Second, we reported in previous years that the heart of the intragovernmental transactions
issue was that the federal government lacked clearly articulated business rules for these
transactions so that they would be handled consistently by agencies. In this regard, at the
start of fiscal year 2003, OMB issued business rules to transform and standardize
intragovernmental ordering and billing. However, CFO Act agencies continue to be
unable to perform reconciliations of intragovernmental activity and balances with their
trading partners,10 citing reasons such as (1) trading partners not providing needed data;
(2) limitations and incompatibility of agency and trading partner information systems;
and (3) lack of human resources. Amounts reported for federal agency trading partners
for certain intragovernmental accounts were significantly out of balance in the aggregate
for both fiscal years 2003 and 2002. To address long-standing problems with
intragovernmental exchange transactions between federal agencies, Treasury provided
federal agencies with quarterly detailed trading partner information during fiscal year
2003 to help them better perform their trading partner reconciliations. In addition, the
federal government began a three-phase Intragovernmental Transactions e-gov project to
define a governmentwide data architecture and provide a single source of detailed trading
partner data.

Third, with respect to preparing the consolidated financial statements, Treasury is
developing a new system and procedures to prepare the consolidated financial statements
beginning with the statements for fiscal year 2004. Treasury officials have stated that
these actions are intended to, among other things, directly link information from federal
agencies’ audited financial statements to amounts reported in the consolidated financial
statements and resolve many of the issues we identified in the process for preparing the
consolidated financial statements.
The continued strong leadership of both OMB and Treasury will be important to resolve
the intragovernmental transactions issue and issues surrounding preparing the
consolidated financial statements.

The need for timely, accurate, and useful financial and performance information is
greater than ever. Our nation’s large and growing long-term fiscal imbalance, which is
driven largely by known demographic trends and rising health care costs, coupled with
new homeland security and defense commitments, serves to sharpen the need to
fundamentally review and re-examine the base of federal entitlement, discretionary, and
other spending and tax policies. For example, as we look ahead, our nation faces an
unprecedented demographic challenge, with significant budgetary, economic, and other
implications. Between now and 2035, the number of people who are 65 years old or over
will double, driving federal spending on the elderly to a larger and ultimately
unsustainable share of the federal budget. As a result, tough choices will be required to
address the resulting structural imbalance.

The federal government’s gross debt as of September 2003 was about $7 trillion, or about
$24,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country. But that number excludes such
items as the gap between promised and funded Social Security and Medicare
commitments and veterans health care benefit commitments provided through the
Department of Veterans Affairs. If these items are factored in, the current dollar burden
for every American rises to well over $100,000. In addition, the new Medicare
prescription drug benefit will add thousands more to that tab.

The Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds report annually on the
current and projected status of these programs over the next 75 years. As highlighted in
our report last year, the 2003 trustees’ reports stated that the fundamentals of the financial
status of both Social Security and Medicare remain highly problematic.11 However, the
trustees reported that Medicare faces financial difficulties that are more severe than those
confronting Social Security because Medicare program costs are projected to rise faster
than Social Security program costs. In their 2003 report, the trustees once again stated
that action to address the financial difficulties facing Social Security and Medicare must
be taken in a timely manner and that the sooner these financial challenges are addressed,
the more varied and less disruptive the solutions can be. In addition, the new prescription
drug benefit, which is one of the largest unfunded commitments ever undertaken by the
federal government, will serve to increase this financial and fiscal challenge. The trustees
will include an official estimate of the discounted present value cost of this new benefit
over the next 75 years in their annual report, which is scheduled for issuance in March
2004. Preliminary estimates of the long-term cost are in the trillions of dollars in
discounted present value terms over a 75-year period.
The Congress and the President face the challenge of sorting out the many claims on the
federal budget without the budget enforcement mechanisms or fiscal benchmarks that
guided the federal government through the years of deficit reduction into a brief period of
federal surpluses. While a number of steps will be necessary to address this challenge,
truth and transparency in federal government reporting are essential elements of any
attempt to address the nation’s long-term fiscal challenges. The fiscal risks just
mentioned can be managed only if they are properly accounted for and publicly
disclosed, including the many existing commitments facing the government. In addition,
new budget control mechanisms will be required, along with effective approaches to
successfully engage in a fundamental review, reassessment, and reprioritization of the
base of federal government programs and policies that I have mentioned previously.

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gesamter Thread:

• Wirtschaftsprüfer verweigern Treasury Testat für Budget nach GAAP - CRASH_GURU, 09.09.2004, 08:13
  • Re: Wirtschaftsprüfer verweigern Treasury Testat für Budget nach GAAP - Popeye, 09.09.2004, 10:57
  • Re: Wirtschaftsprüfer verweigern Treasury Testat / wo steht dieser Text?... - - Elli -, 09.09.2004, 12:42
    • Re: Wirtschaftsprüfer verweigern Treasury Testat / wo steht dieser Text?... - Popeye, 09.09.2004, 12:48
  • Re: Das ist wirklich ein Hammer - ---Elli---, 09.09.2004, 16:34
    • Re: Das ist wirklich ein Hammer - off-shore-trader, 09.09.2004, 17:55
      • Re: Elliott-Marktpsychologie auf höchstem Wellenniveau - Digedag, 09.09.2004, 18:48