Financial Management Systems: Lack of Disciplined Processes Puts Effective Implementation of Treasury's Governmentwide Financial Report System at Risk

摘要

For the past 9 years, since the first audit of the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government (CFS), one of the major impediments to our ability to render an opinion on the CFS is that the federal government has not had adequate system, controls, and procedures to properly prepare the CFS. To address some of the internal control weaknesses identified in our audit report, Treasury began developing the Governmentwide Financial Reporting System (GFRS). The goal of this new system is to directly link information from federal agencies' audited financial statements to amounts reported in the CFS, a concept that we strongly support. We reported internal control weaknesses and GAO recommendations regarding the preparation of the CFS, along with progress made in this area in a separate report. This report provides our assessment of Treasury's ongoing effort to develop and implement GFRS and makes recommendations for reducing the risks associated with the development of GFRS.