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Fiscal Year 2006 U.S. Government Financial Statements: Sustained Improvement in Federal Financial Management Is Crucial to Addressing Our Nation's Accountability and Fiscal Stewardship Challenges

GAO-07-607T Published: Mar 20, 2007. Publicly Released: Mar 20, 2007.
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Highlights

GAO is required by law to annually audit the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government. The Congress and the President need to have timely, reliable, and useful financial and performance information. Sound decisions on the current results and future direction of vital federal government programs and policies are made more difficult without such information. Until the problems discussed in GAO's audit report on the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements are adequately addressed, they will continue to (1) hamper the federal government's ability to reliably report a significant portion of its assets, liabilities, costs, and other related information; (2) affect the federal government's ability to reliably measure the full cost as well as the financial and nonfinancial performance of certain programs and activities; (3) impair the federal government's ability to adequately safeguard significant assets and properly record various transactions; and (4) hinder the federal government from having reliable financial information to operate in an economical, efficient, and effective manner.

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AccountabilityAudit reportsBudget deficitFinancial managementFinancial management systemsFinancial statement auditsFinancial statementsFiscal policiesFuture budget projectionsInternal controlsPolicy evaluationReporting requirementsFiscal imbalancePolicies and procedures