Financial Management: Continued Momentum Essential to Achieve CFO Act Goals

GAO discussed the progress being made to implement financial management reforms through the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act. GAO noted that improving financial management through implementation of the CFO Act requires: (1) implementing expanded requirements for financial statement audits to improve the reliability of data for decisionmaking; (2) strengthening the efficiency of revenue collection operations and controls; (3) building stronger financial management organizations by upgrading skill levels, enhancing training, and ensuring that CFO possess the necessary authority to achieve change; (4) better solutions to address problems with agencies' underlying financial systems; and (5) designing accountability reports to allow more thorough and objective assessments of agencies' performance and financial conditions and to enhance the budget preparation and deliberation process.