Financial Management:
Education Faces Challenges in Achieving Financial Management Reform
T-AIMD-00-106: Published: Mar 1, 2000. Publicly Released: Mar 1, 2000.
Additional Materials:
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Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the challenges the Department of Education faces in achieving financial management reform, focusing on: (1) Education's fiscal year (FY) 1999 financial audit results in the context of related work GAO has performed; (2) the relationship between the audit findings and the potential for waste, fraud, and abuse; and (3) the status of GAO's ongoing study of the department's grantback account.
GAO noted that: (1) Education was not expected to receive a clean or unqualified opinion on its FY 1999 financial statement audits due to the Office of Management and Budget on March 1, because of its financial management weaknesses; (2) as reported in December, the department issued its FY 1998 financial statements over 8 months late and was one of six Chief Financial Officer's Act agencies that received disclaimers--meaning that the auditors were unable to express an opinion--on their financial statements for that year; (3) while Education's financial staff and its contractor have worked very hard over the past few months to prepare Education's FY 1999 financial statements, and the auditors' opinion on that financial statements has improved over that of FY 1998, serious internal controls and financial management weaknesses continue to plague the agency; (4) for FY 1999, Education made significant efforts to work around these weaknesses and produce financial statements; (5) these efforts enabled its auditors to issue qualified opinions on four of its five required financial statements and a disclaimer on the fifth statement; (6) the department also receives annually from its auditors a report on internal controls; (7) this report is significant for highlighting the agency's internal control weaknesses that increase its risk of mismanagement that can sometimes result in waste, fraud, and abuse; (8) the third report that the auditors issue annually is a report on agency compliance with laws and regulations; (9) specifically, the department's auditors reported that it was not in full compliance with three laws; (10) Education continues to be plagued by serious internal control system deficiencies that hinder its ability to achieve lasting financial management improvements; (11) the internal control weaknesses discussed above and in more detail in the auditors' report need to be addressed to reduce the potential for waste, fraud, and abuse in the department; (12) the grantback account holds funds recovered from grant recipients following an audit determination that the recipients made an expenditure of funds that was not allowable or failed to account properly for the funds; (13) for the grantback account, which is part of Education's Fund Balance with Treasury, its auditors reported that Education cannot readily determine to which appropriations the excess funds belong; and (14) the auditors reported that Education is working with Treasury to determine the appropriate accounting for the remaining funds.
Feb 18, 2021
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Financial Audit:
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Funds' 2020 and 2019 Financial StatementsGAO-21-284R: Published: Feb 18, 2021. Publicly Released: Feb 18, 2021.
Nov 16, 2020
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Financial Audit:
Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection's FY 2020 and FY 2019 Financial StatementsGAO-21-174R: Published: Nov 16, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 16, 2020. -
Financial Audit:
Federal Housing Finance Agency's FY 2020 and FY 2019 Financial StatementsGAO-21-201R: Published: Nov 16, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 16, 2020. -
Financial Audit:
Securities and Exchange Commission's FY 2020 and FY 2019 Financial StatementsGAO-21-192R: Published: Nov 16, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 16, 2020.
Nov 10, 2020
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Financial Audit:
IRS's FY 2020 and FY 2019 Financial StatementsGAO-21-162: Published: Nov 10, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 10, 2020. -
Financial Audit:
Office of Financial Stability's (Troubled Asset Relief Program) FY 2020 and FY 2019 Financial StatementsGAO-21-173R: Published: Nov 10, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 10, 2020.
Nov 9, 2020
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Financial Audit:
Bureau of the Fiscal Service's FY 2020 and FY 2019 Schedules of Federal DebtGAO-21-124: Published: Nov 9, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 9, 2020.
Nov 6, 2020
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FY 2020 Excise Tax:
Agreed-Upon Procedures Related to Distributions to Trust FundsGAO-21-163R: Published: Nov 6, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 6, 2020.
Oct 13, 2020
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DOD Financial Management:
Continued Efforts Needed to Correct Material Weaknesses Identified in Financial Statement AuditsGAO-21-157: Published: Oct 13, 2020. Publicly Released: Oct 13, 2020.
Sep 30, 2020
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Financial Management:
DOD Needs to Implement Comprehensive Plans to Improve Its Systems EnvironmentGAO-20-252: Published: Sep 30, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 2020.
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