Financial Management: Status of CFO Act Implementation at the Department of Commerce

GAO discussed the Department of Commerce's implementation of the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act. GAO noted that: (1) Commerce's CFO and deputy CFO have extensive financial management backgrounds, are committed to the act's objectives, and have developed plans for implementing the act, but they have additional nonfinancial management responsibilities that could distract them from concentrating on financial management issues; (2) Commerce's top financial managers generally do not have the appropriate qualifications and have varying levels of responsibility; (3) staff training has been provided as funds are available and workloads permit, despite a directive requiring departmentwide training for financial management staff; (4) Commerce is developing a comprehensive financial management system, but it needs to address certain management issues before implementing the system; (5) although Commerce's Inspector General has taken steps to perform financial audits of all department entities, many of the audits may not be completed on time because of funding restraints and inadequate staff; and (6) Commerce needs to implement an agencywide financial audit.