U.S. government financial statements: results of GAO's fiscal year 1997 audit: statement of Gene L. Dodaro, Assistant Comptroller General

Original publisher: Washington, D.C. (441 G St., NW, Room LM, Washington 20548) : U.S. General Accounting Office, [1998]. OCLC Number: (OCoLC)42584321 Subject: Finance, Public -- United States -- Auditing. Excerpt: ... 11 the Public Debt. This schedule reported ( 1 ) $ 3.8 trillion of federal debt held by the public comprising individuals, corporations, state or local governments, the Federal Reserve System, and foreign governments and central banks, ( 2 ) $ 1.6 trillion of federal debt held by federal entities, such as the Social Security trust funds, and ( 3 ) $ 246 billion of interest on federal debt held by the public. At the completion of our field work, several agencies have received unqualified opinions on fiscal year 1997 financial statements. These agencies are the: • Social Security Administration. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. • Nuclear Regulatory Commission. • Department of Energy. • • General Services Administration. • Department of Labor. • Small Business Administration. Environmental Protection Agency. • The executive branch recognizes the extent and severity of the financial management deficiencies discussed in this report and that addressing them will require concerted improvement efforts across government. Financial management has been designated one of the President's priority management objectives, with the goal of having performance and cost information in a timely, informative, and accurate way, consistent with federal accounting standards. Also, the administration has made a commitment to complete audits and gain unqualified opinions for all CFO Act agencies and the government as a whole. To help achieve this goal, strategies are being established involving specific agencies. For example, plans at the Department of Defense include completing a new accounting systems architecture, reviewing inventory accounting processes, and developing a departmentwide property accountability system. Treasury and OMB are developing plans...