Board Considers Project Approach on Dedicated Collections

The Board reviewed a staff presentation that analyzed areas needing clarification in the current standard on dedicated collections in Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Standards 7 (SFFAS 7), Accounting for Revenue and Other Financing Sources. The Chairman suggested that the Board concentrate on defining and identifying the accounting and reporting issues on "dedicated revenues" and  "non- government revenues." After discussing the characteristics of the types of funds holding dedicated revenues and non- government assets, the Board decided to split the project into two categories to examine "dedicated revenues" and "non- government revenues." Since several Board members suggested revisiting the issue of whether some dedicated collections constitute liabilities, the Board also decided to analyze the characteristics of selected funds against the liability standard in SFFAS 5, Accounting for Liabilities of the Federal Government.

Point of contact: Andrea Palmer, 202- 512- 7360, palmera@ fasab. gov.

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FASAB Staff Publishes Guide For Preparing the Statement of Financing

The FASAB staff has issued an updated guide for preparing the Statement of Financing entitled, Implementation Guide to the Statement of Financing in Statement on Federal Financial Accounting Standards No. 7, Accounting for Revenue and Other Financing Sources and Concepts for Reconciling Budgetary and Financial Accounting. The Statement of Financing explains the difference between the budgetary accounting system's "net obligations"  and the proprietary accounting system's  "net cost of operations" by setting forth the items reconciling the two amounts.

In September 2001, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) re- issued its instructions to federal agencies for preparing financial statements, Bulletin 01- 09, Form and Content. The Implementation Guide uses the new Office of Management and Budget illustrations of the Statement of Financing and other statements to explain the underlying concepts for the Statement of Financing and to provide detailed information about specific line items on the statement.

The Implementation Guide was prepared with the assistance of staff from the Office of Management and Budget and the Financial Management Service of the Department of the Treasury as well as J. Thomas Luter, under contract to FASAB. Representatives of the General Accounting Office, the Departments of Defense and Agriculture, the Federal Housing Administration, and the accounting firm of KPMG reviewed the Implementation Guide. The staff gratefully acknowledges these contributors whose time, effort, and comments made the Implementation Guide possible.

Copies of the Implementation Guide will be distributed to those on the FASAB mailing list and are available at the FASAB Web site, www. fasab. gov/ reports. htm. Point of contact: Richard Fontenrose 202- 512- 7358, fontenroser@ fasab. gov

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FASAB Welcomes Newest Staff Member Melissa L. Loughan

In April 2002, the FASAB welcomed its newest staff member, Melissa Loughan. Melissa comes to FASAB from the Department of Commerce where she began her Federal career in 1993. At Commerce, Melissa was an audit manager in the Office of Inspector General. She performed financial statement audits as equired by the Chief Financial Officer''s Act and worked on several first clean audits in the Federal Government. After working for the Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General for two years as a technical reviewer over financial statement audits, Melissa returned to the Department of Commerce to the Chief Financial Officer's office. There, she prepared the Department's first Accountability Report for FY 1999, which received a clean audit opinion (the Department's second Accountability Report for FY 2000, which received the Certificate of Excellence in Accountability Reporting. Melissa also was responsible for audit follow- up, financial policy updates, and working on the Department's Government Performance and Results Act GPRA) Task Force. As a result of her accomplishments toward improved financial reporting at the Department of Commerce, Melissa received four Bronze Medals.

Melissa graduated with honors from Mary Washington College, receiving a BS in Business Administration and Accounting. She is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Virginia and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Association of Government Accountants.

Welcome, Melissa. FASAB looks forward to benefiting from your expertise on its staff.

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Board Discusses Responses to Technical Bulletin Exposure Draft

At its April meeting, the Board reviewed the eleven comment letters received on the exposure draft for Technical Bulletin 2002- 1, Assigning to Component Entities Costs and Liabilities that Result from Legal Claims Against the Federal Government. In response to comments, the Board made minor editorial changes to the draft and asked staff to expand the Basis for conclusions to address some other minor concerns; it did not change the effective date of the document from FY 2002 to FY 2003 as suggested by one respondent. Staff will provide the revised technical bulletin to the Board for an "objection only" review period. If a majority of the Board does not object, the revised technical bulletin will be released. Projected release date would be mid- summer 2002.

Point of contact: Monica Valentine, 202- 512- 7362, valentinem@ fasab. gov.

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Board 2002 Calendar

All meetings will be held in the General Accounting Office Building, 441 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20548, from 9: 00 a. m. until 4: 00 p. m. Room numbers will be available before each meeting. The meeting agenda will be released approximately one week before the meeting. The agenda will be available via the electronic mailing list, the FASAB website, or by calling, 202- 512- 7350.

Meeting dates:

June 18 and 19 August 7 and 8 October 9 and 10 December 11 and 12

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AAPC 2002 Calendar

All Accounting and Auditing Policy Committee meetings will be held from 1: 30 to 4: 00 p. m. in room 6N30 of the GAO Building (441 G Street NW).

Meeting dates:

May 9 July 17 September 4 November 6

Agendas will be posted to the FASAB web page one week prior to meetings.

Point of contact: Monica R. Valentine, 202- 512- 7362, ValentineM@ fasab. gov Department's first), and the

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FASAB to Transition to Limited Mailings of Printed Documents

We posted this notice in the last edition of FASAB News. However, because of administrative delays, some of you may not have received the newsletter in sufficient time to read this notice. Therefore, we are posting it again.

We have been faced with increased delays in printing and traditional mail delivery. We also appreciate that there is increased public access to electronic means. Therefore, we believe that routinely mailing printed copies of our products, specifically exposure drafts and this newsletter, is no longer an efficient option. Since most of our products contain time- sensitive material (defined comment periods, Board meeting topics, etc.), we believe that the exclusive use of electronic media will allow us to focus our efforts on getting the widest and timeliest dissemination of products and the broadest response base. We are beginning to plan for discontinuing our routine mailings and will establish a target date in the next two months to accomplish the change. Visit www. fasab. gov to subscribe to the e- mail service.

We welcome your comments as we develop our plan. Please let us know what access you have to electronic communication (e. g., fax, email, or Internet) and in which FASAB products you are most interested. Also, please let us know if and how you believe that either 1) continued traditional printed copy mail delivery or 2) electronic delivery of our exposure drafts and newsletters would help or hinder your ability to comment in a timely manner, or conduct other FASAB- related business, such as attending Board and AAPC meetings. Of course, even if we change the policy to eliminate routine mailing of printed documents, you will continue to be able to request that a printed copy of our documents be mailed to you by calling FASAB at 202- 512- 7350.

If you have electronic access, please fax comments to us at 202 512- 7366 or e- mail them to fasab@ fasab. gov. If you do not have electronic access, please send you comments to us at:

Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board
Attn: Wendy Payne
441 G Street NW Suite 6814
Washington, DC 20548

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Reminder: FASABs Web Site has Moved!

Effective December 1, 2001, FASAB's new web address became www.fasab.gov

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Disclaimer

NOTE: The staff of the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board publishes FASAB News following Board meetings to provide highlights of recent Board actions and issues. When an article refers to a Board decision, it should be understood that Board decisions are tentative until FASAB issues a Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Concepts (SFFAC) or Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Standards (SFFAS).

Please direct newsletter editorial questions to Lucy Lomax, 202- 512- 7359, lomaxm@ fasab. gov

Please direct AAPC technical questions to Monica Valentine, 202- 512- 7362, valentinem@ fasab. gov.

Please direct FASAB and AAPC administrative questions to Charles Jackson, 202- 512- 7352, jacksoncw1@ fasab. gov.

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Meeting Attendance Security Reminder

If you wish to attend a FASAB or an AAPC meeting, please provide your  name, organization, and phone number to Marian Nicholson,  202- 512- 7350, or email, nicholsonm@ fasab. gov at least one day prior to the meeting. The General Accounting Office has increased its security procedures and your name must be provided to the security force before you can enter the building. Thank you.