Careers
Financial Management and Assurance
Our Work
Recent Accomplishments
Ongoing Projects
Key Contacts
Our Work
The mission of the Financial Management and Assurance team is twofold. First, we help to transform the federal government’s financial operations to meet the challenges of the 21st century, including those related to financial management infrastructure, accountability for assets and operations, and the reliability of financial information. Our focus in this area is on actions needed to ensure that timely, accurate, and useful financial information is available for making decisions, monitoring performance day to day, and maintaining accountability and stewardship. Second, primarily through our Forensic Audit and Special Investigations Unit (FSI), we support congressional oversight by exposing fraudulent, wasteful, and abusive activities across government. Our areas of expertise include financial audits, forensic audits and investigations, accounting and auditing standards, and financial analysis.
We help Congress ensure the full and effective implementation of the 1990 Chief Financial Officers Act, the 1994 Government Management Reform Act, the 1996 Federal Financial Management Improvement Act, and other crosscutting financial management legislation. A key driver of this work is the legislative requirement for GAO to audit the U.S. government’s annual financial statements and conduct other mandated financial audits. Further, we identify opportunities for improving accountability for assets through our FSI security vulnerability assessments, forensic audits, and special investigations of areas of government operations that are vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse.
Recent Accomplishments
- Auditing the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government, which included reporting that the federal government’s financial exposure totaled about $50 trillion as of September 30, 2006—a burden of about $170,000 for every American.
- Conducting forensic audits and investigations, which resulted in the disclosure of an estimated $1 billion in improper and potentially fraudulent payments associated with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
- Carrying out audits of contractor tax payment practices, which exposed government contractors that used federal payroll taxes withheld from their employees for personal gain.
- Conducting audits identifying issues affecting the health and pay of deployed military service members.
- Proactively fostering effective transformation of the accounting profession.
Ongoing Projects
- Developing a comprehensive revision to Government Auditing Standards to better serve the public interest and to maintain a high degree of integrity, objectivity, and independence for audits of government entities.
- Carrying out mandated financial audits of the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
- Providing independent evaluation of federal agencies’ investments in financial management systems.
- Evaluating internal control and financial management practices in areas critical to enhanced performance and accountability.
- Identifying and suggesting solutions to new and emerging high-risk financial management operations.
- Identifying internal control weaknesses resulting in fraud, waste, abuse, or loss of funds or other assets through forensic audits and investigations.
- Identifying ways to strengthen intergovernmental relations to achieve the common goal of transforming government financial management at all levels—state, local, and federal.
- Promoting the adoption of sound cost accounting practices.
- Evaluating cost accounting systems and linking cost and performance information.
Key Contacts
Managing Directors: McCoy Williams, Gregory D. Kutz
Directors: Abraham D. Akresh, Kay L. Daly (Acting), Gary T. Engel, Jeanette M. Franzel, Robert E. Martin, Paula Rascona, Steven J. Sebastian
Phone: (202) 512-2600
Mailing Address:
U.S. Government Accountability Office
Financial Management and Assurance
Room 5061
441 G Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20548