Financial Statements (CongressionalGlossary.com)

From the Congressional Glossary – Including Legislative and Budget Terms

Financial Statements

photo credit: Metro Centric

A document that describes an entity’s financial activity and status for a specified period. Under federal law and applicable accounting standards, the financial statements for a federal agency usually include a balance sheet, statement of net cost, statement of changes in net position, statement of budgetary resources, and statement of financing.

Three long-standing major impediments continued to prevent GAO from expressing an opinion on the federal government’s accrual-based consolidated financial statements: (1) serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense (DOD) that have prevented DOD’s financial statements from being audited, (2) federal entities’ inability to adequately account for and reconcile intragovernmental activity and balances, and (3) the federal government’s ineffective process for preparing the consolidated financial statements. GAO also reported material weaknesses involving billions of dollars in improper payments, information security, and tax collection activities. Also, GAO was prevented from expressing opinions on the 2011 and 2010 Statements of Social Insurance and the 2011 Statement of Changes in Social Insurance Amounts because of significant uncertainties primarily related to the achievement of projected reductions in Medicare cost growth reflected in the statements.

“The Federal Government Faces Continuing Financial Management and Long-Term Fiscal Challenges,” GAO Report, GAO-12-444T, Mar 1, 2012

More

• “The Government Faces Serious Internal Control and Accounting Systems Problems,” GAO AFMD-86-14, December 23, 1985
• Federal Financial Reports – Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB)
• Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Concepts (SFFAC) – FASAB
• Office of Federal Financial Management – OMB
• Financial Management Service (FMS) – Treasury Dept.
• “Financial Management in the Federal Government: Efforts to Improve Performance,” CRS Report RL31965 (16-page PDF)
• “Federal Agency Performance and Accountability Reports (PARs): Content and Access,” CRS Report RL33825 (14-page PDF)
• “Federal Financial Reporting: An Overview,” CRS Report R42975 (31-page PDF)
• “Budgetary Treatment of Federal Credit (Direct Loans and Loan Guarantees): Concepts, History, and Issues for Congress,” CRS Report R42632 (37-page PDF)
• “Defense Primer: Understanding the Process for Auditing the Department of Defense,” CRS In Focus IF10913 (3-page PDF)
• “Federal Credit Programs: Comparing Fair Value and the Federal Credit Reform Act (FCRA),” CRS Report R44193 (32-page PDF)
• “GAO: Government Accountability Office and General Accounting Office,” CRS Report RL30349 (35-page PDF)

Courses

• Congressional Operations Briefing – Capitol Hill Workshop
• Drafting Federal Legislation and Amendments
• Writing for Government and Business: Critical Thinking and Writing
• Custom, On-Site Training
• Congressional Operations Poster, with Federal Budget Process Flowchart
• Federal Budgeting, a Five-Course series on CD
• Congress, the Legislative Process, and the Fundamentals of Lawmaking Series, a Nine-Course series on CD

Publications

The Federal Budget Process 2E

Pocket Constitution

Citizen’s Handbook to Influencing Elected Officials: A Guide for Citizen Lobbyists and Grassroots Advocates

Congressional Procedure

CongressionalGlossary.com, from TheCapitol.Net