Implementation of the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act: First Year

Highlights

GAO summarized the results of its governmentwide review of agencies' efforts to implement the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act, which is aimed at strengthening internal control and accounting systems.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
Office of Management and Budget	The Director, OMB, should provide additional guidance to agencies to evaluate their ADP resources and systems by defining general and application controls and suggesting factors to be considered in evaluating them.	Closed – Implemented The OMB Question and Answer Booklet, issued August 13, 1984, defines ADP general and application controls, but provides little additional information or illustrative factors to be considered in evaluating them.
Office of Management and Budget	The Director, OMB, should strengthen year-end reporting by: (1) further defining what constitutes a material weakness using factors specified in this report; and (2) providing more detail for agencies to use in arriving at judgments on the seriousness of their internal control problems.	Closed – Not Implemented The response recognizes that determination of what constitutes a material weakness may continue to differ, but OMB only refers to guidance provided by the House Government Operations Committee to help alleviate the situation.
Office of Management and Budget	The Director, OMB, should provide additional guidance to agencies to evaluate their ADP resources and systems by establishing responsibility for making ADP control evaluations.	Closed – Implemented The only action referred to in the OMB response calls for clarification of responsibility in the area of security over automated information only.
Office of Management and Budget	The Director, OMB, should provide additional guidance to agencies to evaluate their ADP resources and systems by identifying sources of more detailed guidance.	Closed – Implemented The OMB Question and Answer Booklet, issued August 13, 1984, provides some additional general guidance, but there are any number of more detailed guides available that could have been identified.
Office of Management and Budget	The Director, OMB, should strengthen year-end reporting by improving sample report language provided to the agencies to disclose more clearly the basis for the overall opinion on reasonable assurance.	Closed – Not Implemented OMB responded that it does not believe that the language needs to be altered.

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Government Operations

Accounting systemsInternal controlsMaterialityProgram evaluationReporting requirementsMaterial weaknessesMilitary forcesFederal agency accounting systemsReal propertyFederal agencies