**GAO-08-711R**                      Published: May 20, 2008. Publicly Released: May 20, 2008.                  

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## Highlights

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is required by the Government Management Reform Act of 1994 to audit the Consolidated Financial Statements of the U.S. Government (CFS). Certain material weaknesses in financial reporting and other limitations on the scope of our work have continued to result in conditions that have prevented us from expressing an opinion on the federal government's accrual basis consolidated financial statements. To assist us in planning future audits, when we anticipate being able to eventually issue an opinion on the accrual basis consolidated financial statements, we have performed and plan to continue performing selected procedures on certain line items and other areas of interest. The purpose of these procedures is to obtain an understanding of selected federal agencies' accounting and reporting and the audit work being performed in these areas. This letter relates to the fiscal year 2006 accounts payable (A/P) line item. The federal government reported about $58 billion of A/P as of September 30, 2006. Certain federal agencies' auditors reported internal control deficiencies related to A/P. These weaknesses contributed to the CFS material weakness for "Liabilities and Commitments and Contingencies" reported in our fiscal years 2007 and 2006 CFS audit reports.

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## Topics

Auditing and Financial Management

AccountabilityAccountingAccounting proceduresAccounting standardsAccounts payableAllocation (Government accounting)Audit reportsAuditing proceduresFederal agenciesFinancial disclosureFinancial managementFinancial recordsFinancial statement auditsFinancial statementsInternal controlsReporting requirementsFinancial reporting