The overall purpose of FFMIA is to ensure that agency financial management systems comply with federal financial management systems requirements, applicable accounting standards, and the SGL in order to provide uniform, reliable, and thus more useful financial information. With such information, government leaders will be better positioned to help invest scarce resources, reduce costs, oversee programs, and hold agency managers accountable for the way they run government programs. The 1990 CFO Act laid the legislative foundation for the federal government to provide taxpayers, the nation’s leaders, and agency program managers with reliable financial information through audited financial statements. Under the CFO Act, as expanded by the Government Management Reform Act of 1994, 24 major agencies, which account for 99 percent of federal outlays, are required to annually prepare organizationwide audited financial statements beginning with those for fiscal year 1996. Table 1 lists the 24 CFO agencies and their reported fiscal year 1996 outlays. Financial audits address the reliability of information contained in financial statements, provide information on the adequacy of systems and controls used to ensure accurate financial reports and safeguard assets, and report on agencies’ compliance with laws and regulations. Building on the CFO Act audits, FFMIA requires, beginning with the fiscal year ended September 30, 1997, that each of the 24 CFO agencies’ financial statement auditors report on whether the agency’s financial management systems substantially comply with federal financial management systems requirements, applicable accounting standards, and the SGL. The financial management systems policies and standards prescribed for executive agencies to follow in developing, operating, evaluating, and reporting on financial management systems are defined in OMB Circular A-127, “Financial Management Systems,” which was revised in July 1993. Circular A-127 references the series of publications entitled Federal Financial Management Systems Requirements, issued by the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (JFMIP), as the primary source of governmentwide requirements for financial management systems. JFMIP initially issued Core Financial System Requirements, the first document in its Federal Financial Management Systems Requirements series, in January 1988. An updated version reflecting changes in legislation and policies was released in September 1995. This document establishes the standard requirements for a core financial system to support the fundamental financial functions of an agency. Framework for Federal Financial Management Systems was published in January 1995 and describes the basic elements of a model for an integrated financial management system in the federal government, how these elements should relate to each other, and specific considerations in developing and implementing such an integrated system. In this regard, FFMIA defines financial management systems as “financial systems” and the financial portions of “mixed systems” necessary to support financial management, including automated and manual processes, procedures, controls, data, hardware, software, and support personnel dedicated to the operation and maintenance of the system. Other documents in the JFMIP series provide requirements for specific types of systems covering personnel/payroll, travel, seized/forfeited asset, direct loan, guaranteed loan, and inventory systems. Table 2 lists the publications in the Federal Financial Management System Requirements Series and their issue dates. In addition to these eight documents, JFMIP is developing additional systems requirements for managerial cost accounting. This document was issued as an exposure draft in April 1997. Federal accounting standards, which agency CFOs use in preparing financial statements and in developing financial management systems, are recommended by FASAB. In October 1990, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Director of OMB, and the Comptroller General established FASAB to recommend a set of generally accepted accounting standards for the federal government. FASAB’s mission is to recommend reporting concepts and accounting standards that provide federal agencies’ financial reports with understandable, relevant, and reliable information about the financial position, activities, and results of operations of the U.S. government and its components. FASAB recommends accounting standards after considering the financial and budgetary information needs of the Congress, executive agencies, other users of federal financial information, and comments from the public. The Secretary of the Treasury, the Director of OMB, and the Comptroller General then decide whether to adopt the recommended standards. If they do, the standards are published by OMB and GAO and become effective. As discussed further in the section “Status of Federal Accounting Standards,” this process has resulted in issuance of two statements of accounting concepts and eight statements of accounting standards. GAO published these concepts and standards in FASAB Volume 1, Original Statements, Statements of Federal Financial Accounting Concepts and Standards, in March 1997. In 1984, OMB tasked an interagency group to develop a standard general ledger chart of accounts for governmentwide use. The resulting SGL was established and mandated for use by the Department of the Treasury in 1986. Further, OMB Circular A-127, Financial Management Systems, requires agencies to record financial events using the SGL at the transaction level. The SGL provides a uniform chart of accounts and pro forma transactions used to standardize federal agencies’ financial information accumulation and processing, enhance financial control, and support budget and external reporting, including financial statement preparation. Use of the SGL improves data stewardship throughout the government, enabling consistent analysis and reporting at all levels within the agencies and at the governmentwide level. It is published in the Treasury Financial Manual. The Department of the Treasury’s Financial Management Service is responsible for maintaining the SGL. As part of a CFO agency’s annual audit, the auditor is to report whether the agency’s financial management systems substantially comply with federal financial management systems requirements, applicable accounting standards, and the SGL. If the auditor determines that an agency’s financial management systems do not substantially comply with these requirements, the act requires that the audit report (1) identify the entity or organization responsible for management and oversight of the noncompliant financial management systems, (2) disclose all facts pertaining to the failure to comply, including the nature and extent of the noncompliance, the primary reason or cause of the noncompliance, the entity or organization responsible for the noncompliance, and any relevant comments from responsible officers or employees, and (3) include recommended corrective actions and proposed time frames for implementing such actions. The act assigns to the head of an agency responsibility for determining, based on a review of the auditor’s report and any other relevant information, whether the agency’s financial management systems comply with the act’s requirements. This determination is to be made no later than 120 days after the receipt of the auditor’s report, or the last day of the fiscal year following the year covered by the audit, whichever comes first. If the head of an agency determines that the agency does not comply with the act’s requirements, the agency head, in consultation with the Director of OMB, shall establish a remediation plan that will identify, develop, and implement solutions for noncompliant systems. The remediation plan is to include corrective actions, time frames, and resources necessary to achieve substantial compliance with the act’s requirements within 3 years of the date the noncompliance determination is made. If, in consultation with the Director of OMB, the agency head determines that the agency’s financial management systems are so deficient that substantial compliance cannot be reached within 3 years, the remediation plan must specify the most feasible date by which the agency will achieve compliance and designate an official responsible for effecting the necessary corrective actions. Under the FFMIA process, the auditor’s and the agency head’s determinations of compliance may differ. In such situations, the Director of OMB will review the differing determinations and report on the findings to the appropriate congressional committees. The act also contains additional reporting requirements. OMB is required to report each year on the act’s implementation. In addition, each inspector general (IG) of the 24 CFO agencies is required to report to the Congress, as part of its semiannual report, instances in which an agency has not met the intermediate target dates established in its remediation plan and the reasons why. Efforts are underway to implement FFMIA and improve the quality of financial management systems. OMB recently issued implementation guidance in a memorandum dated September 9, 1997, for agencies and auditors to use in assessing compliance with FFMIA. This is interim guidance to be used in connection with audits of federal financial statements for fiscal year 1997. OMB’s guidance emphasizes implementation of federal financial management improvements by fully describing in separate sections each of the requirements under the act, which are (1) federal financial management systems requirements, (2) applicable federal accounting standards, and (3) the SGL at the transaction level. Each section begins by identifying and discussing the executive branch policy documents that previously established the requirement. Information is also provided on the meaning of substantial compliance and the types of indicators that should be used in assessing whether an agency is in substantial compliance. For example, one indicator of substantial compliance with financial management systems requirements would include financial management systems that meet the requirements of OMB Circular A-127. Likewise, an indicator of substantial compliance with financial accounting standards would include an agency that has no material weaknesses in internal controls that affect its ability to prepare auditable financial statements and related disclosures in accordance with federal accounting standards. Information is also provided for the auditor to consider in evaluating and reporting audit results, as well as other reporting requirements. The guidance states that the auditor shall use professional judgment in determining substantial compliance with FFMIA. Further, substantial noncompliance in any one or more of the three requirements of FFMIA would result in substantial noncompliance with FFMIA. For example, an agency could have an unqualified opinion on its financial statements indicating that the financial statements are prepared in accordance with applicable federal accounting standards, yet have financial management systems that are not in substantial compliance with financial management systems requirements. This situation would preclude the agency from being in substantial compliance with FFMIA.