Highlights of a Forum Convened by the Comptroller General of the United States: Improving the Federal Government's Financial Management Systems

Since the enactment of key financial management reforms, such as the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990 and the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 (FFMIA), the federal government has devoted significant resources to improving financial management activities and practices. At the same time, continuing attention is needed to address persistent, long-standing accountability problems and to redefine success for federal financial management. Successfully implementing financial management systems has been a particular challenge to the federal government. Many agency financial management systems do not routinely produce the accurate, timely, and meaningful information needed for management decision making. This forum brought together knowledgeable and recognized financial management leaders from the federal government, including the CFO, Chief Information Officer, and Inspector General communities, and selected other officials with extensive experience in financial management from both the public and private sectors. The forum addressed (1) the future of federal financial management, (2) applying lessons learned from federal financial management system implementations, and (3) strategies for transforming federal financial management culture. These highlights do not necessarily represent the views of the organizations that the participants represent, including GAO.