Auditing and Financial Management

Recent Reports

June 16, 2022, letter commenting on the AICPA's Exposure Draft, Proposed Statement on Auditing Standards – Special Considerations ⎯ Audits of Group Financial Statements (Including the Work of Component Auditors and Audits of Referred-to Auditors)

Published: Jun 16, 2022.

Publicly Released: Jun 17, 2022.

June 7, 2022, letter commenting on the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants' Proposed Revisions to the Code Relating to the Definition of Engagement Team and Group Audits

Published: Jun 07, 2022.

Publicly Released: Jun 09, 2022.

International Development Association: Additional Information Sharing Could Enhance U.S. Treasury Oversight of Key Risks

GAO-22-104657

Published: Jun 02, 2022.

Publicly Released: Jun 02, 2022.

Congressional Award Foundation: Review of the FY 2021 Financial Statement Audit

GAO-22-105835

Published: May 26, 2022.

Publicly Released: May 26, 2022.

Management Report: IRS Needs to Improve Financial Reporting and Information System Controls

GAO-22-105559

Published: May 25, 2022.

Publicly Released: May 25, 2022.

Management Report: Improvements Needed in FDIC's Internal Control over Contract Documentation and Payment-Review Processes

GAO-22-105824

Published: May 19, 2022.

Publicly Released: May 19, 2022.

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Open Recommendations

Management Report: Improvements Needed in FDIC's Internal Control over Contract Documentation and Payment-Review Processes

GAO-22-105824

May 19, 2022

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2 Open Recommendations

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation	The Deputy Director of the Acquisition Services Branch of the Division of Administration should direct contracting officers to review and follow FDIC's existing policies and procedures for documenting and approving contract modifications to reasonably assure that FDIC sufficiently documents and properly supports contracts. (Recommendation 1)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation	The Deputy Director of the Acquisition Services Branch of the Division of Administration should establish a process to periodically monitor the operating effectiveness of existing policies and procedures to reasonably assure that contracting officers sufficiently and accurately follow existing policies and procedures for contracts. (Recommendation 2)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

DOD Financial Management: Additional Actions Would Improve Reporting of Joint Strike Fighter Assets

GAO-22-105002

May 05, 2022

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12 Open Recommendations

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
Department of Defense	The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment together with the F-35 Program Executive Officer, and in coordination with the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), should develop and document a comprehensive strategy to address the JSF material weakness. The strategy should include (1) complete, detailed procedures; (2) time frames based on an analysis of the time needed to accomplish the procedures; and (3) resources required to design and implement the procedures. (Recommendation 1)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Defense	The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment together with the F-35 Program Executive Officer should develop and document a plan for verifying the completeness of JSF assets recorded in its APSR, including conducting an analysis and documenting the results on the feasibility of performing a wall-to-wall inventory to capture all JSF assets. (Recommendation 2)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Defense	The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment together with the F-35 Program Executive Officer should develop procedures for performing physical inventories of JSF assets held at DOD and international partner facilities. To the extent that the procedures include the F-35 JPO relying on these facilities' staff to perform the physical inventory counts, the office should develop and document a plan that describes how the F-35 JPO plans to review the results of these inventory procedures in order to verify the existence and completeness of the recorded amounts of JSF assets at these locations. (Recommendation 3)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Defense	The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment together with the F-35 Program Executive Officer should develop procedures for performing periodic physical inventories once the initial inventory count has been completed, including how DOD will assess the resources and time needed to conduct the inventories and any sampling methodology intended to be used. (Recommendation 4)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Defense	The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment together with the F-35 Program Executive Officer should develop procedures that outline the steps to periodically capture and verify the accuracy and completeness of JSF asset data from contractors and other DOD sources to be recorded in DPAS until a direct interface with the prime contractors' systems has been established. (Recommendation 5)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Defense	The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment together with the F-35 Program Executive Officer should finalize the business rules within DPAS to identify and populate default characters for missing data elements in JSF asset property records. (Recommendation 6)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

VA Financial Management System: Additional Actions Needed to Help Ensure Success of Future Deployments

GAO-22-105059

Apr 25, 2022

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6 Open Recommendations

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
Department of Veterans Affairs	The FMBT Deputy Assistant Secretary should establish target values for operational and customer experience metrics to allow the program to measure progress over time. (Recommendation 1)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Veterans Affairs	The FMBT Deputy Assistant Secretary should report metrics in relation to target values to help ensure that operational benefits are delivered as intended. (Recommendation 2)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Veterans Affairs	The FMBT Deputy Assistant Secretary, in coordination with appropriate offices within VA, should facilitate the increase of workforce skills and competencies through user completion of core competency training. (Recommendation 3)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Veterans Affairs	The FMBT Deputy Assistant Secretary should ensure that the FMBT program's organizational change management activities assess the readiness for change by conducting organizational change assessments as planned. (Recommendation 4)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Veterans Affairs	The FMBT Deputy Assistant Secretary should ensure that the FMBT program's organizational change management activities adequately assess the results of change by following through on plans to align customer experience questions with organizational change assessments. (Recommendation 5)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Veterans Affairs	The FMBT Deputy Assistant Secretary should include conversion timing risks and issues in the FMBT program's risk and issue register and mitigate the risks and issues for future deployments. (Recommendation 6)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Emergency Relief Funds: Significant Improvements Are Needed to Ensure Transparency and Accountability for COVID-19 and Beyond

GAO-22-105715

Mar 17, 2022

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10 Open Recommendations

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
Congress	Congress should pass legislation requiring the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to provide guidance for agencies to develop plans for internal control that would then immediately be ready for use in, or adaptation for, future emergencies or crises and requiring agencies to report these internal control plans to OMB and Congress. (Matter for Congressional Consideration 1)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Congress	Congress should amend the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 to designate all new federal programs making more than $100 million in payments in any one fiscal year as "susceptible to significant improper payments" for their initial years of operation. (Matter for Congressional Consideration 2)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Congress	Congress should amend the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 to reinstate the requirement that agencies report on their antifraud controls and fraud risk management efforts in their annual financial reports. (Matter for Congressional Consideration 3)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Congress	Congress should establish a permanent analytics center of excellence to aid the oversight community in identifying improper payments and fraud. (Matter for Congressional Consideration 4)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Congress	Congress should clarify that (1) chief financial officers (CFO) at CFO Act agencies have oversight responsibility for internal controls over financial reporting and key financial management information that includes spending data and improper payment information; and (2) executive agency internal control assessment, reporting, and audit requirements for key financial management information, discussed in an existing matter for congressional consideration in our August 2020 report, include internal controls over spending data and improper payment information. (Matter for Congressional Consideration 5)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Congress	Congress should require agency CFOs to (1) submit a statement in agencies' annual financial reports certifying the reliability of improper payments risk assessments and the validity of improper payment estimates, and describing the actions of the CFO to monitor the development and implementation of any corrective action plans; and (2) approve any methodology that is not designed to produce a statistically valid estimate. (Matter for Congressional Consideration 6)	Open When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.