Highlights
Register Now for AGA's Fraud Conference
AGA's Sixth Annual Internal Control & Fraud Conference is set for Sept. 19–20, 2011 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. The conference is worth 14 CPE hours.
Sessions focus on the responsibilities of all accountability professionals in ensuring a good system of internal controls to lower the risks of wrongdoing.
Who Should Attend? This conference is for you if you work for or with inspectors general, state auditors and comptrollers, federal auditors, accountants, internal control and risk management professionals, and financial and program managers.
View Monday's agenda
View Tuesday's agenda
Register online and save $25.
Keynote Speakers:
Patrick Kuhse, an Ethics Fellow at the University of Florida and Suffolk University, will talk about his path from successful stock broker to fugitive. After serving time in prison, he now speaks to audiences about the importance of ethical behavior.
Pamela Meyer, MBA, CFE, CEO of Simpatico Networks, will speak on the “secret science” of lie detection and interrogation. Author of Liespotting, Meyer has extensive training in the use of visual clues and psychology to detect deception.
Session Highlights:
Looking for Procurement Fraud—Proactive Monitoring, Catching Lies and Protecting Public Funds
Travis J. Farris, Assistant Counsel to the Inspector General, U.S. Small Business Administration; and Michael Kingery, CFE, CIA, CCSA, Assistant Director, Financial Controls, Arizona State University
The Battle Against Improper Payments
Debra Bond, MPA, Deputy Controller, Office of Federal Financial Management, Office of Management and Budget; Michael G. Gallagher, Deputy Commissioner for Budget, Finance and Management and Chief Financial Officer, U.S. Social Security Administration; Patrick P. O’Carroll Jr., Inspector General, U.S. Social Security Administration
The Recovery Operations Center’s Data Mining Tool Promotes Contract Integrity
Michael Wood, Executive Director, Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board
Becoming a Risk-Based Organization: A Multi-Level Look at Integrated Risk Management at DHS
Scott F. Breor, MBA, Deputy Director, Office of Risk Management and Analysis, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Paul A. Cox, Chief, Strategy and Risk Division, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; and Louis M. Farrell, Director, Student and Exchange Visitor Program, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
How to Conduct Effective Online Undercover Investigations
Christopher P. Malone, MCJ, Special Agent, Program Manager, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; and Eric B. Trest, Special Agent, U.S. Department of Defense Representative to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Naval Criminal Investigative Service
Register Today!
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August 29, 2011 • News from the Profession
AGA Today is Brought to You by AGA Corporate Partner Clifton Gunderson
 Clifton Gunderson, ranked as one of the nation's largest certified public accounting and consulting firms, is a leader in providing assurance, risk management, IT security, financial accounting and management, and management advisory services for federal, state and local government agencies. Visit our website at www.cliftoncpa.com for more information.
Point of Contact
Patrick Byer, MBA, CGFM, CPA, CISA, CISM
301-931-2050
Pat.Byer@cliftoncpa.com
Federal News
Pentagon Puts 'Faith' in Achieving Clean Audit by 2017
It's the law: The Defense Department must know how it spends every cent of its budget by 2017. But the agency said only 14 percent of its budget is now auditable. Deputy chief financial officer Mark Easton jokingly said he's overseeing a "faith-based initiative." But with budget cuts on one hand and the continuing costs of war on the other, Easton said he has a lot of faith in preparing the nation's biggest employer for a complete financial audit by 2017. "I can't tell you that everyone in the Department of Defense who is focused on buying ships, airplanes and MRAPs\the vehicles that we use to transport personnel in Afghanistan\see it that way," Easton said. "But I'm convinced that as we strengthen our business practices, it will pay us back. It behooves us to make every dollar count." \Emily Kopp, Federal News Radio. Read more.
Office of Management and Budget Puts Accountability Online
If youfre a bureaucracy junkie, the Office of Management and Budget has a cool toy for you\Performance.gov. It allows users to track the progress, or lack of it, federal agencies are making in a number of areas. Actually much more than a toy for geeks, it can be an important means of holding the administration accountable on its plans to make the government more user-friendly. During a period when many folks seem to want government to do almost nothing, those in government are forced to take extra steps to demonstrate not only that what government does is important, but also that government does its duties as efficiently as it can. \Joe Davidson, The Washington Post. Read more.
AGA Today is Brought to You by AGA Corporate Partner Graduate School USA
 Planning and Managing Skills for Audit Leadership
This advanced course provides guidance in selecting the right audits, helping you learn to accomplish them with higher quality in less time. Develop the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve a high cost/benefit ratio in performing audits and to motivate staff.
September 19|21 or November 2|4, Washington, D.C.
State and Local News
New York State Pension Costs Soar as Tax Cap Offers No Relief
New York's new 2 percent property tax cap could be exceeded in hundreds of communities next year after a double-digit rise in public employee pension costs, which are exempted from the limit. Taxpayer-financed pension charges overall will increase an average of 16 percent for non-uniformed employees and 19 percent for police and firefighters in figures announced Wednesday by Comptroller Tom DiNapoli. "My initial reaction is, 'Well, there goes the tax cap,' " said Peter Baynes, executive director of the state Conference of Mayors. The increase should fall especially hard on cities and towns that have their own police and fire departments, which typically make up a large chunk of total payroll.\Rick Karlin, The Times Union. Read more.
Irene on Path to Test Coffers of State-Run Insurers
Hurricane Irene could be a major test of "insurers of last resort" created by U.S. states to protect homeowners marooned by private insurers. Of the 14 U.S. states in Irene's projected path, at least 10 of them run insurance pools for homes in vulnerable areas. Those insurers, which have ballooned in size in recent years, now have about 677,000 policyholders and overall exposure of $196.2 billion, according to the states. But in many states, such pools rely on homeowners far from the coast to pay for any funding shortfalls if a mega-storm drains the pool's capital. In Florida, for example, people insuring their cars, boats and small businesses can also get hit with surcharges to help pay for the state pool's hurricane claims. Many private-sector carriers began shrinking their exposure to coastal areas in the 1990s, often after complaining that regulators and lawmakers wouldn't let them charge rates that reflect the risks of doing business in areas where hurricanes hit. As a result, total exposure of state-created pools in the U.S. is up 81 percent to $757.9 billion of property from 2005, the last time a major hurricane hit the East Coast. \Erik Holm and Leslie Scism, The Wall Street Journal. Read more.
Private Sector News
The Need for Balance: How Powerful Chairman-CEOs Put Shareholder Value at Risk
What do News Corp, Deere, Enron, Total and Tyco all have in common? None of these companies split the roles of chairman and CEO, a move that can help add independent oversight and foster meaningful discussions in the boardroom. According to Adam Foulke, a Certified Fraud Examiner and corporate governance expert, gin modern corporation law and theory, the primary role of a board of directors is to serve as a fiduciary to the shareholders of the company.h In other words, itfs the job of the board to act on the behalf of shareholders to provide independent oversight of listed companiesf management and operations. Recent scandals at News Corp, Deere, Total, and a number of other companies with combined chairman / CEOs, are helping to raise awareness about the importance of independent board oversight. More broadly, in the U.S., the movement calling for publicly listed companies to split the roles of chairman and CEO is gaining momentum. \Nathaniel Parish Flannery, Forbes. Read more.
Accounting Standards News
FMSB Offers Comment Letter to IPSAB
AGA's Financial Management Standards Board (FMSB) provided comments Aug. 21 to the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) on its exposure draft (ED) titled, Key Characteristics of the Public Sector with Potential Implications for Financial Reporting. This ED highlights certain characteristics of the public sector that may have implications for the development of a conceptual framework and accounting standard setting. Read the comment letter.
FASAB Issues Concepts Statement on Measurement of the Elements of Accrual-Basis Financial Statements in Periods After Initial Recording
 The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) issued a Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Concepts, Measurement of the Elements of Accrual-Basis Financial Statements in Periods After Initial Recording. The statement defines terms used in measuring assets, liabilities and other elements and discusses areas for consideration by the board when it deliberates measurement standards in the future. The concepts do not change existing standards. This is the seventh in the FASAB's series of concepts statements, which set forth objectives and other fundamental concepts on which financial accounting and reporting standards will be based. \FASAB.
GASB Issues Deferrals Proposal
 The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has issued an exposure draft that proposes to reclassify certain items currently reported as assets and liabilities as deferred outflows of resources, deferred inflows of resources, outflows of resources or inflows of resources. The proposal is available on the Documents for Public Comment page of GASB's website.
Upcoming Audio Conferences
Sept. 28: Continuous Monitoring\Management's Window to Preventing Fraud, Waste and Abuse
Oct. 5: SSAE 15 Reporting on Controls\Revised SAS 70 Report and Service Organization Control Reports
2011|2012 Audio Conference Schedule
AGA Offers Sept. 28 Audio Conference on Continuous Monitoring
Continuous monitoring provides a window into critical payment systems and other risks. At the Sept. 28 audio conference, hear how organizations are moving from traditional retrospective/detective activities that result in gpay and chaseh systems to proactive activities and controls that provide continual visibility through analytical tools. The audio conference is set for 2 to 3:50 p.m. EDT and is worth 2 CPE hours.
Speakers are Pamela M. Franceschi, MPA, deputy director, Defense Finance and Accounting Service, U.S. Department of Defense (Columbus, OH); and Matthew A. Jadacki, CGFM, CPA, assistant inspector general, Office of Emergency Management Oversight, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Also joining the panel to share his perspectives and serve as the moderator is AGA Past National President Jeffrey C. Steinhoff, CGFM, CPA, CFE, executive director, KPMG Government Institute and a managing director in KPMG's Federal Advisory Practice.
Cost and registration details can be found online.
Enterprise Risk Management Summit Set for Sept. 22 in Arlington
The Fourth Annual Federal Enterprise Risk Management Summit is scheduled for Sept. 22 at the Crystal City Marriott, Arlington, VA. The theme is, Enterprise Risk Management: Critical Enabler of Organizational Performance, and keynote speakers include Danny Werfel, Controller, Office of Management and Budget, and J. Christopher Mihm, Managing Director, Strategic Issues, Government Accountability Office.
Share in the insights presented by recognized best practice entities, and understand what leading federal agencies are doing to take a more comprehensive view of risk management. The summit combines keynote presentations and breakout sessions covering real-world examples from industry and government, with discussions and feedback from senior government and private sector executives.
Sponsors are George Mason University's School of Management, FederalERM.com and Federal Executives Risk Management Steering Group. Register today.
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