Accounting organization honors agency performance reports

An independent organization of government accountants announced that it would award the Defense, Energy and Interior departments, among others, for producing high-quality performance reports.

The Association of Government Accountants examined the Performance and Accountability Reports of 21 agencies, which paid $5,000 to have their work judged by the association. The 1990 Chief Financial Officers Act and 2002 Accountability of Tax Dollars Act require agencies to submit Performance and Accountability Reports, which detail how agencies are meeting their goals.

AGA commended Interior and the U.S. Agency for International Development for including letters from the heads of their agencies in their reports and the Education Department and Federal Aviation Administration for identifying trends and challenges. AGA also said Defense, which is often criticized for failing to receive a clean audit of its financial statements, did a good job presenting its material weaknesses and offering a corrective action plan.

Energy, the State Department, USAID and the Highway Trust Fund won kudos for presentation: AGA commended their reports' narrative descriptions and graphic displays of performance data.

AGA also listed examples of creativity in the agencies' Performance and Accountability Reports, including introducing a report by identifying its purpose (Agriculture Department) and adding colors to a chart that described an agency's organization (Education).

Creativity in the reports is important, said Julie V. Bryant, director of performance reporting at AGA. "It is supposed to be a report to the citizenry… so it really should be clear, concise and an easy read, so people can pick it up and say, 'Now I really know what USAID did,'" she said.

Some agencies still have room for improvement. AGA reported that many reports suffered from hard-to-read writing styles and too much information. "They're all probably too long… they need to boil it down to the essence," Bryant said.

Rep. Todd Platts, R-Pa., who has held multiple hearings on financial accountability, said, "I commend the agencies that have worked to make sound financial management a priority. It is important that we in Congress recognize the importance of management issues and that we recognize a job well done. Too often we only see headlines when agencies have problems." He will give the keynote address at an AGA conference July 12.

Eleven awards, called the Certificate of Excellence in Accountability Reporting, will be presented to agencies on Sept. 14 at the National Press Club in Washington.