About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

GAO-15-341R 1 (2015-02-26)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaairc0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Comptroller General Washington, DC 20548 of the United States February 26, 2015 The President The President of the Senate The Speaker of the House of Representatives Financial Audit: U.S. Government's Fiscal Years 2014 and 2013 Consolidated Financial Statements This report transmits the results of GAO's audit of the U.S. government's fiscal years 2014 and 2013 consolidated financial statements. GAO's audit report is incorporated in the enclosed Fiscal Year 2014 Financial Report of the United States Government prepared by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The federal government reported a unified budget deficit of approximately $483 billion for fiscal year 2014, a decrease of about $197 billion from fiscal year 2013. However, the federal government continues to face an unsustainable long-term fiscal path. To operate as effectively and efficiently as possible and to make difficult decisions to address the federal government's fiscal challenges, Congress, the administration, and federal managers must have ready access to reliable and complete financial and performance information-both for individual federal entities and for the federal government as a whole. Further, when fully and effectively implemented, the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) will help promote transparency to the public and address ongoing government management challenges by enhancing the quality and expanding the availability of federal spending data. Having better data also will help federal entities make fully informed decisions about how federal resources should be allocated, and provide federal entities and the audit community with additional data analytic tools for detecting and preventing improper payments and fraudulent spending. Overall, significant progress has been made since the enactment of key federal financial management reforms in the 1990s; however, our report on the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements underscores that much work remains to improve federal financial management and these improvements are urgently needed. Our audit report on the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements begins on page 225 of the enclosed financial report. In summary, we found the following: * Certain material weaknesses1 in internal control over financial reporting and other limitations on the scope of our work resulted in conditions that prevented us from expressing an opinion on the accrual-based consolidated financial statements as of and for the fiscal years 1A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the entity's financial statements will not be prevented, or detected and corrected, on a timely basis. A deficiency in internal control exists when the design or operation of a control does not allow management or employees, in the normal course of performing their assigned functions, to prevent, or detect and correct, misstatements on a timely basis. GAO-1 5-341R U.S. Government's 2014 and 2013 Consolidated Financial Statements Page 1

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most