About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

GAO-19-294R 1 (2019-03-28)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadvsn0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 




cAO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE
441 G St. N.W.                                                            Comptroller General
Washington, DC 20548                                                      of the United States


March 28, 2019

The President
The President of the Senate
The Speaker of the House of Representatives

Financial Audit: Fiscal Years 2018 and 2017 Consolidated Financial Statements of the
U.S. Government

This report transmits the results of GAO's audit of the U.S. government's fiscal years 2018 and
2017 consolidated financial statements. GAO's audit report is incorporated on page 226 in the
enclosed Fiscal Year 2018 Financial Report of the United States Government (2018 Financial
Report) prepared by the Secretary of the Treasury in coordination with the Director of the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB).

To operate as effectively and efficiently as possible, 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. Our
report on the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements for fiscal years 2018 and
2017 underscores that much work remains to improve federal financial management and that
the federal government continues to face an unsustainable long-term fiscal path.

Our audit report on the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements is enclosed. In
summary, we found the following:

    Certain material weaknesses1 in internal control over financial reporting and other limitations
    resulted in conditions that prevented us from expressing an opinion on the accrual-based
    consolidated financial statements as of and for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2018,
    and 2017.2 About 31 percent of the federal government's reported total assets as of
    September 30, 2018, and approximately 17 percent of the federal government's reported net
    cost for fiscal year 2018 relate to significant federal entities that received disclaimers of







1A material weakness is a deficiency, or 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.
2The accrual-based consolidated financial statements as of and for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2018, and
2017, consist of the (1) Statements of Net Cost, (2) Statements of Operations and Changes in Net Position,
(3) Reconciliations of Net Operating Cost and Budget Deficit, (4) Statements of Changes in Cash Balance from
Budget and Other Activities, and (5) Balance Sheets, including the related notes to these financial statements. Most
revenues are recorded on a modified cash basis.


GAO-19-294R U.S. Government's 2018 and 2017 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:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most