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

1 1 (August 13, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govdbfk0001 and id is 1 raw text is: August 13, 2020 The Office of Federal Financial Management: An Overview In an effort to improve federal financial management, Congress established the Office of Federal Financial Management (OFFM). A component of the Office of Managementand Budget (OMB), OFFM centralizes the development and implementation of financial management policies, reviews agency audit reports, and leads the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Council, among other statutory responsibilities. Given its centralrole in managing financial management improvements across the executivebranch, OFFM's structure andpolicy focus, as well as the effectiveness of its activities, may raise is sues for Congress. &r§ 1 1 1 n a & JF The ChiefFinancialOfficers Act of 1990 (CFO Act) was the result of five years of bipartisan effort to increase federal accountability through financial management reforms. The CFO Act s ought to improve agency financial management systems to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse of government resources, and ensure agencies produce complete, reliable, tinely, and consistent financial information to infonndecisionmaking. Through the CFO Act, Congress statutorily vested responsibility for coordinating federal financial management practices in OMB. To implement improvements, the CFO Act established OFFM within OMB. The CFO Act established the presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed role ofDeputy Director for Management (DDM), who reports directly to the OMB Director andis the primary official responsible for financial management in the U.S. government (31 U.S.C. §502). The DDM's functions include establishing government-wide policies for executive-branch agencies in the areas of financial management, programand project management, and generalmanagement (31 U.S.C. §503). The CFO Act also established the presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed role ofOFFM Controller (31 U.S.C. § 504). The Controller-who is thehead of OFFM-reports directly to the DDM and is responsible for carrying outthe DDM's financialmanagement functions (31 U.S.C. § 504(a)). The Controller serves a four-year termintended to bring stability to the role, and provide the Controller sufficient time to implement and maintain a federal financial management program In FY2020, the office employed 17 personnel working under the direction of the Controller. The OFFM Controller's financial management functions include establishing financial management policies and requirements in the executive branch, and is suing policies and directives to guide their implementation; advising the DDM on therequirements for developing, operating, and improving financial management systems; leading the activities of theCFO Council, settling disputes among executive agencies around the implementation of financial management policies, and facilitating the exchange of best practices with state and local governmentCFOs; and maintaining qualification standards for CFOs and other financial management staff, and providing agencies with advice on their selection and retention. Agency,%, Ak, di , Re,,ow'\s Congress has required most executive branch agencies to prepare annual audited financial statements and submit themto Congress and the OMB Director (31 U.S.C. § 3515(a)). Auditors appointed by agencyinspectors general must also submit the accompanying audit reports to the agency head and the OFFM Controller (31 U.S.C. § 3521(0). In practice, these audit reports are included with the agency financial s tatements in an annual report. OMB CircularA-136provides guidance to executive- branch agencies on thepreparation of audited financial s tatements and annual reports (31 U.S.C. § 3515(d)). These annualreports can take the fonnof a Performance and Accountability Report (PAR) or an Agency Financial Report (AFR) for executive-branch agencies, and an Agency Management Report (AMR) for government corporations. OFFM reviews these annual reports to verify that they contain the required information-as documented in CircularA-136--in additionto compiling and tracking material weaknesses described in the annual reports. Go ,e,-r'-,e,,,t..de ,.,--,p ,, K an OMB iust annually submit to Congress a government- wide five-year plan describing how the OMB Director, the DDM, the OFFM Controller, and agency CFOs plan to improve federal financialmanagement (31 U.S.C. § 3512(a)). The five-year plan must (1) provide a strategy for integrating agency financial management systems, (2) identify projects for bringing systems into compliance with A A '2 k y\

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.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most