Approval of the Design of the Accounting System for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

The revised design of the accounting system for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was approved as adequate and in conformance in all material respects with approved accounting principles and standards. The design and approval do not include the Centralized Payroll and Leave Accounting System of the Corps because the Department of Defense plans to develop and submit for approval a single standard civilian payroll system which will encompass Corps civilian personnel. The adequacy of the automatic data processing aspects were evaluted as to internal controls, audit trails, data integrity, and consistency with the accounting specifications.

The accounting system of the Corps is required to comply with the Uniform System of Accounts prescribed by the Federal Power Commission (FPC). Inasmuch as the Corps does not depreciate the cost of fee simple land, GAO has agreed to accept this deviation from title 2 of the GAO Policy and Procedures Manual for Guidance of Federal Agencies to allow the Corps to conform with FPC policy. To maintain an approved status, planned changes in the accounting system design should be discussed with GAO personnel and, if determined to be significant, submitted for approval. Corps internal auditors should periodically review the accounting system in operation to be sure that it is operating as prescribed.