Status, Progress, and Problems in Federal Agency Accounting During 15 Months Ended September 30, 1976

During the 15 month period which ended September 30, 1976, the Comptroller General approved the designs of 32 executive agency accounting systems. Principles and standards have been approved for 98 percent of the 338 accounting systems which are subject to approval. Fifty-two percent of the system designs have now been approved.

The Departments of Labor, the Treasury, Commerce, and Transportation have all or most of their accounting systems approved. The Department of Agriculture is pursuing a program of accounting systems development, but its completion is still several years away. Although a departmental system for the Department of Housing and Urban Development has been approved, the Department has never completed the designs of its subsystems. The Department of Defense made little progress in obtaining approval of its systems until recently. However, in the last 4 years, 54 subsystems have been approved, mostly in the Air Force. The Departments of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW); Interior; and State have progressed so little that there is concern that they will not have approved accounting systems in the near future. Of the 19 accounting systems subject to approval in HEW, only five have been approved. The unapproved systems included the Social Security Administration system, one of the largest in the Government. HEW has consistently failed to meet target dates established for submitting the systems for approval.