Accounting News

An accounting report prepared to help keep GAO managers abreast of accounting matters that are of concern to professional organizations is presented. Matters included in the report were topics of discussion at recent professional conferences and topics that were brought to the GAO Accounting and Financial Management Division as part of its official liaison responsibility with professional accounting organizations. Discussions included the GAO reexamination of its current accounting and reporting standards; the revising of GAO standards for audits and efforts to establish a Government Accounting Standards Board; legislative developments on the Model Accounting Bill; the closing of the Cost Accounting Standards Board; the authorization of the Railroad Accounting Principles Board which is intended to reform the economic regulation of railroads; the establishment of a task force on electronic data processing fraud; the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's attempt to reduce its reporting burden by revising its forms, and the question of whether the parent company or the rate payers will get the advantages of the deferred taxes.