Implementation of the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act of 1982

GAO discussed first-year efforts to implement the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act. GAO noted that agencies generally made adequate efforts to implement the act by assessing the vulnerability of their internal controls and accounting systems and by submitting the required reports. GAO stated that material weaknesses reported by agencies included problems with: (1) accounting and financial management systems; (2) eligibility and entitlements; (3) grant, loan, and debt collection management; (4) procurement; (5) property management; (6) automatic data processing (ADP); (7) cash management; and (8) personnel and organizational management. GAO suggested improvements for second-year implementation of the act, including the need to: (1) include all agency operations in the evaluation process; (2) prepare adequate documentation; (3) better train managers to implement the evaluation process; (4) more thoroughly consider ADP controls in evaluations; and (5) increase efforts to evaluate accounting systems. In addition, GAO called for an effort to reform Government financial management that would stress four key elements: (1) strengthened accounting, auditing, and reporting; (2) improved planning and programing; (3) a streamlined budget process; and (4) systematic measurement of performance.