The Joint Program For Improving Accounting In The Federal Government PDF Download

During the past year the General Accounting Office, the Treasury Department, and the Bureau of the Budget have been devoting special effort jointly to the improvement of accounting and financial reporting in the Federal Government. Much of the work done to date has necessarily been with individual agencies in revising their accounting systems and procedures to help in solving urgent major operating problems and producing better information for agency management and for executive and legislative purposes generally. This work has been approached not only from the standpoint of solution of immediate problems, but also to develop basic factors in the present accounting structure of the Government which lead to sometimes supportable charges of inadequate accounting, unnecessary work, and unreliable information, so that such matters can be appropriately handled as part of the broad program which is underway. The program has now reached a point where it is desirable to crystallize policies, objectives, and work areas to guide and direct further action. In line with this there are attached (1) a general statement of policies and objectives, and (2) a summary of work areas in which work is either being done or scheduled.