A Prepared Federal Government: Preventing Fraud and Improper Payments in Emergency Funding

When the government distributes supplemental funding to address various national emergencies such as the global pandemic, time is of the essence. Putting money quickly in the hands of Americans in need benefits vulnerable segments of the American population and stabilizes the nation in a time of crisis. At the same time, transparency and accountability mechanisms are essential to safeguard these taxpayer dollars and maintain public trust.

Financial Management for The Future: How Government Can Evolve to Meet the Demands of a Digital World

Initiatives directed and sponsored by Office of Management and Budget (OMB), General Services Administration (GSA), and the Treasury Department have provided the incentives and guidance necessary to build upon that progress. However, many agencies continue to face challenges meeting certain standards for accounting and reporting, and continue to use outdated financial systems that minimally support their financial performance and accountability. Moreover, some agencies still use legacy financial systems that feed their core Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

What We Know Now: A Look into Lessons Learned Implementing Federal Financial Systems Projects

While the financial management community has made significant progress over the years, it continues to face challenges in meeting some of the basic standards for accounting and reporting. Many agencies currently use outdated financial systems that do not support their efforts to improve financial performance and accountability. Efforts made to improve financial systems through upgrades or replacement of current financial systems must be undertaken with planning and care.

Strengthening Control and Integrity: A Checklist for Government Managers

With the enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 and the extensive reporting requirements stemming from this new legislation, government managers are faced with even greater demands for fiscal accountability and transparency. Maintaining financial integrity over agency data is especially important given the amount of information the public can now access through websites such as Recovery.gov and USASpending.gov. Because of such public scrutiny, government managers must be even more vigilant in ensuring the soundness and quality of their data.

Framing a Public Management Research Agenda

The IBM Center for The Business of Government hosted a forum in November 2009 to examine the Obama Administration's themes for a high-performing government and to frame a public management research agenda.

Participants included nearly 50 of the nation's top public management researchers, scholars, and distinguished practitioners. The forum was an effort to help bridge the gap between research and practice, and to collectively develop a research agenda that would help government executives move things forward.

Audited Financial Statements: Getting and Sustaining "Clean" Opinions

This report examines how organizational factors and management strategies have affected the ability of federal agencies to generate reliable information for financial statements and achieve unqualified audit opinions. By indentifying successful management strategies, this study offers recommendations about how agencies can better approach the recurring requirements to produce annual audited financial statements. Financial Management

Credit Scoring and Loan Scoring: Tools for Improved Management of Federal Credit Programs

The federal government currently administers loan and loan guarantee programs that amount to about $1 trillion of credit outstanding. Credit scoring and loan scoring offer the opportunity for federal credit agencies to devise scoring-based database management systems for a broad range of purposes. When applied to federal direct loans and guarantees, scoring may help some federal credit agencies to improve credit management as well as the implementation of public purposes related to their programs. Financial Management

Efficiency Counts: Developing the Capacity to Manage Costs at the Air Force Material Command

This report presents research on the Air Force Materiel Command’s experience in which a significant, if partial, transformation of expenditure planning and financial management rules and routines occurred within a period of fewer than three years. Financial ManagementOrganizational Transformation

Financial Risk Management in the Federal Government: Overview, Practice, and Recommendations

This report examines the role of financial risk management techniques in government. The goal of this study is to determine which private sector financial risk management techniques are best suited for government adoption. In addition, the report examines the common traits of successful financial risk management adoptions in government, and develops a series of recommendations that will serve as a guide for both agencies and oversight bodies.Financial Management

Transforming Federal Property Management: A Case for Public-Private Partnerships

Professor Long’s report considers the potential for public-private partnerships as a response to federal property management issues. This report focuses on the major property-related issues and the author assesses how public-private partnerships (PPP) might be used to resolve problems such as excess and underutilized property, deteriorating facilities, and reliance on costly leasing. All these issues pose significant challenges to federal property management. The use of PPPs has the potential to effectively respond to these challenges.

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