b'Since 2005, GAO has been ranked in the top five of best places to work in government by the Partnership for Public Service. Last year. we were ranked number one in midsize agencies. We want to keep this going. On AccomplishmentsMost recently, twenty-one to twenty-four agencies are I am very proud that much of our work has led to puttingreceiving clean audits. These laws and others that followed in place governmentwide management reforms thatfundamentally improved the federal governments financial have had lasting impact. We were involved in the Chiefmanagement practices, strengthened internal controls, and Financial Officers Act of 1990, which created a newgive us a much better handle on the governments finances.leadership structure for financial management and addressed improvement of financial management systems, requirementsSimilarly, I also worked with the Congress back in 1996 for audited financial statements, and management reporting.as the Clinger-Cohen Act was being crafted. This act In 1994, I oversaw our Accounting Division. From 1994formally established the role of chief information officers to 1999, I oversaw our Accounting and Informationwithin federal agencies while also putting in place IT Management division.investment practices. Over the years, it became evident that more needed to be done in this area. The recent Federal We worked with Congress in the development and passageInformation Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) of the Government Management Reform Act of 1994. Thisstrengthens the previous law giving agency CIOs greater required that all individual major federal departments andauthority and involvement in their agencies procurement, agencies prepare and have independently audited financialworkforce, and budget matters, while also putting in place statements, as well as preparation of a consolidated financialmore disciplined investment processes. statement covering all accounts and associated activities. During the first set of audits, there were only six of the twenty- In the fraud area, we worked with Congress on the four top agencies that could get a clean audit opinion.development of the Fraud Reduction and Data Analytics Act of 2015 (FRDAA). This law created requirements for federal agencies to establish financial and administrative controls for managing fraud risks more proactively. It was a little disappointing to see that the law hadnt been implemented as much as I hoped before the pandemic. If it had been, perhaps the fraud related to COVID-19 programs could have been reduced.I also pushed for the Data Analytics Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act), which aims to make information on federal expenditures more easily accessible and transparent. It establishes common standards for financial data provided by all government agencies and expanded the amount of data that agencies must provide to the government website, USASpending, to make it more downloadable and transparent. The goal is to improve the ability of Americans to track and understand how the government is spending tax dollars.20 www.businessofgovernment.org The Business of Government'