Sunday, October 16, 2005

Internal controls are not just for CFOs anymore OMB says


The Office of Management and Budget later this month will issue a list of best practices to help agencies implement internal controls for financial reporting information. OMB also will start providing feedback to agencies on the plans they submitted in August to put internal controls in place as part of revised Circular A-123.

Financial reporting is not just for chief financial officers anymore. Management needs to get its arms around internal controls, said Linda Combs, OMB controller. Circular A-123 is similar to management compliance requirements for private corporations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed in the wake of corporate fraud at Enron and WorldCom.

“My dream is for every program manager to be a financial manager, or act like one,” she said yesterday at an industry event sponsored by Input of Reston, Va. Internal controls enable managers to make good financial decisions on a daily basis, and that starts at the program level. “We need to show them how to mine and use data better,” she said.

See full Article.