Letter from the Chief Financial Officer
Alison L. Doone
In FY 2010, GSA made significant progress in financial management and again obtained an unqualified “clean” opinion on its FY 2010 consolidated financial statements and clean opinions on the Statement on Auditing Standards 70 reports. There were no material weaknesses identified by the independent auditors.
Throughout the year, GSA demonstrated sound financial planning and management, while meeting the challenges associated with stewardship of $5.9 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funds.
The GSA financial community led multiple process improvements, including:
- Elimination of two significant deficiencies related to:
- Controls over accounting and disclosures of rental income from non-cancellable occupancy agreements; and
- Continued reliance on the worksheet adjustment process to produce financial statements and to ensure that account balances are not significantly misstated. Since this issue was identified in the FY 2008 audit, GSA reduced worksheet adjustments from $5.5 billion in FY 2008 to $1.5 billion in FY 2010.
- Continuing the development of a standardized billing and accounts receivables (BAAR) system that will provide a unified billing process for GSA services and produce a standard bill format for GSA customers who will have online access to their bills. GSA is on schedule to implement the first phase of the system in July 2011.
- Reducing the number of annual paper invoices GSA receives by 25 percent. Electronic invoices increase the accuracy of accounting data, reduce workload and processing time, and improve GSA sustainability.
- Eliminating the manual processing and storage of over 36,000 paper documents each year. GSA reduced costs and increased efficiency by scanning and storing the documents electronically.
- Improving the payment re-capture process to expedite the collection of payments improperly made by GSA. In the past, GSA sometimes took over a year to determine if a payment identified as possibly improper should be sent for collection. In FY 2010, GSA reduced the review to 60 days.
Challenges and opportunities remain, particularly in improving the integration of GSA business and financial systems and strengthening information technology controls.
GSA's FY 2010 Agency Financial Report reflects our commitment to accountability and financial integrity in all financial management services we provide to over 50 internal and external customers. I am pleased to present the FY 2010 financial results, demonstrating our commitment to drive improvements throughout the GSA financial management program.
Alison L. Doone
Chief Financial Officer
November 10, 2010
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