On behalf of the United States U. S. General Services Administration (GSA), I am pleased to provide the FY 2020 Agency Financial Report (AFR). The AFR represents the culmination of our financial management community’s efforts to accurately track and disclose GSA’s financial status, and to ensure that the agency continues to act as a good steward of public funds.
I would like to sincerely thank all of GSA’s financial management personnel for their dedication, diligence, and excellent work in compiling this report, as well as staff from other offices who partner with the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) to assure GSA-wide accountability and transparency.
GSA’s mission is unique within the Federal Government, as the agency provides services directly to other agencies, resulting in a high-volume of interagency financial transactions. On an annual basis, GSA processes nearly two million interagency transactions, totaling approximately $30 billion in Federal spending. This requires financial offices to adopt a broader perspective — we need to optimize our internal operations and costs while also planning and executing critical agency-wide functions.
FY 2020 was a year of significant achievement for GSA OCFO across five focus areas:
- Strengthening OCFO operations;
- Enhancing the quality of OCFO deliverables and services;
- Leading audit management and accountability;
- Delivering value-added services to partners, and
- Achieving Government-wide leadership and impact.
Audit and Compliance
In FY 2020, GSA’s independent auditors identified no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in their annual financial audit. In addition, the auditors did not identify any instances in which GSA’s financial management systems did not substantially comply with the requirements of the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996, and there was no reportable non-compliance with provisions of laws tested.
During FY 2020, GSA followed our established procedures for remediation of audit and non-compliance issues. GSA developed a corrective action plan for each FY 2019 audit finding, which was assigned to a senior accountable official. As a result, all control deficiencies identified in FY 2019 were resolved during the year.
Our auditors identified four new control deficiencies in the FY 2020 audit. These included: user certifications related to GSA’s Order Management System, approvals for new Product Information Catalog Service application users, consistency in semi-annual reviews for the Acquisition Services Fund’s undelivered orders and unfilled customer orders, and the timely processing of terminated employees.
In addition, during FY 2020, GSA focused on bringing increased executive attention to program audit findings reported by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) by implementing an evaluation and reporting process for OIG and GAO audit findings. This process includes elevating compliance issues to senior executives, assigning ownership at the agency leadership level of each audit finding, holding monthly program audit accountability meetings, and reporting on progress to resolve findings based on the established corrective action plan. The enhanced process includes monitoring compliance through audit dashboards.
OCFO Key Accomplishments
In addition to our work strengthening the agency’s financial controls environment and key compliance mechanisms, OCFO also focused on delivering value across the agency through the following critical initiatives: Operations, Quality Deliverables, Audit and Accountability, Value-Add Services and Government-wide Leadership.
OCFO made significant progress in FY 2020 toward advancing GSA’s culture of financial transparency, operational excellence, and value-added service. As a trusted partner with GSA’s Services and Staff Offices, OCFO delivered agency-wide impactful workload reduction initiatives, led critical Governmentwide priorities, and continuously sought to perfect internal operations.
This was a challenging year for all. GSA OCFO has proven the ability to forge ahead with our goals and overcome obstacles, and I am looking forward to another year of progress. I appreciate the support I receive from staff and leadership. Our GSA OCFO workforce is high-performing, and I continue to be impressed with their dedication and achievements.
Kind regards,
Gerard E. Badorrek
Chief Financial Officer
November 13, 2020
U.S. General Services Administration
