Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 17. januar 2013 / Time Line January 17, 2013
Version 3.516. Januar 2013, 18. Januar 2013
01/17/2013
Den
amerikanske
præsident Eisenhower
01/17/2013
Congress hasn't authorized US military intervention in Mali. In
particular, Congress hasn't authorized U.S. drone strikes in Mali, writes
Just Foreign Policy med the Washington Post som kilde.
01/17/2013
GAO: A Citizen's Guide to the 2012 Financial Report of the U.S.
Government U.S. Government's Fiscal Years 2012 and 2011
Consolidated Financial Statements
GAO-13-271R, Jan 17, 2013 The Citizen’s Guide (Guide) to the
Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Financial Report of the U.S. Government
summarizes the current financial position and condition of the U.S.
Government (See “Where We Are Now”, p. ii) and
discusses key financial topics, including fiscal sustainability
(See “Where We Are Headed”, p. v). This Guide and the
Financial Report of the U.S. Government are produced by the U.S.
Department of the Treasury in cooperation with the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB). The Secretary of the Treasury, Deputy
Director for Management of OMB, and Comptroller General of the
United States at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) believe
that the information discussed in this Guide is important to all
Americans.
What GAO Found
To operate as effectively and efficiently as possible and to make
difficult decisions to address the federal government’s
fiscal challenges, Congress, the administration, and federal
managers must have ready access to reliable and complete financial
and performance information—both for individual federal
entities and for the federal government as a whole. Even though
significant progress has been made since the enactment of key
federal financial management reforms in the 1990s, GAO’s
report on the U.S. government’s consolidated financial
statements illustrates that much work remains to improve federal
financial management. Further improvements are urgently needed.
GAO found the following:
•Certain material weaknesses in internal control over
financial reporting and other limitations on the scope of its work
resulted in conditions that prevented GAO from expressing an
opinion on the fiscal years 2012 and 2011 accrual-based
consolidated financial statements. About 34 percent of the federal
government’s reported total assets as of September 30, 2012,
and approximately 21 percent of the federal government’s
reported net cost for fiscal year 2012 relate to the Department of
Defense (DOD), which received a disclaimer of opinion on its
consolidated financial statements.
•Because of significant uncertainties, primarily related to
the achievement of projected reductions in Medicare cost growth
reflected in the 2012, 2011, and 2010 Statements of Social
Insurance, GAO was unable to express opinions on the 2012, 2011,
and 2010 Statements of Social Insurance, as well as on the 2012 and
2011 Statements of Changes in Social Insurance Amounts. About $27.2
trillion, or 70.5 percent, of the reported total present value of
future expenditures in excess of future revenue presented in the
2012 Statement of Social Insurance relates to Medicare programs
reported in the Department of Health and Human Services’ 2012
Statement of Social Insurance, which received a disclaimer of
opinion.
•Material weaknesses resulted in ineffective internal control
over financial reporting for fiscal year 2012. •GAO’s
tests of compliance with selected provisions of laws and
regulations for fiscal year 2012 were limited by the material
weaknesses and other scope limitations discussed in the report.
While significant progress has been made in improving federal
financial management since the federal government began preparing
consolidated financial statements 16 years ago, three major
impediments continued to prevent GAO from rendering an opinion on
the federal government’s accrual-based consolidated financial
statements over this period: (1) serious financial management
problems at DOD that have prevented its financial statements from
being auditable, (2) the federal government’s inability to
adequately account for and reconcile intragovernmental activity and
balances between federal agencies, and (3) the federal
government’s ineffective process for preparing the
consolidated financial statements.
In addition to the material weaknesses underlying these major
impediments, GAO identified four other material weaknesses. These
are the federal government’s inability to (1) determine the
full extent to which improper payments occur and reasonably assure
that appropriate actions are taken to reduce improper payments, (2)
identify and resolve information security control deficiencies and
manage information security risks on an ongoing basis, (3)
effectively manage its tax collection activities, and (4)
effectively monitor and report loans receivable and loan guarantee
liabilities.
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