Section Contents
- Mission Statement
- Organizational Structure
- Our Focus on Existing Priorities
- Our Focus on New Priorities
- The President’s Management Initiatives
- Management Controls, Systems, and Compliance with Laws or Regulations
- Followup to the Inspector General’s Recommendations
- Forest Service’s Financial Highlights for 2003
- Forest Service’s Performance Highlights for 2003
- 2003 Forest Service Performance Indicators and Trends
- Validation, Verification, and Limitations of Data Sources
Management's Discussion and Analysis
Management Controls, Systems, and Compliance with Laws or Regulations
Management Controls
The Federal Managers’ Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA) requires agencies to provide an assurance statement that Federal programs are operated efficiently and effectively and to provide reasonable assurance that obligations and costs comply with applicable laws and regulations; Federal assets are safeguarded against fraud, waste, and mismanagement; and transactions are accounted for and properly recorded.
Within the Forest Service, the Chief; deputy chiefs; regional foresters; and directors for the research stations, Northeastern Area Office, Forest Products Lab, Job Corps, and the International Institute of Tropical Forestry are responsible for ensuring that their programs
are operating efficiently, effectively, and in compliance with relevant laws and that financial management systems conform to applicable laws, standards, principles, and related requirements.
The USDA goal is to eliminate material deficiencies by the end of FY 2004. In conjunction with the Office of Inspector General (OIG), Forest Service management is working aggressively to determine the root causes of material deficiencies and moving quickly to remedy them. The Forest Service’s management controls program ensures compliance with FMFIA, and with OMB Circulars A-123, Management Accountability and Control and A-127 Financial Management Systems, except for the weakness identified below.
In FY 2003, Forest Service reduced the number of material deficiencies. The following FMFIA material deficiencies have been fully corrected or reassessed and determined to be no longer material.
Number and Title of Material Deficiency |
Year Identified |
Status |
|---|---|---|
FS 91-02: Adequacy of Financial Systems |
1989 |
Downgraded |
FS 92-01: Administration of Lands Special Use Permits |
1992 |
Downgraded |
FS 00-01: Performance Reporting |
2000 |
Downgraded |
FS 01-01: Timber Sale Environmental Analysis |
2001 |
Downgraded |
FS 03-02: Systems Nonconformance |
2003 |
Reassigned to USDA |
The Forest Service’s goal for FY 2004 is to eliminate the remaining deficiency, Internal Control Weakness: Overall Financial Management (FS-03-01), by year end.
Material Deficiency Description |
Corrective Actions Remaining to be Taken |
Year Identified |
Estimated Completion Date |
|---|---|---|---|
FS-03-1 Internal Control Weakness: Overall financial management controls not adequate. Source: OIG Audit No. 08401-1-FM |
Issue new policy requiring supervisory review of property transactions and to improve capitalization controls. Finalize the process to certify payroll. |
FY 2003 |
FY 2004 |
Financial Systems
Under the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMIA), agencies are required to report whether financial management systems substantially comply with the Federal financial management systems requirements, Federal accounting standards, and the United States Government Standard General Ledger at the transaction level. If an agency is not in compliance with the FFMIA, a remediation plan is required to bring the agency’s financial management systems into substantial compliance.
The following are areas of FFMIA noncompliance in the Forest Service:
- The Forest Service systems (PONTIUS, PRCH, EMIS, PROP, INFRA, Central, ATSA, and PAYCHECK7) are not compliant with Federal Financial Management System requirements.
- Forest Service revenue collections from certain business processes are not recognized as revenue when earned.
- The Forest Service used improper accounting for Budgetary Resources in special and nonrevolving trust funds.
- The Forest Service had other accounting errors and lack of budgetary/proprietary synchronization.