Financial Management: Improvements in Air Force Fund Balance With Treasury Reconciliation Process

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) has had longstanding problems in reconciling the transaction activity in its Fund Balance with Treasury accounts. These reconciliation problems hamper DOD's ability to prepare auditable financial statements and have prompted GAO to place DOD financial management on its list of government activities at high risk for waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. In August 1998, DOD developed a strategic plan to improve the reconciliation process for the activity in its Fund Balance with Treasury accounts. DOD reported that the Defense Finance and Accounting Service's (DFAS) Denver Center, which provides support for the Air Force, has made the most progress in implementing this plan and that its process for reconciling the activity in the Air Force General Funds is more comprehensive than that of the other DOD components. This report reviews the Denver center's reconciliation processes to determine (1) the progress the Denver center has made in reconciling the transaction activity in the Air Force General Funds and (2) whether the Denver center's reconciliation concepts, policies, and practices could be used in reconciling the Fund Balance with Treasury activity of other DOD components. GAO found that (1) the Denver center has made progress in developing a comprehensive reconciliation process for the Air Force General Funds' transaction activity in the Fund Balance with Treasury accounts, primarily by increasing management attention. GAO also found that the concepts and policies developed by the Denver center to identify and resolve transaction differences could improve the reconciliation processes of the other DFAS centers that have not made as much progress.