Summary: Congress passed the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 to improve the federal government's financial management practices, systems, and reporting. Although most of its provisions target executive agencies, the act also broadens audit and management reporting for government corporations. The act strengthens existing audit requirements for government corporations and requires each to issue an annual management report to Congress that includes financial statements, management's statement on internal controls, and the auditor's report resulting from the audit of the financial statement. In addition, the act provides for the inclusion of a reconciliation to the corporation's budget report and other information needed to inform Congress about the corporation's operations and financial condition. This report discusses whether the required financial audits for 1992 were done and whether the corporations issued the management reports. GAO identified the approaches management used to assess internal controls. GAO also determined whether government corporations had enough guidance to effectively implement the act's audit and management reporting requirements.
