Financial compliance can be costly, whether in the private or public sector. MorganFranklin, a financial and technology consultant, surveyed federal financial practitioners at a recent Association of Government Accountants meeting. The results showed just how big a challenge compliance is for federal agencies.

"The reason for the survey was to figure out just how agencies are implementing their compliance requirements, and if the costs for the compliance requirements are staying steady or if they were decreasing," said Isabelle Dikland, the survey's lead author and a senior manager at MorganFranklin. "We were expecting to see a decrease in compliance costs."

Dikland told The Federal Drive with Tom Temin that the results of the survey were a bit of a "mixed bag."

"Some agencies are in fact seeing a slight decrease in compliance cost, while other agencies — and a large portion of them — are seeing an increase," she said.

Dikland credited the increase in cost to a constant flow of compliance requirements that agencies are implementing on a piecemeal basis.