Accountable Accountants

It seems there's not as much trust in the federal government as there could be.

The Association of Government Accountants recently published a new survey measuring public perceptions toward government financial managers and overall government accountability.

On Wednesday's Daily Debrief, Executive Director Relmond P. Van Daniker spoke with FederalNewsRadio's Max Cacas about what his organization learned, what the federal government needs to do and what actions the AGA itself can take.

Van Daniker says the survey showed that the general public is interested in getting financial information from the federal government, but they don't feel this is happening as it should.

"People do want to receive the information, and, unfortunately, they're not getting the information in a form in which they can use it, which, therefore, creates a significant expectation gap. When you have an expectation gap of the magnitude that we have, then people begin to question whether or not the government is being accountable and transparent and then that leads into the question of whether or not the government is being honest and whether or not there's trust in government."

Van Daniker says it's not all the fault of the government, however. Accountants have to be held, well, accountable, too.

"We've been attempting to provide information with financial jargon [and] with audited financial statements that are extraordinarily complex. What I believe we've found here is that people want to receive the information in a form that they can understand. It is our responsibility as government officials and as financial professionals to begin to develop the information so that people can understand it. The responses were overwhelming that they want to get the information and that, too, they're not getting the information in any kind of a form that they can use. You just can't give people a federal budget and then say, 'Oh, go evaluate this.' That's not information -- that's just data."

Van Daniker says this isn't simply a problem that exists inside the Beltway.

"We've got 330-and-some million people in the United States and they are all entitled to receive information that they can read and begin to understand. So we've got to develop approaches and reports that take the accounting ease and put it into something that people can read and understand and that could be published in the local newspaper. This goes for all 88,000 government entities. I'm not leaving any of them out."

So what can be done to solve the problem? Van Daniker says education is the key. He feels that, while they're getting their degrees, accountants should learn how to simplify data.

"I taught for 35 years at the University of Kentucky and I taught governmental accounting. The unfortunate part is that when I left the university, the program ended. So where are we developing the human capital and the knowledge base to have anybody carry on?"

Van Daniker also says that public sector human capital issue needs to be addressed, especially when it comes to financial matters.

"I hope this is a clarion call to the need to do something and to alert people that we're going to take a leadership role as a thought leader in trying to develop reports that people can understand -- and that we need help from folks across the board."

You can find the report and learn more by going to www.agacgfm.org.

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