Puttin' On the Ritz

For the 10th year in a row, the Association of Government Accountants gathered at the National Press Club in Washington for a star-studded event to recognize Excellence in Accountability Reporting.

Relmond P. Van Daniker, AGA's Executive Director, explains why his organization held this gala event for 250 of its 15,000 members:

All the large agencies, and most of the smaller agencies are required to put together a performance and accountability report. The CFO (Chief Financial Officers) Council asked the AGA to develop a program whereby the agencies could turn in their performance and accountability reports and evaluate them based on criteria of readability and understandability, that would recognize excellence in those reports.

Award recipients this year include:

• Social Security Administration
• Government Accountability Office
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission
• Patent and Trademark Office
• Department of Labor
• Commodity Futures Trading Commission
• Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Department of the Interior
• General Services Administration
• Securities and Exchange Commission
• Small Business Administration.

Daniker adds that one characteristic shared by all the winners has something to do with a clean audit opinion, that is, a report that "presents an organization fairly, and with no qualifications."

Daniker says the members of his group understand full well their role in the successful operation of the federal government.

"When I was teaching," he says, "I would ask the students why we do what we do. The answer is that we provide information so people can make decisions. And the better we provide the information, the better the decision can be."

Daniker says he hopes to have more Federal agencies participate in the accountability reporting awards program next year.

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Association of Government Accountants award announcement

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