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The Department of the Treasury today announced that it has received its first unqualified, or clean, auditor's opinion on its Department wide financial statements. The Government Management Reform Act required federal agencies to have their agency wide financial statements audited every year, beginning in fiscal year 1996. Treasury has made steady improvement in both timeliness and quality of its financial statements over the past five years, culminating in this year's unqualified audit opinion.
Despite reaching this financial milestone, the Department acknowledges that it must continue its efforts to correct its financial systems problems. These problems are particularly acute at the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Customs Service. While the IRS received an unqualified opinion on its own financial statements, which was a major accomplishment, the IRS alone is responsible for about half (15 of 32) of the outstanding financial problem areas within the Department. The Department will continue to work with both bureaus to correct this situation.
The Department's financial statements are included in its fiscal year 2000 Accountability Report, the federal government's version of a corporate annual report. The Accountability Report includes management's discussion and analysis of key performance measures, the Department wide financial statements, a description of management control problems, the auditor's report on the Department's financial statements, and other key financial management information.
In his message opening the Accountability Report, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill states that Good stewardship of taxpayer resources is a responsibility I take very seriously. We must provide the taxpayers with real value for the hard-earned tax dollars they entrust to the Treasury. I intend to use this report as a starting place, and to continue to improve Treasury's performance during my tenure here.