Federal Financial Management Improvement Act

The Department's FY 2001, 2002, and 2003 Consolidated Financial Statements received unqualified audit opinions from the Department's OIG. However, the OIG determined that the Department was not in full compliance with the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMIA) because material weaknesses existed for the Department's financial, accounting, and information security programs.

FFMIA builds on the foundation laid by the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990 by emphasizing the need for agencies to have financial management systems that can generate timely, accurate, and useful information with which to make informed decisions and to ensure accountability on an ongoing basis. Full compliance with FFMIA hinges on the continued success of implementing Delphi throughout the Department.

Identified below are the actions each mode has taken to correct the material weaknesses identified.

FHWA

FHWA developed and implemented new accounting policies and procedures on recording and reconciliation of financial transactions. FHWA also established reconciliation processes to ensure data in the grant system agreed with data in the financial management system. Finally, FHWA began work to develop procedures to identify and reconcile all intra- and interagency transactions to include specific coding to identify these transactions in the accounting system.

NHTSA

NHTSA implemented policies and procedures to perform monthly reconciliation of its significant accounts (funds balance with Treasury, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, and grants system).