Audit: Federal Bookkeeping Woeful By CURT ANDERSON .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- From $12.6 billion in improper Medicare payments to unaccounted-for bullets and bombs, the federal government still does a woeful job of keeping its financial books, according to an audit released Wednesday. Surprisingly, the second government-wide audit by the congressional General Accounting Office was praised as good news because at least things weren't as bad in fiscal 1998 as they were the year before. ``Progress is coming, but we've sure got a lot to do,'' said Rep. Steve Horn, R-Calif., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee's panel on management. Comptroller General David Walker, who heads the GAO, told the panel that 24 major federal agencies don't properly account for ``a majority'' of the $466 billion in assets they hold. These range from buildings to heavy equipment to ammunition. It doesn't necessarily mean the assets are missing, although some are. But it shows most government agencies don't have the basic financial controls that are commonplace in any private business. The government's financial statements, Walker said, ``do not provide a reliable source of information for decision-making by the government or the public.'' The audit revealed numerous other problems, including inadequate data on loans and liabilities such as veterans' benefits, poor computer security, vast underestimates for costs such as environmental and nuclear cleanups and even lack of documentation to support the costs of many day-to-day government operations. While the full extent of improper payments made by government agencies is unknown, the Health and Human Services Department estimated that $12.6 billion of its fee-for-service Medicare payments -- about 7 percent -- should not have been made in 1998. Yet that's down from $23.2 billion in 1996, which Walker cited as an example of why accurate accounting matters. When the problem can be measured and analyzed, he said, government managers can better focus on finding solutions. Separately, Horn released his own ``report card'' that graded federal agencies in three financial categories: reliable information, effective internal controls and compliance with laws and regulations. Horn gave only NASA and the National Science Foundation an ``A'', while 12 agencies either got an ``F'' or hadn't submitted their statements as required by Tuesday. ``If these were my kids and their report cards, they'd be grounded,'' said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va. ``This is just unacceptable.'' Despite all these problems, the Clinton administration's Office of Management and Budget expects 13 of the 24 agencies to receive ``clean'' audits of their financial statements in fiscal 1998. That compares with only one in 1993. ``Given where we were in 1993 and the obstacles we faced, the progress we have made to date is extraordinary,'' said Edward DeSeve, OMB deputy director for management. ``We are working hard to resolve the problems, but much work remains to be done.''
