This article describes the outsourcing of deficient accounting and financial software standards and processes to an entire federal bureaucracy at a taxpayer cost of multibillions of dollars, beginning in October 1987, along with the on-going cover-ups at every government level. The financial management contractors (FMCs) involved in this effort include AICPA firms, financial software companies, & mgmt. consulting firms.

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The Obama administration is both victim and perpetrator of the same failed fear-based and secrecy policies that he inherited from prior administrations. His "moving forward and not looking back" strategy prevents implementation of his also promised "open, transparent, and accountable" government reforms that are needed to restructure the federal government and drastically cut the budget deficit. Instead, the purge of government professionals continues for anyone who rightfully questions the gross waste of the government's operation and the stranglehold that corporate America still has over every facet of the federal bureaucracy. The Obama administration's political appointees and career service bureaucrats continued abuse of the government's secrecy, i.e. confidential business information (CBI), policies hide and perpetuate the wrongdoing, gross incompetence, and technically infeasible projects of both prior and current administrations. The overall cost is measured in billions, if not trillions, in taxpayer waste and symptomatic of a failed, broken, and dysfunctional federal bureaucracy obsessed more with protecting its own than serving the American people.

A prime, and documented, example of this exorbitant waste (and infeasible projects) details how financial management contractors (FMCs) have knowing delivered deficient accounting and financial software services to all federal departments, bureaus, and agencies, since October 1987. The FMCs involved in this outsourcing effort and violation of the False Claims Act include AICPA firms, financial software companies, and management consulting firms. Deficient services translate into an entire federal bureaucracy's continued reliance on manually manipulated Excel spreadsheet totals to prepare all federal financial statements, despite the multibillions aleady spent by taxpayers on these services.  

This government-wide FMC travesty continues unabated because an integral part of this outsourcing strategy also included weakened financial management infrastructures to hide all levels of collusion and corruption between government officials and the FMCs.   These weakened financial management infrastructures included the systematic replacement of the government's 4-year college accounting degreed and Certified Public Accountant (CPA) professional accountants and auditors with non-accountants. In other words, a few very powerful politicians were able to undermine an entire federal financial management bureaucracy simply by: (1) eliminating the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) 4-year college accounting degree requirement for all government accountants and Office of Inspector General (OIG) auditors, (2) preventing the passage of real whistleblower protection legislation, and (3) classifying all documentation detailing those breaches of the U.S. Constitution, Congress' laws, False Claims Act, No Fear Act, overt acts of perjury, and conspiracy to hide that perjury as "secret" by classifying that information as CBI.

The resultant federal financial management spending machine of today illustrates how these former accounting clerks, now six-figure salaried accountant and OIG auditor managers, work as one along with the FMCs to cover-up all reported accounting and financial software deficiencies. But, why wouldn't they? AICPA firms are in a unique position of auditing the very deficient accounting standards and financial systems that they (and other FMC contractors) create and that taxpayers unwittingly pay to reinvent, over and over again. These former accounting clerks are also not about to question the government's (and FMCs) technically deficient accounting and financial systems, with their high school and G.E.D credentials, while also jeopardizing their undeserved six-figure salaries and managerial positions. The added incentive for the FMCs, former accounting clerks, and their political benefactors for continuing the cover-ups of these blatant deficiencies is that they, jointly and knowingly, broke the government's laws over the past 24 years. Then, these same people were rewarded with bonuses and even more money for breaking the government's laws.  

Then, to cover up (again) this wanton waste of the taxpayer's money, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and its current and former Comptroller General's of the U.S., Gene Dodaro and David Walker, gave 14 years of patently false written Congressional testimony. Their joint testimony consistently states that "the federal government has made significant progress in improving financial management activities and practices." But, how is this possible when the federal government has used manually manipulated Excel spreadsheet totals to prepare all federal financial statements over all those years? This documented collusion and corruption between politicians, top and midlevel bureaucrats, and the FMCs involves nothing less than a redistribution of multibillions of dollars of wealth from the 99% to the richest 1%, for producing nothing of value. Once again, the financial and national security of this great country has been needlessly placed in peril due to a broken, dysfunctional, and out-of-control federal spending machine.

Realize that these weakened federal financial management infrastructures are   symptomatic of the weakened infrastructures that, today, adversely affect every facet of the federal government's operation. Thirty years of outright lies concerning every aspect of the government's failed and undemocratic deregulation, outsourcing, and war-related agendas required a politicized and compliant federal workforce, devoid of our forefather's checks and balances. The time has come to reinstitute those former checks and balances along with President Obama's open, transparent, and accountable government reforms. The time has come to restructure the federal government (based upon upgraded OPM position standards), replace fear, reprisals, and secrecy with an unfettered dialogue between government politicians, professionals, and whistleblowers. The time has come to drastically cut the gross waste of the government's operation and our monumental deficits in a responsible and logical way that is easily explained, and (hopefully) implemented, with bi-partisan support

The National Accountant Whistleblower Coalition (NAWBC) website provides background information to support all of the above allegations along with suggestions for generating accurate and timely standard public sector (federal, state, and local government) financial statements. This effort requires a government-wide restructuring effort that includes upgraded OPM position standards for all professional government accountant, information technology (IT), and OIG auditor positions that are on a par with the private sector. The cost savings to the taxpayer includes the elimination of the FMC costs, systematic replacement of these former accounting clerk managers with government accountant, IT, and OIG auditor professionals and an estimated 50% cut in the federal (state and local) government financial management costs (starting at the top), and additional cost reductions (and savings) by utilizing a "single" public sector accounting standard and financial software package (that works) for federal, state, and local governments, alike.   

Authors Website: http://www.tgar.net

Authors Bio:

I graduated from Michigan Technological University (MTU) in June 1968 with a BSBA in accounting and have been a federal accountant for 40 years, mostly as a whistleblower, now 11 years retired.

During the period 1980 - 1986, as the Veterans Administration's (VA) Accounting Section Chief, I warned the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that the VA's budget totals that my staff/I had provided were inaccurate, and driven by an AICPA accounting standard that was not based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). We were literally fudging the already fudged budgeting and accounting totals that we were forced to use. In 1986, the VA overspent its budget and I was told to make the adjustments to hide that deficiency. I refused, resigned in October 1986, and gave my required written reason for resigning as the "VA's falsification of its budget totals," also fudged by the VA's non-accountant political appointees to "disagreements over systems improvement ideas."

During my 6 years at the VA, I was so appalled at what I saw that (on my own time), I modified the AICPA's private sector GAAP-based accounting standard to create a single public sector GAAP-based standard to accommodate the unique budgeting/accounting needs for all governments, federal, state/local, and even foreign. I also completing a GAAP-based book, Principles of Accounting, Budgeting & Cash Management For Government, that explained how those processes worked. In early 1987, I used that book to lobby Congress and the Central Agencies' Treasury, OMB, and GAO political appointees over the need to replace the AICPA's deficient (manual) non-GAAP-based standard with this single GAAP-based (automated) standard. On October 13, 1987, Treasury created its Financial Management Services (FMS) branch of 9 qualified (8 accountants/1 IT) civil servants and made me the lead Treasury systems accountant to supposedly work with OMB and GAO to implement this GAAP-based accounting standard, also just another political game.

Now 11 years retired, my research revealed that both Congress and all 46 Presidents (Washington - Biden) have consistently promised to prevent the waste, fraud, and abuse of the American people's tax dollars while they take turns undermining themselves and each other to instead enrich themselves, and still no money (audit) trails! GAO's own testimony to Congress and President Joe Biden even confirms that GAO's audits of those federal budget totals are still inaccurate, also never addressed by Congress or President Biden. This undemocratic travesty (alone) more than supports the American people's demands for major civil service reform.