Section 3 Flashcards
What are the three phases of the Federal budget process?
- Formulation of the President’s Budget.
- Congressional action on the budget.
- Budget execution.
By law, when must the President submit the President’s budget to Congress?
The president is to transmit the proposed budget to Congress not later than the first Monday in February of each year for the following fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1.
What are the two steps performed by Congress that provide the ability for a program to operate?
Authorization and appropriation.
What is authorization by Congress?
Congress establishes and sets the requirements for a program or activity.
What is a budget resolution?
A concurrent resolution on the budget, meaning that both the Senate and the House agree.
Who has the initial responsibility for tracking appropriations?
Treasury.
What allows agencies to begin spending?
Treasury warrant.
What are the components of the identification code for processing transactions?
- Agency code.
- Period of the appropriation.
- Account symbol.
What is an apportionment?
An apportionment distributes amounts available for obligation in an appropriation. It is a plan providing an agency with executive branch authority (OMB) to obligate and expend appropriations.
What are Category A apportionments?
Appropriations are apportioned by time period—usually by quarter.
What are Category B apportionments (or AB)?
These include program, activity, or project; Category AB by a combination of program, project, or activity and time.
What are Category C apportionments?
These include future years (only for multi-year/no-year accounts).
What is a Rescission?
Rescissions, which permanently cancel budget authority, take effect only if Congress passes a law approving them.
What is a Deferral?
Deferrals, which are temporary withholdings of budget authority, take effect immediately.
What are the three periods that make up the life cycle of an appropriation?
Current, expired and closed.
What is the minimum life cycle of an appropriation?
Six years.
What can occur during the current period of an appropriation?
During the current period, the total appropriation is available for the establishment of new obligations. Obligations can be liquidated.
What can occur during the expired period of an appropriation?
When the fiscal year ends for an annual or multi-year appropriation, the unobligated amount cannot be used to make new obligations. An agency has five years to make payments against amounts that have been obligated. Obligations can be liquidated.
What can occur during the closed period of an appropriation?
After five years, an agency can no longer make any payments against obligations or use the unobligated amounts. Any remaining obligated or unobligated balances shall be canceled. No further obligation or expenditure against the account is permitted.
Define receipts.
Receipts are collections that result from the government’s exercise of its sovereign power to tax, or otherwise compel payment.
Define offsetting collections and receipts.
Offsetting collections and receipts result from either of two kinds of transactions:
• Business-like or market-oriented activities with the public; or
• Intragovernmental transactions.
When must the budget resolution be passed?
April 15th.
What is mandatory spending?
The category of spending for programs that are permanently authorized and must be funded.
What is discretionary spending?
Spending resulting from congressional appropriations that is not otherwise required by law.
What is the purpose of the apportionments process?
To prevent agencies from obligating funds in a matter that would result in a deficiency; and to achieve the msot effective and economical use of amounts made available.
What is an allotment?
After the appropriation and apportionment process, agencies distribute their spending authority to organizational units through the allotment process.
What is an object class code?
Object classes are categories used in budget preparation to classify obligations by the items or services purchased by the federal government.
What is the basic budgetary equation?
Budgetary resources = status of budgetary resources.
What are the requirements of the FMFIA?
The FMFIA requires agencies to establish and maintain effective internal control and financial management systems in compliance with government-wide requirements. The FMFIA requires the head of each agency to provide annual assurance statements to the president and the Congress, on the basis of testing and evaluations. Corrective action plans are required for any material weaknesses identified.
What is the purpose of the FFMIA?
The FFMIA encourages agencies to have systems that generate timely, accurate, and useful information with which to make informed decisions and to ensure accountability on an ongoing basis.
What is the Government Management Reform Act of 1994?
This Act requires the head of each of the departments and large agencies covered by the CFO Act to prepare and submit an agency-wide audited financial statement to OMB by March 1 for the preceding fiscal year.
What year were CFO Act Agencies required to produce a PAR?
FY 2004
What was the purpose of the Accountability of Tax Dollars Act of 2002?
This Act extended the requirement to produce annual audited financial statements to all executive branch entities.
What established the Do Not Pay Initiative?
IPERIA
What is the purpose of IPERIA?
It improved IPIA by requiring OMB to provide an annual list of high-priority federal programs for greater oversight and review by agency inspectors general.
Bodies designated by the AICPA to promulgate GAAP must meet established criteria. What are those criteria?
Independence, due process and standards, domain and authority, human and financial resources, and comprehensiveness and consistency
During the FASAB due process, what voting majority is needed for approval?
two thirds
What provides the Hierarchy of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles?
SFFAS 34
What are the four objectives of financial reporting?
- Budgetary Integrity
- Operating Performance
- Stewardship
- Systems and Control
What is Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Concepts (SFFAC) 2?
Entity and Display. It identifies the need to distinguish between consolidation and disclosure entities. Applies from 2015 to 2018.
What is the conclusive criterion?
If an entity appears in the federal budget section entitled “Federal Programs by Agency and Account.”
What is the indicative criteria?
When the general purpose financial statements would be misleading or incomplete if an organization not appearing in the budget were not included.
What are the four categories of RSI?
MD&A, Statement of Budgetary Resources, Deferred maintenance and repairs, and Schedule of Spending.
What is a verifying entity?
Entities for which audit coverage is essential to complete the government-wide audit. They must submit a closing package.
The consumption method for Inventory and Operating Materials and Supplies requires:
- recognition of the historical cost—including all costs incurred to bring the item to its current condition and location—as an asset when the inventory or OM&S is received by the entity
- use of flow assumptions to assign costs to the items consumed
- FIFO or weighted average; LIFO is not permitted for federal entities
What are the four categories of inventory for federal agencies?
- Regular/normal
- Held in reserve for future sale/use
- Excess, obsolete, or unserviceable
- Held for repair
What types of federal inventory are valued at cost?
Regular/normal and Held in reserve for future sale/use
How is Excess, obsolete, or unserviceable inventory valued?
net realizable value
How is Held for repair inventory valued?
historical cost less allowance for cost to repair.
Operating materials and supplies (separate from inventory held for sale) may be accounted for using the purchases method if what three criteria are met?
- OM&S are not significant amounts
- the end user controls the OM&S
- it is not cost-beneficial to apply the consumption method of accounting
Property, plant and equipment (PP&E) are tangible assets, including land, which meet the following three characteristics:
- They have an estimated useful life of two years or more.
- They are not intended for sale in the ordinary course of operations.
- They have been acquired or constructed with the intention of being used, or being available for use, by the entity.
What are the three characteristics of General PP&E?
- It could be used for alternative purposes but is used in government operations to produce goods and services;
- It is used in a business-type activity; or
- It is used by entities in activities whose costs can be compared to those of other entities performing similar activities.
If a lease meets one of the following it is a capital lease (four items):
(1) Ownership is transferred at the end of the lease.
(2) There is an option to purchase the PP&E at the end of the lease at a bargain price.
(3) The lease term is equal to, or greater than, 75 percent of the estimated economic life of the leased property.
(4) The present value of lease payments is equal to or exceeds 90 percent of the fair value of the leased property.
