Annual Report on Federal Finances

1. Provide a consolidated annual report on the finances of the
federal government, including contingent liabilities. 

The Department of the Treasury should continue to issue prototype
consolidated financial statements, and should set a goal of 1997 as the
first year to drop the prototype disclaimer and issue audited (to the
extent possible) consolidated financial statements on the federal
government. While not all components of the federal government would be
required to be audited by that time, this goal would drive the
improvement in data quality toward a definite destination. These
statements should include addenda with information on the financial
statements of government sponsored enterprises and governmental trust
funds, all of which have some contingent liability aspect for taxpayers.
The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) is currently
addressing accounting standards for claims on future budgetary resources
of the federal government. FASAB should expedite its standards
development process on this issue in order to provide timely guidance
for this report.