PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

An agency Chief Financial Officer must report straight to the agency head about money matters and run all financial management for the agency. They must build and keep up one complete accounting and financial system that follows accounting and internal control rules and OMB policies. That system must give reliable, timely information, show costs, link accounting with budgeting, and measure performance. The CFO also recommends who should be Deputy CFO, leads financial staff and work, makes budgets, hires and trains people, approves systems projects, and sets up asset systems like cash, credit, debt collection, and property control. The CFO must follow and help put into action the 5-year financial management plan from OMB. Every year, within 60 days after the agency’s audit report is sent, the CFO must send a report to the agency head and OMB that describes financial status, includes the annual financial statements and the audit, summarizes internal control reports, and adds other information the agency head thinks important. The CFO must watch budget spending and send timely performance reports, and every two years review fees and charges and suggest cost-based changes. The CFO can see agency records and request help from federal, state, or local entities for financial duties. With money approved in advance by Congress, the CFO may hire outside help and make payments to do these jobs. The CFO does not get any special access to Office of Inspector General materials beyond what other laws allow.

Title 31, §902

Money and Finance, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)An agency Chief Financial Officer shall—

(1)report directly to the head of the agency regarding financial management matters;

(2)oversee all financial management activities relating to the programs and operations of the agency;

(3)develop and maintain an integrated agency accounting and financial management system, including financial reporting and internal controls, which—

(A)complies with applicable accounting principles, standards, and requirements, and internal control standards;

(B)complies with such policies and requirements as may be prescribed by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget;

(C)complies with any other requirements applicable to such systems; and

(D)provides for—

(i)complete, reliable, consistent, and timely information which is prepared on a uniform basis and which is responsive to the financial information needs of agency management;

(ii)the development and reporting of cost information;

(iii)the integration of accounting and budgeting information; and

(iv)the systematic measurement of performance;

(4)make recommendations to the head of the agency regarding the selection of the Deputy Chief Financial Officer of the agency;

(5)direct, manage, and provide policy guidance and oversight of agency financial management personnel, activities, and operations, including—

(A)the preparation and annual revision of an agency plan to—

(i)implement the 5-year financial management plan prepared by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under section 3512(a)(3) of this title; and

(ii)comply with the requirements established under section 3515 and subsections (e) and (f) of section 3521 of this title;

(B)the development of agency financial management budgets;

(C)the recruitment, selection, and training of personnel to carry out agency financial management functions;

(D)the approval and management of agency financial management systems design or enhancement projects;

(E)the implementation of agency asset management systems, including systems for cash management, credit management, debt collection, and property and inventory management and control;

(6)prepare and transmit, by not later than 60 days after the submission of the audit report required by section 3521(f) of this title, an annual report to the agency head and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, which shall include—

(A)a description and analysis of the status of financial management of the agency;

(B)the annual financial statements prepared under section 3515 of this title;

(C)the audit report transmitted to the head of the agency under section 3521(f) of this title;

(D)a summary of the reports on internal accounting and administrative control systems submitted to the President and the Congress under the amendments made by the Federal Managers’ Financial Integrity Act of 1982 (Public Law 97–255); and

(E)other information the head of the agency considers appropriate to fully inform the President and the Congress concerning the financial management of the agency;

(7)monitor the financial execution of the budget of the agency in relation to actual expenditures, and prepare and submit to the head of the agency timely performance reports; and

(8)review, on a biennial basis, the fees, royalties, rents, and other charges imposed by the agency for services and things of value it provides, and make recommendations on revising those charges to reflect costs incurred by it in providing those services and things of value.

(b)(1)In addition to the authority otherwise provided by this section, each agency Chief Financial Officer—

(A)subject to paragraph (2), shall have access to all records, reports, audits, reviews, documents, papers, recommendations, or other material which are the property of the agency or which are available to the agency, and which relate to programs and operations with respect to which that agency Chief Financial Officer has responsibilities under this section;

(B)may request such information or assistance as may be necessary for carrying out the duties and responsibilities provided by this section from any Federal, State, or local governmental entity; and

(C)to the extent and in such amounts as may be provided in advance by appropriations Acts, may—

(i)enter into contracts and other arrangements with public agencies and with private persons for the preparation of financial statements, studies, analyses, and other services; and

(ii)make such payments as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this section.

(2)Except as provided in paragraph (1)(B), this subsection does not provide to an agency Chief Financial Officer any access greater than permitted under any other law to records, reports, audits, reviews, documents, papers, recommendations, or other material of any Office of Inspector General established under chapter 4 of title 5.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The Federal Managers’ Financial Integrity Act of 1982, referred to in subsec. (a)(6)(D), is Pub. L. 97–255, Sept. 8, 1982, 96 Stat. 814, which added subsec. (d) to section 66a of former Title 31, Money and Finance. section 66a of former Title 31 was repealed by Pub. L. 97–258, § 5(b), Sept. 13, 1982, 96 Stat. 1068, and reenacted by the first section thereof as section 3512 of this title. Provisions relating to reports on internal accounting and administrative control systems are restated in section 3512(d)(2) and (3) of this title.

Amendments

2022—Subsec. (b)(2). Pub. L. 117–286 substituted “chapter 4 of title 5.” for “the Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App.).”

§902 Authority and Functions of Agency Chief Financial Officers