WITHOUT A FUNCTIONING and effective financial management system, the government of the District of Columbia will remain an undisciplined, cumbersome, pre-computer-age operation that is riddled with deficiencies, prone to error and unreliable. Cut through all the technical jargon and that is the conclusion to be drawn from the General Accounting Office's April report, "District of Columbia: Weaknesses in Financial Management System Implementation." The GAO found that after spending more than $40 million on a modern master financial system that is two years late and 50 percent over budget, the D.C. government is still using outmoded manual processes to produce budget and financial management information, including its annual financial statements.

What makes the GAO report depressing is that it contains little that is new about the nature of the problem. The GAO was reporting on the inadequacy of city financial records back in June 1995. Congress was told at the time that the District lacked the most basic financial data to control spending and costs and to estimate budget and cash needs. Six years, four chief financial officers (including former CFO Anthony Williams) and millions of dollars later, the GAO writes that "the District cannot reliably and regularly report on whether it has spent its budget as intended for targeted city services, such as trash collection, nor can it reliably report on the cost of those services." The city is so far off the mark, the GAO reports, that D.C. officials are entering the budget formulation process for the coming fiscal year without a functioning financial system for gathering budget data and with uncertain costs and spending information on which to formulate a year 2002 budget. "Almost six years after we began reviewing the system and making recommendations . . . the District has completed action on very few of the recommendations we have made in reports dating back to 1995," says the GAO.

For explanations as to how so little could have been accomplished over such a vast expanse of time, residents should seek answers from former chief financial officer and now Mayor Anthony Williams, current Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi, his predecessors Valerie Holt and Earl Cabbell and, of course, the D.C. financial control board, which is the major-domo of city fiscal affairs. Congress is holding hearings on the GAO report and the city's management reforms on May 16. The D.C. lawmakers shouldn't wait until then. The council ought to jump the gun and seek answers now. Mr. Gandhi agrees with the GAO recommendations, but Mayor Williams takes issue with the suggestion

Washington Post

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2001