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U.S. Government Standard General Ledger
Issues Resolution Committee (IRC) Meeting Minutes

April 26, 2012

GENERAL ITEMS:

This meeting was held at the Government Accountability Office, 441 G Street NW., Room 4N30, Washington, DC.

Katherine Winchester (FMS) opened the meeting and provided an overview of the agenda. Introductions were made.

HANDOUTS:

  • Proposed Modifications and Additions of USSGL Accounts Effective Fiscal 2012
  • General Fund Presentation: Illustrative Transactions for Proposed General Fund Accounts (Fiscal 2014)
  • Definitions of Proposed General Fund Accounts (Fiscal 2014)
  • Proposed Deletion of Current USSGL Accounts (Fiscal 2014)
  • Attribute Table for Proposed General Fund Accounts (Fiscal 2014)
  • General Fund Reporting Entity: USSGL Accounts (Fiscal 2014)

AGENDA ITEMS:

Proposed Deletion of USSGL Accounts 166000, "Beneficial Interest in Trust," and 166100, "Market Adjustment - Beneficial Interest in Trust"

Christine Chang (FMS) proposed the deletion of USSGL account 166000, "Beneficial Interest in Trust," and USSGL account 166100, "Market Adjustment-Beneficial Interest in Trust," for fiscal 2013. These accounts were created for the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) to capture American International Group activity. Treasury no longer needs these accounts, and they will be removed from the Balance Sheet and the Reclassified Balance Sheet crosswalks for fiscal 2013 reporting.

Presentation of the General Fund Reporting Entity

Jeff Hoge (FMS) explained the purpose and background for the development of the General Fund of the Treasury reporting entity. The General Fund of the Treasury is the central reporting entity that tracks the cash, authority, debt, and borrowings of the Federal Government. The authority component was the focus of the presentation since it is the portion of reporting activity that the proposed General Fund accounts will capture. Jeff explained that, before Treasury issues a warrant, it must interpret the law and determine which fund is applicable. Currently, Treasury does not receive fund accounting data until the end of the month when agencies prepare and submit an FMS 224: Statement of Transactions. The goal is to see what fund symbol gets hit directly after a payment is made instead of gathering the data at the end of the month. The proposed General Fund accounts will complete the Federal Government's accounting model by providing the "other side" of agency reporting activity on a more detailed basis. This will provide credibility on the financial reports and will improve intragovernmental eliminations.

Ava Lun (FMS) began the presentation of the General Fund of the Treasury reporting entity. She provided an overview of the General Fund of the Treasury, as well as, Treasury's central accounting and reporting function as it relates to collection and disbursement activity. Ava explained that the proposed General Fund of the Treasury accounts were established by the General Fund group to track the cash and authority activity. Agencies will not use these accounts for reporting their activity. Only the General Fund of the Treasury will use the proposed accounts.

Ava reviewed the proposed accounts for the cash and authority activity of the General Fund of the Treasury:

  • USSGL account 114500, "Cash Held Outside the Treasury's General Account," is a revaluation of foreign currency reported by the Department of State.
  • USSGL account 125000, "Central Accounting/Agency Reconciliation Account"; USSGL account 198000, "Asset for Agency's Custodial and Non-Entity Liabilities"; and USSGL account 199900, "Central Accounting Control Account," capture FMS 224 activity.
  • USSGL account 198000, "Asset for Agency's Custodial and Non-Entity Liabilities," is the other side of what is reported by the agencies in USSGL account 298000, "Custodial Liability," and USSGL account 298500 "Liability for Non-Entity Assets Not Reported on the Statement of Custodial Activity."
  • USSGL account 201000, "Liability for Fund Balance With Treasury," is the other side of what agencies report in USSGL account 101000: "Fund Balance With Treasury."
  • USSGL account 320000, "Appropriations Outstanding – Cumulative"; USSGL account 320100, "Appropriations Outstanding – Warrants Issued"; and USSGL account 320600, "Appropriations Outstanding – Adjustments," are the other side of what agencies report in the USSGL 310000 account series.
  • USSGL account 571000, "Transfer in of Agency Unavailable Custodial and Non-Entity Collections," and USSGL account 571200, "Accrual of Agency Amounts To Be Collected – Custodial and Non-Entity," are the other side of USSGL account 599000, "Collections for Others - Statement of Custodial Activity," and USSGL account 599300, "Offset to Non-Entity Collections - Statement of Changes in Net Position."
  • USSGL account 575700, "Unexpended Appropriations and Nonexpenditure Financing Sources – Transfers-In to the General Fund," and USSGL account 576700, "Unexpended Appropriations and Nonexpenditure Financing Sources – Transfers-Out to the General Fund," report appropriations and balance transfer activity. (Note: Proposed USSGL accounts 575700 and 576700 will be removed from the list of proposed General Fund of the Treasury accounts. Based on discussions with the IRC members, the General Fund group decided not to record the transfer activity between agencies in which they were "stepping in the middle.")
  • USSGL account 771000, "Trust Fund Warrants Issued Net of Adjustments," captures warrants from the general fund receipt account.

In addition, FMS will establish a fund symbol for the General Fund of the Treasury to report its activity in the Central Accounting and Reporting System. For Federal agencies Centralized Trial-Balance System I reporting, agencies will modify their reporting when the partner is the General Fund of the Treasury. Currently, agencies record trading partner "F99." In the future, for transactions with the General Fund of the Treasury, agencies will use a "G" agency identifier with a three-digit partner code and a four-digit main account number. FMS also has assigned a specific fund authority fund type, "GA" (General Fund Authority), that will limit the use of the accounts to the General Fund of the Treasury, only. For the upcoming ballot, the IRC members will vote on the General Fund of the Treasury accounts presented at this meeting, which are effective for fiscal 2014.

Ava also noted that the USSGL Advisory Division reserved a series of memorandum accounts (USSGL accounts 810000 through 879900) to be used for Treasury's Central Summary General Ledger reporting. Agencies will not use these accounts. As a result of this implementation, two existing memorandum accounts were deleted from the series: USSGL account 810100, "Partial or Early Cancellation of Authority," and USSGL account 810200, "Offset for Partial or Early Cancellation of Authority." USSGL account 810100 will be renumbered to 809100, and USSGL account 810200 will be renumbered to 809200 in fiscal 2014.

ATTENDEES:

Eileen Parlow, FASAB
Katherine Winchester, FMS
Jeff Hoge, FMS
Karen Metler, FMS
Christine Chang, FMS
Ava Lun, FMS
Tia Harley, FMS
Cindy Scharf, Library of Congress
Maryla Engelking, DOD
Jerry Shea, VA
Rebekah Poirier, DHS
Bethany Williams, DOE
Ellis Ogun, NASA
Latoya Mosley-Brown, FMS
Dan Smith, PTO
Marilyn Evans, Treasury
Hesham Aziz, USDA
Webster Coleman, DOL
Carol Gower, State
Michael Ward, GSA
Lise Trumbull, GSA
Amy Chen, VA
Junghee Gogue, SSA
Mark Graham, SSA
Letha Holliday, SSA
Karen Hunter, SSA
Garima Khanna, SSA
Ana Labador, SSA
Brent Woolford, SSA
Briana Yoho, SSA
Penny Horstman, DHS
Andrew Gum, DHS
Cindy Perry, DHS
Gerald Davenport, DFAS

Last modified 07/05/19