The AGA Weblog

Think Big! Act Courageously! Make a Difference!—What a Great PDC in New Orleans

By: William A. (Billy) Morehead, Ph.D., CGFM, CPA

AGA National President William A. (Billy) Morehead, Ph.D., CGFM, CPA, is chair Division of Accountancy, CIS, and Finance, Delta State University.

“Laissez les bon temps rouler!” – “let the good times roll!”

This past week, AGA was in New Orleans for the 2009 Professional Development Conference & Expedition (PDC). The agenda and technical program was superb with the best speakers, best sessions and best activities; the exhibitors and exhibit area were excellent; CPE was available for all; and, the PDC offered the best opportunities for business and social networking!

The AGA staff, technical and host committees are to be commended for their excellent work. The PDC would not have been the success it was had it not been for these three very special groups. CONGRATULATIONS to each!

On Thursday, June 25, 2009, the day after the PDC, Past National Presidents Jeff Hart, CGFM, CFE, Virginia Robinson, CGFM, CPA, DABFA, and Bill Broadus, CGFM, CPA, as well as Past National Treasurers Evelyn Brown, CGFM-Retired, and Billy Morehead, along with almost 40 others spent the day in extreme heat and humidity working on the foundations of four new homes for Habitat for Humanity and the continued rebuilding of New Orleans.

As expected, New Orleans was not a disappointment! Join me in extending our thanks to the National Office Staff, the 2009 PDC Technical Committee and the New Orleans Host Committee.

 Thank You!

Job WELL DONE!

Deepening the Value of HR 2392—The Proposed Government Information Transparency Act

By: Sunil Datt, MS, MBA, MA, CGFM, PMP

Sunil Datt, MS, MBA, MA, CGFM, PMP, is Senior Managing Consultant, IBM Global Business Services.

The bill may pass, or it may not pass; but it remains a good first effort to introduce efficiency and effectiveness in the process of reporting to government agencies. The efficiency of a reporting process may be said to lie in two things: minimizing the burden of reporting, and standardizing formats and processes so that data flows seamlessly from reporting entity to collecting entity, and then back to consumers. The effectiveness may be said to lie in the collection of the ‘right’ data and then producing meaningful feedback loops of aggregated information for different sets of consumers.

HR 2392, in its primary purpose provides “to the maximum extent practicable, for the Federal Government to standardize the collection, analysis, and dissemination of business and financial information regarding business activities of companies through the use of a single data standard known as eXtensible Business Reporting Language.” In that, the bill is looking at one of the elements of efficiency—standardization, and suggesting the use of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) as the standard. However, the other element, reducing the actual reporting burden, is equally worthy of attention, and there are several good examples of how this is being attempted elsewhere in the world. No doubt, the Paperwork Reduction Act, 1995, sets out to comprehensively limit the collection of new information from individuals and businesses, but it is also time to comprehensively review what is being collected, and the efficiencies that can be achieved through the capabilities of new technologies and a standard like XBRL.

One major example of such reduction being implemented is in Australia—the Standard Business Reporting (SBR) project. SBR is a multi-agency initiative that will simplify business-to-government reporting by:

·      making forms easier to understand

·      using accounting/record keeping software to automatically pre-fill government forms and

·      introducing a single secure way to interact on-line with participating agencies.

As a result, businesses and their intermediaries will have a faster, more efficient reporting mechanism. Key benefits to business will include:

·      reduced time and effort spent preparing reports for government by businesses, accountants and bookkeepers

·      reduced time and effort spent filing reports for government and

·      reduced time and effort spent dealing with errors.

SBR is expected to save Australian businesses $795 million per year on an ongoing basis, freeing up resources for more profitable activities. In addition, accountants, bookkeepers, tax professionals and software developers will have access to a powerful system for improving service delivery and productivity.

There are benefits to be had all round: benefits to the economy, government, businesses, software developers and benefits to other intermediaries. See details at www.sbr.gov.au

The Netherlands is another country which is leading the way on the use of XBRL and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in order to implement a national business financial reporting taxonomy or Standard Business Reporting. Since January 2007, Dutch companies and financial institutions have been able to report their financial data to dozens of Dutch government authorities using the XBRL-tagged data. This XBRL project is expected to save reporting companies 25% of their compliance costs. It has already succeeded in reducing the number of reporting elements that companies have to keep record of from 200,000 to 4,500.

Back at home, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has been collecting quarterly call reports data in XBRL format from 8200 banks since 2006. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has now mandated that the largest 500 corporations using U.S. GAAP would have to file their 10K and 10Q returns in XBRL format from June 2009. Down the road will come other corporations, those filing in IFRS, and mutual funds filing their risk-return reports to the SEC. HR 2392 would expand this to all government agencies. But none of this will ensure the reduction/simplification of the filing burden on businesses and individuals; nor will XBRL ensure the collection of the ‘right’ information. That is why, HR 2392 needs to be deepened to include this requirement. The bill does provide that OMB establish guidance in the form of best practices to accomplish the purposes set out in section (a) (quoted above in para 2). But that still limits best practices to the collection, dissemination and analysis of data using XBRL. Therefore, it is best to add this requirement in the bill itself, thereby not leaving to chance a very important benefit that can be achieved right now, rather than in piece-meal fashion.

PDC Concludes with Recovery Act Panel

The final session of AGA’s PDC on Wednesday featured a panel discussion on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act with experts from federal, state and local governments giving varying perspectives on the Act’s risks and challenges.

The panelists highlighted their observations, concerns and hopes for success with presentations by Earl Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, Georgia State Auditor Russell Hinton, CGFM, CPA, and City of Tallahassee Auditor Sam McCall, Ph.D., CGFM, CPA, CIA, CGAP.

Devaney, who has a 39-year federal career and is on leave as inspector general at the U.S. Department of the Interior, said that while he had planned to retire after 40 years of service, when Vice President Joe Biden asked him to take on the chairmanship, he could not say no to what is “a grand experiment” in transparency and accountability.

The mission of the board, which includes Devaney and 12 IGs, is two-fold: oversee the $787 billion distributed under the Recovery Act to prevent fraud, waste and abuse and also to “develop the world’s largest IT database,” he said.

Developing the recovery.gov website is a huge challenge and a “high-risk venture,” he said. “We’re trying to create a system to do things government has frankly never done right before.” He said the site improves every month, but it’s “nowhere near where it needs to be.” By October, recovery.gov should be fully operational. “For the very first time the American people will be able to see where their money’s going.”

The board is also doing much work in coordination and outreach. “We want to be a place where people can come and get answers,” he said. Training, risk analysis and feedback on guidance from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget is gained from regular meetings with 28 IGs, he said.

Despite the risks involved, Devaney said he is optimistic that there won’t be massive fraud in the Recovery Act spending. Oversight activities in the area of prevention are going well; the website will be examined not only by the media but “citizen IGs”; and the political awareness on the issue is very high, with intense attention on the stimulus issue. “Wouldn’t you have a lot of chutzpah to steal this money?" 

For better or worse, the level of transparency expected will be the prototype for the future. “This cow’s out of the board and running down the yard.”

Hinton told the audience that states and local governments will face many challenges, not the least of which is implementing the Act with no money. Legislation is pending that should provide state and local governments with dollars to implement the many reporting requirements. The first quarterly report is due Oct. 10. “Can these increased expectations be met without available funding?” He noted that his office has lost 37 positions over the last two years.

One concern includes a proposal to reduce the submission deadline for single audits from nine months after the fiscal year end date to six months. While state auditors support the concept, he said it may conflict with Consolidated Annual Financial Report requirements.

Hinton, whose state will receive $6.5 billion from the ARRA, said his office has issued risk alerts, increased internal control training for agencies and developed a web-based system for reporting requirements. “We want transparency to work,” he said.

McCall quoted President Obama, who said that government will be held to account to “spend wisely, reform bad habits and do our business the right way.” He said local governments have not received stimulus funds, but are preparing for the influx.

To get ready, McCall said he has made two presentations to staff, a course on internal controls is being updated and the audit staff has developed a checklist to assist management on internal control conditions at the department and program levels.

McCall echoed many of Hinton’s concerns about the huge increase in mandates that are not funded at a time when Florida’s budget, and local government budgets, are in severe crisis. Other challenges involve tracking spending by nonprofits, which is a problem now without the big infusion of stimulus funds expected. Also, he noted that Tallahassee has put in a “fast-tracking” contracting process, but there’s a possibility the procedures may conflict with federal requirements.

He said the American people expect competent managers to run programs that achieve the expected results and are managed economically, effectively and equitably. “We all have our reputations at stake here.”

—Christina M. Camara

Photos this week by Jennifer I. Curtin. Website support from April Force Pardoe.

 

Strange Bedfellows: Matalin and Carville Face Off at the PDC

Mary Matalin and James Carville, married pundits from opposite ends of the political spectrum, entertained PDC attendees Wednesday morning with their observations on President Obama’s term so far and the Washington political environment.

Matalin, a Republican political consultant, discussed the contradictory facts that while Barack Obama enjoys huge popularity, support for his specific policies is weakening. She said Obama came into office with public adulation, followed by a phase of “precipitous polarization” and now the public and the press are starting to truly evaluate Obama as a president and not just as a charismatic figure.

While his personal popularity is at least twice as high as his predecessors--even Bill Clinton--support is falling off on issues such as health care reform, as the American public is concerned about the costs and the size of government. People want smaller government and fewer services, and they don’t want debt or high taxes, she said.

She ended her talk by joking that she hoped she wasn’t being too partisan. “I don’t want my husband to get all gassed up in the middle of the week.”

Carville, a Democratic political consultant, said he’s come to believe there are a few rules of politics. One is that the system always wins. No matter what the candidates promise about changing the way Washington works, the system remains the same. The best politicians know how to work the system to their advantage. Another rule is that the political dialogue is critical, and third, “You don’t know what you can do until you try.”

He said that in many ways, he’s an optimist. He said he believes that you can tell far more about people in their worst hour than in their best. He said 1862, when the country was torn apart by Civil War, may have been the worst year the United States has ever seen. And yet, despite hugely pressing concerns, the Senate passed legislation that set up land-grant colleges that shaped the future of millions of Americans by providing funding for institutions of higher learning in each state. “We don’t know what we can accomplish until we go out and try.”

If he had been asked seven years ago how long it would take to elect a black president who would nominate a Puerto Rican woman as a Supreme Court justice, he would have said 50 or 60 years, he said.

The couple took a few questions from the audience and made some observations about President Obama’s handling of the protests in Iran following the disputed June 12 election. Obama did not sharpen his comments until Tuesday, when he condemned the crackdown on the protesters. Matalin said she’s “70 percent with the president” in terms of his public comments on the situation. “Calibrated caution” is legitimate, she said. Carville agreed, and noted that many Republicans have praised his reserve. “It’s easier to ratchet it up than to ratchet it down.”

When asked about the U.S. economy, Carville continued his tone of optimism, noting that he has huge confidence in young people today, who see that there’s a job to do and then do it. “We have a stunning generation of young people in this country.”

—Christina M. Camara

Katrina General on the Value of Preparedness

The final day of the New Orleans PDC began with an often-comical presentation by Gen. Russel Honoré, USA (Ret.), Commander of Joint Task Force Katrina and Current CNN Contributor, who discussed the concept of “See First, Understand First, Act First: Leadership and Preparedness in the 21st Century.”

Honoré began his talk by addressing the good work being done in government by many in the audience. “Thank God for what you do for our country—you check our books,” he said, adding his voice to a chorus of people who have thanked AGA for coming to The Big Easy as it continues to recover from Hurricane Katrina. “You have brought work to New Orleans.”

The key focus of Honoré’s presentation was the concept of preparedness. “It will save you and your family’s life,” he said. If you don’t have a weather radio, he said, get one. A weather radio will wake you up in the middle of the night if a tornado or natural disaster warning is issued while you sleep. “Preparedness,” he acknowledged, “is hard to sell.”

When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, 80 percent of residents evacuated. The 20 percent left behind were often poor or elderly who lacked the transportation to get themselves and their families out of the city. Even those who were able to flee did so thinking they’d be gone a few days before they could come home. Many returned to concrete slabs where their houses used to be. They had stashed important papers at the banks. “Guess what happened to the banks?” Honoré asked, referring to the epic flooding that followed the storm.

He advised attendees to create evacuation kits for themselves and their families. The first thing to include in the kit would be cash. When the power is out, ATMs don’t work, and when they do work, everyone is trying to use them at the same time. Next, make copies of important documents and save them to a thumb drive or CD. He earned laughs when he told attendees to have their kids do this for them. “Don’t pretend you know how to do this, because you don’t,” he said. Also to be included on CDs are irreplaceable photos. “Entire family histories in New Orleans and Mississippi were lost when that storm came ashore,” he said.

Third, make sure to create these same evacuation kids for grandparents and elderly neighbors. Next year for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, go back and replace the cash, he said to laughter. For elderly family members, also make sure to include a month’s supply of medication. “The disabled and poor die at disproportionate rates during a disaster,” he said.

Honoré advised attendees to learn how to text message if they don’t already. When phone lines are jammed, text messages often get through. He pointed to an instance of New Orleans residents texting the local newspaper to ask for help. That message was conveyed to Honoré’s Atlanta office and a helicopter was dispatched. “Remember,” he said, “wind knocks down cell towers.”

Preparedness is also critical in workplaces. “If you can’t get your people back in, what’re you going to do?”

He sang the praises of the men and women in the Armed Forces who are engaged in conflicts around the world. “Being born into freedom is an accident,” he said. “To die free is an obligation we owe the next generation.”

—Marie S. Force

Jazzing it Up at the PDC in New Orleans

John Edward Hasse, music historian, pianist, and award-winning author and record producer, applied leadership lessons from the greatest jazz musicians to the challenges faced by today’s accountability professionals.

Hasse played several piano selections and used samples of Ella Fitzgerald’s improvisational singing style, Benny Goodman’s long clarinet solos, and the muted, introspective sound of Miles Davis’ trumpet to illustrate many points about leadership.

While jazz seems an unlikely place to look for leadership lessons, jazz bands and government organizations have much in common, said Hasse, speaking at a keynote session at the PDC Tuesday afternoon. Both are complex, adaptive systems facing the difficulties of getting all parts to play well together.

Hasse’s 10 leadership lessons:

• Listen Closely—Much of jazz is not written down, he said, and good jazz combos seem to communicate by telepathy. Leaders, like good musicians, listen keenly and with generosity, anticipate the next move of the people around them and bringing out the best in the group.    
• Find Your Own Sound—Hasse pointed to Louis Armstrong’s trumpet playing, the compositions of Duke Ellington and the distinctive, lonely sound of Miles Davis as examples of uniqueness in jazz. Government leaders, too, must find their own style.
• Take Risks…Improve—“Jazz is a nightly high-wire act. It’s full of risks,” he said. “Improvising is what makes jazz exciting.” While he noted that accountants shouldn’t improvise with the numbers, daily conversations and actions are far from scripted. “We are all improvisers.” He said that trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who heard a loud cell phone during one of his performances, didn’t get angry at the interruption, instead imitating the ring tone on his instrument and incorporating it into his solo.
• Remain Fresh…Innovate—In less than 100 years, Hasse said, jazz has gone from a regional musical expression to an international art form. Armstrong, one of the most influential musicians in American music, achieved so much with just a fifth-grade education. How? By making something new from something old and by making something personal from something shared, Hasse said. “Can you take inspiration from Louis Armstrong and the other jazz masters?”
• Find and Nurture Great Talent—Hasse pointed out the difference in leadership styles of two great band leaders, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. Where Goodman dominated the solos in his band, Ellington “gave them away.” While Goodman demanded excellence through fear and a legendary glare known as “the ray,” Ellington led by nurturing his band members and inspiring them to greatness. “Which kind of leader would you rather work for?” Hasse said. Goodman’s band lasted for 15 years with high turnover; Ellington’s band performed for 50 years with members remaining loyal to Ellington for decades.
• Collaborative Creatively—The jazz classic “Satin Doll” is a great example of collaboration. Duke Ellington started with a bare outline of the song, with Billy Stayhorn filling out the rest of the composition, Johnny Mercer adding the lyrics and the great Ella Fitzgerald lending her voice to what quickly became a jazz standard.
• Drive the Band—Hasse is curator of American music at the National Museum of American History, where Quincy Jones was honored recently. When he stepped up as a guest conductor of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, Hasse said he witnessed how one person can make a group rise far beyond their own expectations. “You have to pour yourself into your job,” he said, just as the 70-year-old Quincy Jones poured himself into conducting, even jumping into the air several times.
• Jam—Jam sessions take place after hours, shielded from public scrutiny. Barriers are broken down, band leaders set their titles aside and everyone learns from other talents in the room. Those principles could apply to government organizations as well, he said.
• Affirm Diversity—Again using Duke Ellington as an example, Hasse said he composed for individual talents, working to tap into their gifts and minimizing their weaknesses. Managers can do the same in their organizations. 
• Practice—The last lesson, he said, comes from the great jazz saxophonist John Coltrane, who was  known to practice a C scale for eight hours to achieve an even, controlled tone. “If you practice, you’re bound to get better.” 

—Christina M. Camara 

Acting Comptroller General Kicks Off PDC's Second Day

The second day of AGA’s Professional Development Conference & Exposition began with a sobering assessment of the challenges posed by the economic downturn, the federal stimulus efforts and the long-term outlook for the U.S. fiscal condition.

Acting Comptroller General of the United States Gene L. Dodaro, CGFM, CPA, who leads the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), discussed the agency’s role in the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed in February to create jobs, jumpstart the economy and help states in fiscal crisis, among other goals.

One of GAO’s many responsibilities relating to the Recovery Act is conducting bi-monthly reviews of state and local governments’ use of the funds and studying the long-term effect of the downturn on the states. GAO is conducting a longitudinal study of 16 states and the District of Columbia as well as reviews of specific programs. The 16 states selected for the study account for about two-thirds of the Recovery Act funding and an equal amount of the U.S. population. GOA is tasked with finding out how the money was used, looking at the safeguards for managing the money and the results of the spending.

In Fiscal Year 2009, he said, 64 percent of the money is going to health care costs, although by 2012, most of the funding will switch to longer-term priorities in transportation, community development and energy.

The unique challenges states face include the sudden increase in funds, the fact that some of the programs are new for the recipients and the need for timely and efficient oversight. The Obama administration has made it clear that the expectations are high for an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability, which will require the proper internal controls at all levels of government, and close and ongoing coordination among local, state and federal government entities. Meanwhile, the states are struggling financially. “A lot of them are under fiscal stress,” Dodaro said, adding that they’re “conflicted” about how to provide the level of accountability expected.

In addition to a broad array of Recovery Act responsibilities, GAO is also deeply involved in studying the structure of the U.S. financial regulatory system to determine how this financial crisis happened and how it can ensure that such a crisis doesn’t occur again, or can, at the least, be minimized.

GAO is looking at the framework for modernizing U.S. financial regulations. Most of the regulatory agencies today were born from previous financial crises, Dodaro said. The regulatory system, as it exists today, is “fragmented, outdated and ill-suited” to meet today’s needs. He pointed to the risks connected with the huge influence of large, complex and interconnected financial conglomerates; less-regulated entities (hedge funds, for example) playing an increasingly large role in the financial system; and new and complicated financial products (credit default swaps, for example) posing a challenge to the system’s stability and consumer protections.

Dodaro said the focus of financial regulatory system changes should be on systemic risks. Regulators should be provided with independence, prominence, authority and accountability and there should be much more consumer protection.

Dodaro then shifted his focus to the long-term financial challenges that pre-date the latest crisis. While much attention, appropriately, has been placed on economic recovery, he said underlying issues still need to be addressed with the same level of intensity.

For example, he said the amount of debt held by the public as a share of Gross Domestic Product is steadily increasing and can hit historic highs by 2020. In fiscal year 2005, the figure was 37.5 percent of GDP, or $4.6 trillion; in fiscal year 2009 it was 59.9 percent of GDP, or $8.5 trillion. “It’s very serious,” he said. “It’s on an unsustainable path.” He also noted that state and local government deficits are spiraling. All governmental entities are facing fiscal stress at the same time.

“I wish I could end on a better note,” Dodaro said. He urged all the accountability professionals in the room to be an integral part of the solution. “I know all of you are up to the challenge.”

—Christina M. Camara

Oxygen Not Included™

PDC attendees were treated to Monday luncheon speaker Alison Levine, team captain of the First American Women’s Everest Expedition and groundbreaking polar adventurer, who used her adventures climbing the highest peaks on six continents to impart a series of valuable life lessons. 

She began her talk by showing photos from an earlier climb of Mt. McKinley where she learned that you have to use resources wisely. All you have is what you can carry, which can also be freeing. You stop stressing, she said, about the things you don’t have and learn to make the most of what you have available.

At Carstensz Pyramid, situated in west Papua (now named Papua province Indonesia), she had one of her most difficult climbing experiences because the mountain she’d come to conquer had been shut down due to war. She was told it was impossible to get to the mountain, which challenged her to find a way. Asking the right questions, she said, is critical in any situation. “You have to be creative and proactive and keep asking the right questions until you get the answer you want.” She prevailed by procuring an army escort who saw her to the base of the mountain.

When she was asked to captain the first American women’s expedition to Everest, initially she said no. She didn’t think she had yet gathered the proper skills and abilities to lead the team. Then Sept. 11 happened and she realized she couldn’t allow fear to stop her from doing what she wanted to do.

Levine referred to a quote from Junko Tabei, the first woman to reach the summit of Everest, who said, “Technique and ability alone do not get you to the top; it is the willpower that is the most important. This willpower you cannot buy with money or be given by others...it rises from your heart.”

Once Levine signed on to captain the team, the next challenge was to raise the necessary funds. A friend connected her with higher-ups on the Ford marketing team, which sponsored the mission as part of the launch of it’s then-new Ford Expedition, which she called “a match made in heaven.” Levine joked that she’d also been talking to Chevy about sponsorship and was glad when Ford said yes since Chevy’s full-size SUV is known as the Avalanche. She’d rather go to Everest as part of an expedition than an avalanche, she said to laughter.

Recruiting the right team is also critical. “You can’t afford to be up there without a team that’s fully committed and has the right skills,” she said. “Recruiting mistakes can be costly.

When the challenge of climbing from sea level to 29,000 feet began to freak her out, Levine broke the mission into achievable increments and focused only on the next piece. She used a map of the mountain to show attendees the exhausting and repetitive treks up and then back down, which are required to acclimate the body to the altitude. If it was possible to lower someone onto the summit, she said, they’d be dead within minutes without the proper acclimation because muscles begin to break down at about 18,000 feet. The up and down process is both physically challenging, she said, and psychologically frustrating.

The lesson learned here, she said, is that “even when you’re going backward, you’re still making progress. Sometimes you have to go backward to get to where you eventually need to be.”

Fear is okay, she said. It’s a normal human emotion. Complacency, however, is what gets you in trouble and puts you in the most danger. She referred to the $650 boots required to climb Everest, which averages out to $65 a toe. “If you want to keep them all,” she said, “buy the boots.”

To much laughter, Levine demonstrated the device the women used to urinate standing up. Another critical thing is getting to know the other teams who are climbing along with you so they feel obligated to assist you should the need arise. “No one wants to give up their summit attempt to stop and save a life,” she said. “If you have good relationships with the other teams, no one is going to march right past you at your time of need.” Set up those relationships before you need them, she advised.

After a climber on another team fell to his death during their climb, Levine’s team was shattered. A tragedy can either blow up the team or bring them closer together, which brings us back to the message about not letting fear stand in your way. “There are always going to be risks,” she said, “but be smart and do what you can to mitigate them.”

Another thing she learned on the mountain is that “storms are always temporary.” If you keep your bearings, the clouds will eventually go away, the sky will clear and everything will be alright again. She talked about reaching “the death zone” at 26,000 feet where the body starts to die and blood is drawn from the extremities to protect the vital organs. At this stage, climbers are required to take five to ten breaths per step. After demonstrating just how involved that is, she said, “So, if you ever think you’re having a slow day, it can be much worse.

The team set out at 10 p.m. on the final trek to the summit during which Levine was forced to call on all the lessons learned thus far, especially breaking the project into achievable increments and not letting fear get the better of her. When her oxygen tank malfunctioned at 27,500 feet, she feared cerebral edema. “The good news is, if you’re thinking you have cerebral edema, you don’t have it,” she said to laughter. After 20 minutes, the oxygen tank was repaired but the group was forced to turn back just shy of the summit because of a storm that trapped them in the death zone overnight.

Turning around and walking back down was harder than continuing on would’ve been. Sometimes, she said, “You turn around, cut your losses and walk away.” Mt. Everest is nothing but rock and ice—you can always go back, but not you take foolish chances you may not make it off the mountain. It’s also important to remember the risks are just as great on the way back down as they were on the way up. As long as you’re on that mountain, she said, you’re at risk.

She ended her talk with an inspirational story about a trip she took in 2005 to the Rwenzori Mountains, situated between The Congo and Uganda. There she discovered that while women appeared to do most of the manual labor in the villages, they had no rights, were still considered the property of men and were not allowed on the mountain because they had always been told it was taboo.

Unsatisfied with that answer, Levine continued to ask why until she was allowed to take a group of women up the mountain. Today, she said, they work as guides and porters on the mountain for the same pay their male counterparts earn. “That team of women showed an entire village of men that there’s nothing they can’t do,” Levine said. Lesson learned? Just because something has always been a certain way, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t change.

“Ask the question,” she said. “Always have a ‘game on’ attitude, get out there and push yourself on the peaks and weather the storms.”

—Marie S. Force

More photos from Monday:

A nine-year-old singing sensation from New Orleans wowed the crowd with her rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner.

AGA Executive Director Relmond Van Daniker, DBA, CPA, welcomes attendees to New Orleans and the PDC.

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez!

AGA is letting the good times roll in New Orleans this week with its 58th Annual Professional Development Conference & Exposition. Opening with a touch of jazz and a warm welcome from the City Council, the PDC got under way with 2,200 attendees and an opening keynote address from Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, known as TARP.Barofsky told the crowd that the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program may be “one of the least understood” offices in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. While TARP began in October of last year as a way to buy toxic assets from financial institutions, it is now made up of 12 separate programs, each with their own potential for fraud, waste and abuse. One of four oversight agencies, the special inspector general’s office is the only one with criminal law enforcement authority.

Barofsky, who developed his presentation as a series of answers to frequently asked questions, described the coordinated oversight function, broad array of audits and other responsibilities of his office.

The initial infusion of TARP money amounted to $218 billion; $70 billion has been repaid, he said. He explained that the so-called stress test was set up to determine whether the 19 biggest financial institutions had sufficient capital to withstand a downturn. Nine banks passed the stress test, while 10 were required to raise $75 billion in common equity. To get out of the TARP program, financial institutions are required to demonstrate their viability without TARP funds, their ability to continue lending, and a capacity to sell common stock.

Barofsky said that while TARP money is designed to go to financial institutions, the definition of that term was so broad in the statute that basically any company could seek out TARP funds. Under TARP, U.S. taxpayers have made a huge investment in the auto industry, owning 10 percent of Chrysler, 60 percent of General Motors and up to 49 percent of GMAC financing.

One program, the mortgage modification plan is “rife with opportunities for fraud,” Barofsky said, with fraudsters “waiting like rats to government cheese.”  The goal is to use TARP to reduce mortgage payments on a homeowner’s first mortgage to 31 percent of income. Incentive payments are available to servicers, investors and homeowners as well. While no fees are associated with the program, scammers are aggressively trying to charge homeowners who want to take advantage of the program and avoid foreclosure. 

Barofsky described the various programs, which total up to $3 trillion, with slides, cartoons and even a skit from Saturday Night Live, and discussed possibilities of conflicts of interest, unfairness and outright fraud. He said his office has put together a task force of eight agencies to “get out in front” of potential fraud. A think tank will identify weaknesses and make recommendations. Fraud is often identified after the fact, he said, using Katrina recovery funds as an example. “What we’re trying to do here is blow up that paradigm.”

He concluded by giving attendees his office website to seek reports, testimony and other information (www.sigtarp.gov). The site has received 10 million hits. The hotline number to report possible cases of fraud: 1.877.SIG.2009.

“We have to do a lot better,”  he said.

—Christina M. Camara

Check back for frequent updates from The Big Easy!

Management Skills 101: Metro Nashville’s Approach to Providing Training for Metro Managers

By: Rebekah Stephens

Rebekah Stephens is the Planning and Performance Coordinator, Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, TN.

Where do managers learn management skills? Are they learned from other managers, “trial by fire,” or by taking courses at a university? For some, it’s a mixture of some of all of these. Some managers become managers without the benefit of any training at all. To provide additional training for Metro managers, the Metro Nashville Finance Department partnered with the Metro Human Resources Department to deliver a training that is open to all Metro managers called Strategic Management Training. 

The purpose of the Strategic Management Training is to provide Metro managers with the skills and knowledge they need to plan strategically, use performance information to manage, and provide constructive and productive evaluations to individual employees.

The Strategic Management Training is a six-session series consisting of a session devoted to strategic planning and program-based budgeting, a session on ways to use performance information to manage and two sessions devoted to employee performance management. During the last two sessions, participants work in small groups to prepare for and deliver presentations based on their analysis of a case study that presents a problem and asks the small group to present two solutions.

The first sessions, Strategic Planning and Budgeting, begin with a discussion of trends facing Metro managers such as immigration, economic climate, changes within the government, etc. The sessions also cover information about strategic planning, such as how the plans are created in Metro as well as how they can be used as a management tool. The second part of this session introduces information about program-based, performance-informed budgeting in Metro. This session concludes with an interactive exercise that reinforces the information discussed during the session.

The second session discusses how managers can use performance information to evaluate their program’s performance as well as how to communicate their program’s success and challenges both within the organization and to external stakeholders and citizens.

The next two sessions discuss how to work with employees to create their individual employee performance measures that demonstrate how responsibilities contribute to the mission and goals of the organization. The Metro HR department presents the following portion of this session and discusses Metro’s approach to employee evaluations. The second part of this session goes into great detail, including interactive exercises, about how to have constructive and productive conversations with employees about their performance during the formal yearly evaluation process.

The last two sessions are devoted to preparing and delivering case study presentations.

At the beginning of the training, participants are divided into small groups for the purpose of completing the interactive exercises during each session and preparing the case study presentations. At the end of the training, the groups are tasked with delivering a group presentation based on a real-life scenario. They are asked to provide an analysis of the scenario as well as the group’s two options for solving the problem contained in the case study.

Since 2006, more than 60 Metro managers have taken advantage of this training opportunity because of the several benefits it offers. Managers have the opportunity to learn not only material covered in class, but also from their peers as they form connections with the participants in their small groups. The training also provides an opportunity to practice the skills learned as they take part in the interactive exercises and group presentations.

What training opportunities are offered by your government to help managers build skills in strategic planning and performance management?