AGENCIES NOW ALLOWED TO HAVE 'DECEPTIVE' BUDGET PLANS, Bureaucrats
may 'modify' information on public financial statements, 10/13/18, WND.
FAS pointed out that the new standard lets agencies “modify information required by other [accounting] standards” when they release information to the public.
Properly classified information should be redacted, not misrepresented, said the accounting firm Kearney & Company.”
Government agencies are being given permission to “modify”
information in their budgets and public financial statements to conceal
spending on some programs, reports Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
The new permissions were announced by the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board, which said the objective is
to balance “the need for financial reports to be publicly available
with the need to prevent the disclosure of classified national security
information.”
However, the Federation of American Scientists bluntly
stated the
accounting board is approving of “deceptive budget practices.”
“Government agencies may remove or omit
budget information from their public financial statements and may present
expenditures that are associated with one budget line item as if they were
associated with another line item in order to protect classified information.”
Or they can simply not include information that otherwise would be required.
Or they can “misrepresent the actual
spending amounts associated with specific line items so that classified
information will not be disclosed,” FAS said.
“Allowing unacknowledged modifications
to public financial statements ‘jeopardizes the financial statements’
usefulness and provides financial managers with an arbitrary method of
reporting accounting information,’ according to
comments provided to the board by the Department of Defense Office of Inspector
General,” said FAS.
The accountants stated: “Generally
Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) should not be modified to limit reporting
of classified activities. Rather, GAAP reporting should remain the same as
other federal entities and redacted for public release or remain classified.”
FAS said the new policy, which
“extends deceptive budgeting practices that have long been employed in
intelligence budgets, means that public budget documents must be viewed
critically and with a new degree of skepticism.”
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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