Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 new standard, the FASAB believed that a period of experimentation was desirable to determine the best methods to report deferred maintenance. The implementation experience to date with FASAB Standard Number 6, as amended, has raised concerns with both agencies and auditors regarding the number of different interpretations of the standard, as well as cost- benefit and audit issues. For these reasons, in the summer of 1999 the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Council 2 initiated an interagency effort led by the Department of Defense (DoD) to review deferred maintenance reporting for real and personal property, national defense PP&E, heritage assets, and stewardship land. The Federal Facilities Council (FFC) 3 Standing Committee on Operations and Maintenance, supplemented by staff from other agencies, provided technical assistance for the interagency effort by identifying and reviewing issues arising from FASAB Standard Number 6, as amended, as it related to deferred maintenance reporting for facilities (real property). STUDY OBJECTIVES The work of the FFC Standing Committee on Operations and Maintenance and this report focused on fulfilling two primary objectives. The first is to identify issues related to the reporting of deferred maintenance for facilities as required by FASAB Standard Number 6, as amended. The second objective is to identify for consideration potential approaches for reporting deferred maintenance for facilities that (a) will have credibility in the facilities community, federal agencies, and Congress; (b) can be used to track trends within and across agencies; and (c) do not require an inordinate investment of time and resources to implement. The FFC Standing Committee on Operations and Maintenance has prepared this report to identify potential issues that should be considered in any future amendments to the standard and to suggest approaches for resolving them. The committee's intent is to assist the CFO Council, federal agencies, the FASAB, and others as they consider how best to meet the objectives of federal financial reporting for facilities. It is important to note that the FFC Standing Committee on Operations and Maintenance has not made 2 The Chief Financial Officers Council is comprised of chief financial officers and deputy chief financial officers of the largest federal agencies and senior officials of the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of the Treasury. Members work collaboratively to improve financial management in the U.S. government. 3 The FFC is a cooperative association of federal agencies, each of which requires the acquisition, maintenance, and operation of a significant inventory of buildings and other constructed facilities in support of its mission. The federal agencies that sponsored this study through the FFC are the U.S. Air Force, Air National Guard, U.S. Army, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Navy, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Food and Drug Administration, General Services Administration, Indian Health Service, Internal Revenue Service, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Science Foundation, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Smithsonian Institution, and the U.S. Postal Service. (See Internet site at http://www4.nationalacademies.org/cets/ffc.nsf for additional information.)
