Implementation NeededThe Departments of Education,
Treasury and Transportation are gradually putting
managerial cost accounting systems in place, the
Government Accountability Office has said following
an assessment of the extent to which federal
agencies develop cost information and use it for
managerial decision making.
MCA systems incorporate a range of laws, accounting
standards, information system requirements and
related guidance emphasizing the need for cost
information and cost management, and MCA practice
involves the accumulation and analysis of financial
and non-financial data in order to allocate costs
to, for example, performance goals, programs,
activities and outputs, according to GAO-06-301R.
GAO said one of 10 Education program offices had put
in place an MCA system at the time of its review,
and that Education did not take a department-level
leadership role to promote and monitor MCA
implementation, instead preferring to emphasize,
for example, improving financial reporting controls.
Transportation, however, has in recent years taken
a strong leadership stance in developing MCA
systems across the department and at individual
operating administrations, GAO said.
It said the 12 OA’s were developing MCA systems to
their needs and that could interface with the
department’s integrated financial management system,
Delphi.
FAA has led the department in putting a cost a
ccounting system in place after being mandated to
develop one in 1996, while the remaining 11
Transportation OAs expect to have MCA models in
place by early 2006, according to GAO.
