Richard C. Mayo. Richard Mayo, one of the earliest members of FASAB's original staff, will retire on October 3, 2001 with 30 years of Federal service. Richard immigrated to the United States from China in 1966 and became a US citizen. Richard began his career as a broadcast writer with the Voice of America. He was a systems accountant at the Interstate Commerce Commission for over 6 years. He also worked for Westheimer, Fine, Berger & Co., a national CPA firm, and completed advanced training in credit and financial analysis in international lending at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York. Richard holds an MA in accounting from Catholic University and an MBA from George Washington University. He also is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Government Financial Manager.

During the second half of his career, Richard worked for the Federal Railroad Administration and the Department of Energy. In 1988 Richard came to the General Accounting Office as an accountant in the Accounting and Financial Management Division. In 1991, he began working for FASAB. During his 10-years at FASAB, Richard was the project director for the Board's standard on assets and liabilities, and its more complex standards on credit reform and cost accounting. Richard's depth of understanding of complicated accounting and financial issues and his ability to communicate those issues have made him an invaluable asset to the Board.

Larry J. Modlin. Larry Modlin retired from 31 years of Federal service on August 31, 2001. Larry’s extensive career began with 4 years in the Navy. Then after completing his BS in accounting at High Point College in North Carolina, he became an accountant for 6 years in the General Accounting Office’s Norfolk regional office, 6 years with the Department of the Treasury in Saudi Arabia (as comptroller for the US representation of the US Saudi Arabia Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation), and 15 years with the General Accounting Office’s Accounting and Information Division. Larry is a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Government Financial Manager. For 2 of his latter years with GAO, Larry was detailed to FASAB because of his expertise in cost accounting. He worked with Richard Mayo to facilitate and produce in 1995 FASAB's Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Standard 4 (SFFAS 4), Managerial Cost Accounting.

Not only is the Federal financial community losing extensive corporate memory and skills, it is losing two wonderfully capable and creative talents. We wish both Richard and Larry continuing good fortune in their future endeavors.

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At its June meeting, the Board had decided on final changes to its draft exposure draft on National Defense Property, Plant, & Equipment. Staff incorporated those changes and other Board comments into the draft and in early August forwarded the finalized version of the draft to Board members for a ballot vote. At the August Board meeting, the Chairman announced that a majority of the Board voted to issue the exposure draft and instructed staff to publish the document.

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At its August meeting, the Board discussed audit-related concerns about reporting certain stewardship items with Chuck Landes, Director for Auditing Standards, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Mr. Landes indicated that the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants would work with the Board to provide appropriate guidance for the audit profession to deal with nonfinancial information that the Board may designate as "basic" information. The guidance would be consistent with users' needs. The Board then discussed the rationale for, and implications of, its decision to eliminate the Required Supplementary Stewardship (RSSI) category.

The Board reaffirmed the tentative decisions made last year regarding the reclassification of stewardship responsibilities. The exposure draft will propose that the "current services assessment" and "risk assumed" information would be reclassified as required supplementary information (RSI). Social insurance information would be reclassified as "basic" information. The Board began reviewing specific language for the exposure draft.

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Representatives of Treasury's Financial Management Service presented the Board with two reports that it had developed for replacing the Statement of Financing and the Statement of Budgetary Resources at the consolidated level. The two reports were the "Statement of Reconciliation of the Results of Operations," and the "Statement of Disposition of the Budget Surplus/Deficit."

In discussing the proposed statements, the Board first affirmed its position that Federal GAAP in the Board's Statements of Federal Financial Accounting Standards (SFFAS), unless specifically indicated otherwise, apply to both agency level and governmentwide level reporting. Then it generally agreed with Treasury's position that the Statements of Financing and Budgetary Resources, specifically designed with agency level activity in mind, were not particularly applicable at the consolidated financial level. The Board directed Staff to a) convene a small working level group from the Board members' staff and Treasury's FMS to discuss the Board's concerns on the format of Treasury's proposed reports, and b) conduct further research on how the Board's current standards address reporting at the consolidated level.

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The Board considered a request by the American Academy of Actuaries to address amending SFFAS 5, Accounting for Liabilities of the Federal Government, regarding pensions. The AAA recommended including requirements for pension plan reporting that were required of private sector plans by a recently repealed Public Law, PL 95-595. Because of higher priorities and differences between private and Federal pension plans, the Board decided not to initiate such a project at this time.

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FASAB would like to thank Preston Rich, the director of the Financenet group, and his capable associates, Moe Than, Dinesh Sivagnanam, and Lysa Olympo, who have done an excellent job of supporting FASAB and its current web page.

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FAX 202-512-7366

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October 25 & 26

December 13 & 14

February 27 & 28

(Future dates will be published in next issue.)

Location: General Accounting Office

441 G Street, NW, Room 6N30,

Washington, DC 20548.

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Nov 8

Location: General Accounting Office, Room 4N30

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NOTE: FASAB News is published by the staff of the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board. This newsletter, highlighting recent Board actions, is issued after Board meetings to provide the public with an understanding of issues that the Board is considering. When an article refers to a Board decision, it should be understood that Board decisions are tentative until FASAB issues a Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Concepts (SFFAC) or Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Standards (SFFAS).