EU Will Begin to Monitor National Pension Systems

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Many countries in Europe are trying to strategically plan for baby boomers by adjusting their pension systems. Spain is the most recent to take on these measures, as the country raised the retirement age from 65 to 67.

Now, the European Union (EU) has agreed to monitor the pension systems of each country to ensure that they are being managed correctly and efficiently, reports IFAOnline.
 
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Many Women in Canada's Pension and Retirement System Are FallingThrough the Cracks

By NEIL SCOTT, Postmedia News

A disproportionate number of women are falling through the many cracks in Canada's pension and retirement system, delegates at a conference in Regina were told Thursday.

Barb Byers, a vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) as well as former president of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, said major reforms are needed to the pension system to benefit both men and women.

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Government Auditing Standards: 2010 Exposure Draft

Image via WikipediaAugust 2010

TO AUDIT OFFICIALS AND OTHERS INTERESTED IN GOVERNMENT AUDITING STANDARDS

GAO invites your comments on the accompanying proposed changes to Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS), commonly known as the “Yellow Book.” This letter describes the process used by GAO for revising GAGAS, summarizes the proposed major changes, discusses proposed effective dates, and provides instructions for submitting comments on the proposed standards.

Process for Revising GAGAS

To help ensure that the standards continue to meet the needs of the audit community and the public it serves, the Comptroller General of the United States appointed the Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards to review the standards and recommend necessary changes.
The Advisory Council includes experts in financial and performance auditing drawn from federal, state, and local government, the private sector, public accounting, and academia. This exposure draft includes the Advisory Council’s input regarding the proposed changes. We are currently requesting public comments on the proposed revisions in the exposure draft.

Summary of Major Changes

The proposed revision to GAGAS will be the sixth since GAO first issued the standards in 1972. The proposed changes contained in the 2010 Exposure Draft update GAGAS to reflect major developments in the accountability and audit profession and emphasize specific considerations applicable to the government environment.

The major changes in the proposed revision were made to:
•  consolidate and reorganize the foundation and ethical principles for government audits and the standards for use and application of GAGAS (chapters 1 and 2);
•  add a conceptual framework approach for independence (chapter 3);
•  update the financial audit standards to  (1) reflect recent updates to the auditing standards issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), where applicable, (2) more clearly identify the GAGAS requirements and guidance that supplement AICPA requirements for financial audits, and (3) consolidate the financial audit standards into a single chapter (chapter 4);

Enclosure 1 to this letter contains a more comprehensive listing of the major changes.

 Effective Dates

When issued in final form, the 2011 revision will supersede the July 2007 revision of the standards and the guidance provided in Government Auditing Standards: Answers to Independence Standard Questions (GAO-02-870G). The effective date for the 2011 revision of GAGAS will be established when the standards are issued in final form.

 Instructions for Commenting

The draft of the proposed changes to Government Auditing Standards, 2010 Exposure Draft, is only available in electronic format and can be downloaded from GAO’s Yellow Book Web Page at http://www.gao.gov/govaud/ybk01.htm.

We are requesting comments on this draft from audit officials and financial management at all levels of government, the public accounting profession, academia, professional organizations, public interest groups, and other interested parties. To assist you in developing your comments, specific issues are presented in enclosure 2 to this letter.

We encourage you to comment on these issues and any additional issues that you note. Please associate your comments with specific references to question numbers in the enclosure and/or paragraph numbers in the proposed standards and provide your rationale for any suggested changes, along with suggested revised language. Please send your comments electronically to yellowbook@gao.gov no later than November 22, 2010.

If you need additional information please call Michael Hrapsky, Specialist, Auditing Standards, at (202) 512-9535, or Jim Dalkin, Director, at (202) 512-3133.

Sincerely yours,

Jeanette M. Franzel
Managing Director
Financial Management and Assurance
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Aging Texas Well Plan 2010-2011

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The Aging Texas Well (ATW) Plan is submitted to the governor by the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS) as required by Executive Order RP 42.

This 2010-11 Plan is the response to the RP 42 mandate that DADS create and disseminate a comprehensive and effective working plan to identify and discuss aging policy issues, guide state government readiness and promote increased community preparedness for an aging Texas. RP 42 also mandates that DADS update the plan biennially and evaluate and report on its implementation.

The plan details the elements of the ATW initiative and establishes objectives within each of the key focus areas identified by RP 42 mandates. During the />2010-11 biennium, with guidance from the Aging Texas Well Advisory Committee (ATWAC), DADS will address the areas of focus outlined in RP 42.

Podcast: State Budget Crisis Puts Economic Recovery at Risk — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

In this podcast the state budget crisis and what it means for the national economy is discussed.

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Opinion of State Governments Drops With the Economy, Budget Gaps - Pew Research Center

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New Administration Changes Partisan Views of Federal Government With the economy wreaking havoc on state budgets, the favorability ratings of state governments have declined from a year ago. Overall, 50% of the public now holds a favorable opinion of their state government, down from 59% in April 2008. The falloff in positive views has been greater in states with large and moderate budget shortfalls than in states with smaller budget gaps. As positive ratings of state governments have declined, people's ratings of their local governments have remained relatively stable. By nearly a two-to-one margin, Americans express a favorable opinion of their local governments (60% favorable, 32% unfavorable), which is largely unchanged from April 2008 (63% favorable). The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted July 22-26, 2009 finds that favorability ratings of the federal government have rebounded somewhat since last year. Currently, 50% have an unfavorable opinion of the federal government while 42% express a favorable view. By comparison, in April 2008 views of the federal government were the lowest they have been in a decade (58% unfavorable, 37% favorable). Read More

Social Security Numbers: Transfers and Sales of Public Records That May Contain Social Security Numbers

an E-supplement to GAO-08-1009R Various public records in the United States contain Social Security numbers (SSNs) and other personal identifying information that could be used to commit fraud and identity theft. In recent years, record keepers in some localities have been maintaining electronic images of their records that can be easily transferred to other parties in bulk quantities or made available through the Internet. To learn more about the availability and use of these records, GAO conducted a study to determine the extent, reasons, and to whom records that may contain SSNs are available in bulk and online; as well as measures taken to protect SSNs that may be contained in these records. Specifically, we surveyed a sample of county record keepers, including those from 97 of the counties with the largest populations, and a random selection of 150 of the remaining counties. We obtained a response rate of 88.9 percent. A more detailed discussion of our scope and methodology is contained in our report "Social Security Numbers: Social Security Numbers are Widely Available in Bulk and Online Records, but Changes to Enhance Security are Occurring" GAO-08-1009R (Washington, D.C.: September 19, 2008). This e-publication supplements our report by presenting the item by item results of our web-based survey of county record keepers. We administered the survey from March through May 2008 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

Downsizing government to death

Thanks to 'E. coli conservatism,' weakened government watchdogs have put us all at risk. (excerpts from opinion article) By Eric Lotke July 20, 2008 - Los Angeles Times Last week, consumers were worried about salmonella in their fresh tomatoes. Before that, it was E. coli in their spinach. Something is wrong. Eating a salad is not supposed to be a high-risk activity. But the problem isn't so much farmers. It's ideology. Historian Rick Perlstein, author of "Nixonland," calls it "E. coli conservatism" -- government shrinks and shrinks until people get sick. Many conservatives have gone far beyond that. Their traditional embrace of small government has been replaced with outright disdain for it. Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, doesn't just want to shrink government. To use his words, he wants government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." Once in power, E. coli conservatives shrink government by hamstringing it. They weaken rules that protect people, slash the budgets of consumer agencies and appoint industry friends to oversight commissions. The result: Some government regulatory agencies that we trust to protect us have shrunk to insignificance or serve private industry rather than consumers. There are many other examples of E. coli conservatism at work. In 2000-2001, energy deregulation in California opened the door for Enron and similar companies to artificially limit the supply of electricity to the state, driving up prices and creating rolling blackouts. Financial deregulation helped create the housing bubble by allowing companies to sell mortgages to people who couldn't afford the payments. The surging commodities markets and the swooning stock markets are in part caused by rule changes, made in the name of deregulation, that make it easier to speculate on price swings. It was recently learned that the three main credit-rating agencies -- Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings -- failed to rein in conflicts of interest in their ratings practices. Among the problems: Companies issuing securities were paying the ratings agencies for their rating. Enough. Instead of talking about the size of government, we should be debating how to make our government more effective. How many more people have to get sick before the government reclaims its mission to serve the people?

Cosmic Markdown: EPA Says Life Is Worth Less

By David A. Fahrenthold Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, July 19, 2008; Page A01 Last week, it was revealed that an Environmental Protection Agency office had lowered its official estimate of life's value, from about $8.04 million to about $7.22 million. That decision has put a spotlight on the concept of the "Value of a Statistical Life," in which the Washington bureaucracy takes on a question usually left to preachers and poets. One of the researchers whom the EPA cited said he was puzzled at the agency's calculations on the value of a human life. "Nobody's ever lowered it," said W. Kip Viscusi of Vanderbilt University. EPA came closest: In 2003, it tried to count senior citizens' lives as worth less than those of other adults. After a loud outcry from seniors, the agency backed off. Viscusi said most researchers believe the value should generally be going up, as Americans have become wealthier and more willing to spend money to avoid risks.

Glaxo Seeks Guidance From Health Systems

By JEANNE WHALEN July 7, 2008, Wall Street Journal

British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC is taking the unusual step of giving government health-care systems a say in deciding which drugs advance in its research pipeline, a move it hopes will result in more products these customers will pay for. Glaxo's new chief executive, Andrew Witty, said the effort is part of his drive to help the world's second-largest drug maker adapt to a tough pharmaceutical market. In recent years, soaring health-care costs have led insurers, governments and other drug buyers to tighten their belts.