Despite the passage of “alphabet soup” laws such as GPRA, the Government Performance and Results Act, agencies still are far from making accurate, reliable accounting a priority, Mike Hettinger, staff director of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Management, Finance and Accountability, told a recent panel discussion in Washington.

“There’s a host of underlying feeder systems that are not generating data that is timely, accurate and reliable,” he said. “We’re still plugging some not-reliable data into the same systems.”

Performance-based budgeting, a method of presenting program performance data alongside budget amounts, is another way that CFOs can elevate their role. The ultimate goal is to improve budget decision-making by linking funding choices directly to program results.

"Results and performance are important, but what plays in Peoria plays a defining role in these decisions."
—Mike Hettinger

But members of Congress haven’t fully embraced it, Hettinger said. The reason? Politics plays a large part in congressional financial decisions, Hettinger said. “Results and performance are important, but what plays in Peoria plays a defining role in these decisions,” he said.

Still, Congress is beginning to come around, he added.

Srikant Sastry, who heads Grant Thornton LLP’s budget and performance integration practice and has directed implementations of cost and performance strategies for a variety of federal agencies, outlined 10 steps CFOs could take to empower their missions and achieve their financial goals:

• Define objectives
• Lead with requirements and business objectives; the software can come later
• Identify executive level champions
• Involve IT, budget and financial personnel
• Hold responsible parties accountable
• Create demand for the product, so that people are clamoring for it
• Assess readiness
• Integrate with other initiatives
• Think long-term, implement in phases and build on early success
• Communicate, communicate, communicate.