U.S. Government Standard General Ledger
Issues Resolution Committee (IRC) Meeting Minutes

February 9, 2012

GENERAL ITEMS:

Katherine Winchester (FMS) opened the meeting and provided an overview of the agenda. Introductions were made.

This meeting was held at the Government Accountability Office, 441 G Street NW., Room 5N30, Washington, DC.

HANDOUTS:

• Implementation Guidance on the Accounting for the Disposal of General Property, Plant, and Equipment, Federal Financial Accounting and Auditing Technical Release No. 14 (TR #14), Effective Fiscal 2013
• Gap Analysis
• Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Standards 6: Accounting for Property, Plant, and Equipment
• USSGL TFM Supplement Format
• Nonexpenditure Transfers (NET) Between Two Expired Treasury Appropriation Fund Symbols (TAFS), Effective Fiscal 2013
• FACTS II Attributes for Fiscal 2012 Reporting

AGENDA ITEMS:

Implementation Guidance on the Accounting for the Disposal of General Property, Plant, and Equipment (PP&E), TR #14, Effective Fiscal 2013

Christine Chang (FMS) started her presentation by going over several changes to the Implementation Guidance on the Accounting for the Disposal of General Property, Plant, and Equipment. The new accounts now have six digits as opposed to four digits in fiscal 2013. Unrealized gain or loss has not been recognized in the implementation guidance because TR #14 did not address it. Lastly, original USSGL account 1760, “General Property, Plant, and Equipment Permanently Removed But Not Yet Disposed,” has been changed to new USSGL account 1995. According to FASAB Standard No. 6, an item is considered PP&E if it is available for use by the entity. Because it does not meet the PP&E criteria, it was changed to another asset account number series.

Christine went over the attribute table from the scenario. The attribute table featured on page six is now based on the Governmentwide Treasury Account Symbol Adjusted Trial Balance System (GTAS) attribute table. The GTAS attribute table is still in draft form. USSGL accounts 1995 and 1996, “General Property, Plant, and Equipment Permanently Removed To Be Used as Spare Parts/Subcomponents,” are considered to be non-Federal. An attendee asked why the asset is considered non-Federal if the agency owns it. Kathy responded that the “F/N” attribute typically is used for elimination purposes. The Federal/non-Federal attribute is used to show whether an agency has a Federal or non-Federal partner involved in a transaction. The asset is considered to be non-Federal because a Federal attribute would eliminate the asset. There is an ongoing project in the buy/sell arena dealing with how to properly eliminate capitalized assets when one agency has revenue and the other agency has a capitalized asset instead of an expense.

Teresa Tancre (OMB) asked if the FACTS II Transaction Partner attribute will be replaced by the GTAS Federal/non-Federal attribute. Teresa explained that in FACTS II, on the budgetary side, the Transaction Partner attribute is not used for elimination purposes, as is the current proprietary Trading Partner attribute. Therefore, OMB wants to see the transactions with Federal and non-Federal domain values. Kathy said that it is a combined attribute in GTAS, which means the current FACTS II Transaction Partner will no longer exist and will become the Federal/non-Federal attribute. However, it will not be for elimination purposes in the budgetary context. In the GTAS environment, the attribute domain values will be “E” for non-Federal exception, “F” for Federal, “G” for General Fund, and “N” for non-Federal. The two trading partner fields in GTAS include the Trading Partner Agency Identifier attribute (three characters) and the Trading Partner Main Account Identifier. The Trading Partner Agency Identifier attribute on the proprietary side was called trading partner, and, on the budgetary side, it was a direct transfer agency code. The Trading Partner Main Account Identifier attribute in GTAS will still have a four numeric domain value. On the budgetary side it was a Direct Transfer Account Code, and, on the proprietary side, the attribute did not exist. The GAP analysis handout was discussed briefly. It will be placed on the USSGL Web site.

Christine focused the discussion on the third year of the scenario when the asset is permanently removed. She asked the IRC whether a separate USSGL account for Property, Plant, and Equipment Permanently Removed To Be Used as Spare Parts is needed or can that activity flow through the new proposed USSGL account 1995. Heather Potter (NOAA) said that her agency could use a separate account for spare parts. NOAA has ships that are considered to be permanently removed from service but could have salvageable parts. NOAA has a significant value of this type of inventory. DOD said it would depend on how military equipment is classified according to the standards. IRC then discussed what series of USSGL account numbers would be appropriate for the spare parts. Christine mentioned that since the definition in the PP&E standard stated that assets “have been acquired or constructed with the intention of being used, or being available for use by the entity,” she placed the spare parts in USSGL account 1760. Bruce Henshel (Commerce) suggested that spare parts can be reported in the operating materials and supplies account series. After much discussion, IRC agreed that the Property, Plant, and Equipment Permanently Removed To Be Used as Spare Parts account would be appropriate in the operating materials and supplies number series.

Christine requested that agencies with this type of activity review the USSGL account series, suggest an appropriate account, and provide the justification.

The technical correction for TR #14 was also discussed. Part of a sentence was left out on the final TR. Eileen Parlow (FASAB) would like the implementation guidance to address the accounting for “Assets Subject to Group Depreciation,” where one of the assets has been removed and is subject to group depreciation. Bruce thought it was not necessary because, once the whole group was permanently removed, they would follow the guidance from TR #14. Eileen mentioned that the implementation guide should include the group depreciation scenario since they are different. Kathy stated that this guidance will include only what has been presented today for this year. We may include the group or composite depreciation in the future. Kathy also stated that the title of this guidance will be changed to reflect that it will not cover everything from TR #14.

USSGL TFM Supplement Format

The release of the updated USSGL TFM will occur within the March/April timeframe. Part II will be the fiscal 2013 TFM. Part I will be the same as Part II of the December release, with the inclusion of the items in TFM Bulletin No. 2012-01. Part II will include the new requirements resulting from GTAS. In fiscal 2013, there will be only one Attribute Table (which will include proprietary and budgetary accounts). All USSGL accounts will change from four digits to six digits (the last two digits will be zeros). New accounts for fiscal 2013 will not be presented in the TFM until the June TFM release. The June 2012 publication will be for fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2013. This TFM will have updates based on new accounts and requirements for fiscal 2013.

Fiscal 2013 Format

Sections 1 through 3 in the TFM will remain the same. Section 4 will have only one attribute definition report and one attribute table. Section 5 will have the SF 133/P&F crosswalk separated into two crosswalks. Section 6 will remain the same. Section 7 will be new and will be featured in the March/April release. This section will include edits and validations from GTAS (edits, fatal edits, proposed edits, validations, closing table). The closing table is on the USSGL Web site.

Nonexpenditure Transfers (NET) Between Two Expired Treasury Appropriation Fund Symbols (TAFS), Effective Fiscal 2013

The scenario addresses situations where expired funds within one TAFS must be returned to the original TAFS. This is accomplished as a nonexpenditure transfer. New accounts were needed because this type of activity crosswalks differently than other types of nonexpenditure transfers. USSGL account 4196, “Balance Transfers-In - Expired to Expired,” and 4197, “Balance Transfers-Out - Expired to Expired,” are effective for fiscal 2013 and will appear in the June TFM. The accounts will crosswalk to lines 1010 and 1011 on the SF 133 and P&F crosswalks. In addition, the accounts will crosswalk to line 1043 on the Statement of Budgetary Resources. A footnote will be added to the scenario to prevent the common mistake of choosing a cumulative result type of transfer instead of an unexpended appropriation type of transfer on the proprietary side. If one agency in the transfer records it as a cumulative results transfer and the other records it as an unexpended appropriation transfer, then elimination issues will result. The USSGL Advisory Division will also look into adding the debit/credit indicator back to USSGL accounts 4191 and 4192 on the SF 133 and P&F crosswalks, per OMB’s request.

FACTS II Attributes For Fiscal 2012 Reporting

For fiscal 2012, the Prior Year Adjustment attribute is being removed from all proprietary accounts because it is truly a budgetary attribute. This change will appear in the June TFM. This impacts only the FMS 2108 and P&F crosswalks.

ATTENDEES:

Eileen Parlow, FASAB
Kathy Winchester, FMS
Christine Chang, FMS
Melinda Pope, FMS
Ava Lun, FMS
Tia Harley, FMS
Karen Metler, FMS
Melanie White, FMS
Casey McAllister, DEA
Stewart Knott, DEA
Derrick Washington, DOI
Diane Washington, DOI
Vickie Massey, FCC
Jana Sjoquist, VA
James Shea, VA
Souleymane Dosso, USDOJ
Maurice Gibbs, USDOJ
Lynn Moaney, FCC
Vanessa Lamb, FCC
Yeng Sun, HUD/FHA
Cindy Scharf, Library of Congress
Eric Teal, DOI
Jerome Commander, NASA
Alana Dubois, DHHS
Jillian Irvine, FMS
Damari Disen, FMS
Karl Foltz, FMS
Edwin Walker, FMS
Drena McDaniel, Transportation
Bruce Henshel, Commerce
Michael Ward, GSA
Lise Trumbull, GSA
Belinda Thompson, FMS
Tiffany Dillworth, FMS
Bethany Williams, DOE
Patricia Wolf, Ex-Im Bank
Kevin Close, USDA
Hal Blitz, FMS
Ashley Bradley, HUD
Jennifer Satterfield, HUD
Janice Alexander, NSF
Alejandro Gonzalez, DOJ
April Mitchell, DOJ
Jerri Jones, DOJ
Teresa Tancre, OMB
Ellis Ogun, NASA
Kevin Dugas, Transportation
Jeanne McDonald, FCC
Junghee Gogue, SSA
Mark Graham, SSA
Letha Holliday, SSA
Karen Hunter, SSA
Ana Labador, SSA
Brent Woolford, SSA
Michelle Abgail, NRC
Ellen Brown, NRC
Jonnathan Diaz-Olivo, FMS
Stephanie Pickerill, FMS