FASAB recommends standards on supplementary stewardship reporting.

The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board has issued an exposure draft recommending standards for reporting on the federal government's stewardship over certain resources entrusted to it and certain responsibilities it has assumed. The ED, Supplementary Stewardship Reporting, is directed to heads of federal agencies and users, preparers and auditors of federal financial information.

The proposed standards address stewardship reporting for various elements of stewardship over property, plant and equipment and investments either in state and local governmentowned (but federally financed) properties and education and training programs or in research that is designed to maintain or increase U.S. economic productive capacity or to provide future benefits.

Costs of these resources are currently treated as expenses in the government's financial statements, the ED noted. According to FASAB project manager Philip Calder, "These new standards would require financial reports to demonstrate accountability for resources entrusted to the federal government, significant investments in human and intellectual capital (neither capitalized for financial statement purposes) and expenditures for which accruals have not have been made but which will have to be made in the future if certain programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, are to continue in their present form."

The ED also proposes standards for making projections to help assess whether future resources will be sufficient to sustain public services and meet obligations as they come due.

The FASAB's concept statement, Objectives of Federal Financial Reporting, requires that the federal government "report on the broad outcomes of its actions," which could provide information that would help users assess the impact of the government's operations and investments for the period covered, the ED says. "We want to ensure that users of financial statements of the government as a whole or its units have such information," said Calder.

If approved by the Treasury, the Office of Management and Budget and the General Accounting Office, the recommendations would become mandatory for fiscal year 1998, he said.

Although the period for offering comments on the ED has ended, those interested in seeing the recommendations may obtain one copy of the ED at no cost, as long as supplies last, from: Order Department, Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board, 750 First Street, Suite 1001, Washington, D.C. 20002, [phone].