U.S. Consolidated Financial Statements: Key Issues for the Department of Education

Highlights

What GAO Found

The Department of Education's strong and sustained commitment is critical to addressing key issues that affect the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements. These include addressing the issues that caused Education to be unable to obtain an opinion on its fiscal year 2024 financial statements, providing reliable intragovernmental activity and balances data, accurately preparing budget and accrual reconciliation information, providing more detailed information for Fund Balance with Treasury activity, and effectively implementing new processes related to treaties and other international agreements.

For example, the disclaimer of opinion on Education's financial statements was based on errors identified in underlying data for assumptions used to estimate the cost of student loan programs. These disclaimers contributed to GAO being unable to express an opinion on the consolidated financial statements.

Why GAO Did This Study

GAO is responsible for conducting the annual audit of the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements. On January 16, 2025, GAO issued a disclaimer of opinion on these statements for fiscal years 2024 and 2023. The consolidated financial statements are compiled from federal entity financial statements and other federal entity information. As such, federal entities, including Education, have a key role in supporting financial reporting at the government-wide level.

For more information, contact Dawn Simpson at simpsondb@gao.gov.

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