The latest financial audit report on the federal government says much of what it said last year. Two big departments still can’t quite earn clean audits. Therefore, neither can the government as a whole. Bob Dacey, chief accountant at the Government Accountability Office, has led the annual audit report since 1996. We asked him if anything had changed for the better in the latest look-see.

An unusually strong report from the Government Accountability Office suggests agencies are cloaking key steps of the rule-making process in secrecy. Auditors looked at major rules from 2003 to 2010. It found agencies did not publish notices of proposed rule-making in more than a third of the cases. Even when agencies welcomed public comments, they often did not respond to them. Maybe they didn’t even read them. GAO acting director for strategic issues Melissa Emrey-Arras signed off on the report.

It’s January and you already may have gotten a few notices from your accountant reminding you to prepare your taxes. Nope, it’s not too early. Registered employee benefits consultant Ed Zurndorfer is here to help us prepare for April 15.