Conspiracy Spending

            GAAP stands for generally accepted accounting principles .  At least once each year businesses who have stock investors have to go through an audit.  GAAP sets guidelines for business owners to keep accurate records so there is no question about how revenues are made, how money is spent and if there is a profit.  As there have been a number of business owners or other workers who have been found to be dishonest (such as these examples) GAAP has seemingly created so many conditions over the years that the audit can be rather time consuming.  This set of guidelines is set to protect the investor as well as the consumer.

           Stockholders can feel more secure with their investments as long as GAAP continues with guidelines, but paying taxes is not the same as investing stock.  Sometimes the government - or some aspects of it rather - can seem to be just as corrupt as some businesses who have failed due to dishonest records.  So who looks out for the taxpayers' money? GASB requires governments to use full-accrual accounting that tax payers may have the opportunity to understand about the governments capital investments and holding as the government should be watched just as much as the for profit business.

                GASB guidelines assist not only with the financial reporting but the fiscal policies as well. In a nutshell, GASB is to the government like GAAP is to the world of business.  Guidelines and regulations for GASB are there for the benefit of the taxpayers as GAAP is there for the benefit of the stockholder.  For the last three weeks I have had to write assignments about GASB.  In my last report I commented on three specific public roads and the amount spent on each project. According to my understanding, the government has to break down that cost to an exactness:  The amount spent on each crew member hired, not only the cost of building material itself, but the cost spent on supplies to insure the safety of the workers, cost of traffic lights (if applied), paint, concrete, tar, and so forth - even the costs of for the temporary method of traffic flow set up until the major road had been fixed.

                I have been wanting to rewatch "Capricorn I" for some time and finally took that opportunity yesterday morning.  I realize not everybody has been or will be a big fan of the movie, but I still enjoy it.  Elliot Gould plays Robert Caulfield, a reporter who has a friend who works at NASA.  When his friend disappears just after making a comment about the mission to mars, Caulfield starts to investigate.  Meanwhile,  Kelloway, played by Hal Holbrook, tells three astronauts (played by James Brolin, Sam Waterson, and O.J. Simpson) that there is a problem with a product and that the government has so much funding on the line they can't afford anything to go wrong.  Thus the three astronauts are driven to a warehouse where they are told to "perform" their mission on a set to save face basically.  When the astronauts realize that they the charade can't last forever, they realize they have to escape the warehouse as their only means of survival.  Their destination is for finding a reporter and camera crew. Made in 1977.  I thought it was a good movie.

                I am so grateful I had already turned in my final assignment as I know my mind would have taken me in a totally different direction and gotten myself in deeper than where I needed to be.  "Capricorn I" is NOT based on a true story . . . but then again (see here) . . . it gives you something to think about.  How far would the government or government sponsored programs be willing to go to keep the public from knowing the truth?  I thought about Deep Throat (here) and Watergate (here), agent orange (here) and wondered if people really disappear when trying to uncover scandals such as these.  Surely those are not going to show up on the accounting journals:

                10,000 to knock off Elliot Whitter,

another 8,00 to hire Alva Leacock to pretend she has been living in Whitter's apartment for a full year,      70 dollars for forged magazine subscriptions and other mail,

               6,000 to tap into Robert Caulfield's breaks,

another 2,000 to for hiring a team that find planted drugs in Caulfield's apartment. 

                2 mil for the helicopters sent to chase the three astronauts, on and on and on . . .

of course the funds would never get recorded in that manner. 

I am done with accounting!  Five or six classes left.  Should be smooth sailing from here on out.  I start two more classes tomorrow.

Side Note:           I don't remember the first time I saw "Capricorn I" but I have some fun 
                    memories                  - both which involve my brother Patrick.

                1)            I was with my mom and Patrick was sitting with a group of friends a few rows back.  The film stopped in the middle of the movie, and it was announced that it would be a few minutes before the projector would be running.  I made a bold move up to the front of the theatre and announced that it was Patrick's birthday and asked those in attendance to sing "Happy Birthday" to him.

                2)            Patrick recorded the movie from a local TV station.  Parts of the movie had been cut out to make room for the sponsor's ads - unfortunately Hal Holbrook's speech had been one of the scenes that had been cut.  Everytime Patrick had friends over who were not familiar with the movie, he would pause where the scene had been cut out and explain what was going on - kind of important to the movie.

                My favorite part of the movie is the end - to watch the expressions of those in attendance to honor the three astronauts - Brenda Vacarro and Hal Holbrook especially as they have the best expressions.  For the full episode of Capricorn 1 see here.