Institute recognizes outstanding CPAs in government

John H. Fisher, former audit manager and single audit coordinator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Roger Norman, legislative auditor for the state of Arkansas, received the AICPA’s Outstanding CPAs in Government Award.

Fisher, who worked in Kansas City, Mo., and died in September 2011, was posthumously named the federal-level recipient. He helped HHS establish the National External Audit Review (NEAR) Center, which analyzes the single-audit reports prepared by independent external auditors on entities that expend HHS program funds and reports results of these reviews, along with recommendations for follow-up and monitoring, to enhance program integrity.

Fisher served as a member of the state governmental committees for the Kansas and Missouri state CPA societies. He also served on the Single Audit Committee of the Southwest Intergovernmental Audit Forum and on the Technical Issues Committee of the Mid-America Intergovernmental Audit Forum.

Norman, who received the state-level award, manages 275 employees to provide approximately 1,000 audits, reports, and special projects each year to assist the Arkansas General Assembly in making policy decisions and ensuring proper accountability, stewardship, and transparency of public funds and resources.

Norman has directed the Arkansas Division of Legislative Audit to help meet federal single-audit deadlines while auditing American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds totaling about $3 billion. He has increased the division’s focus on technology and other resources that would facilitate a paperless audit management program to reduce expense and increase efficiency.

The AICPA did not name a local-level winner of the Outstanding CPA in Government Award this year.