Accountant

Why work for the Federal Bureau of Prisons?

You can have a meaningful career with an agency that truly values a diverse workforce. You will find a diverse workforce employed from entry level jobs to senior management positions. We protect public safety by ensuring federal offenders serve their sentences of imprisonment in facilities that are safe, humane, and provide reentry programming. Employees at correctional facilities perform correctional work regardless of their specific occupation.

Qualifications:

To be considered for the position, you must meet the following qualification requirements:

Basic Requirements:

A. Degree: accounting; or a degree in a related field such as business administration, finance, or public administration that included or was supplemented by 24 semester hours in accounting. The 24 hours may include up to 6 hours of credit in business law.(The term "accounting" means "accounting and/or auditing" in this standard. Similarly, "accountant" should be interpreted, generally, as "accountant and/or auditor.")

OR

B. Combination of education and experience--at least 4 years of experience in accounting, or an equivalent combination of accounting experience, college-level education, and training that provided professional accounting knowledge. The applicant's background must also include one of the following:

• Twenty-four semester hours in accounting or auditing courses of appropriate type and quality. This can include up to 6 hours of business law;
• Certificate as Certified Public Accountant or a Certified Internal Auditor, obtained through written examination; OR
• Completion of the requirements for a degree that included substantial course work in accounting or auditing, e.g., 15 semester hours, but that does not fully satisfy the 24-semester hour requirement of paragraph A, provided that (a) the applicant has successfully worked at the full performance level in accounting, auditing, or a related field, e.g., valuation engineering or financial institution examining; (b) a panel of at least two higher level professional accountants or auditors has determined that the applicant has demonstrated a good knowledge of accounting and of related and underlying fields that equals in breadth, depth, currency, and level of advancement that which is normally associated with successful completion of the 4-year course of study described in paragraph A; and (c) except for literal nonconformance to the requirement of 24 semester hours in accounting, the applicant's education, training, and experience fully meet the specified requirements.

AND

In addition to the above basic requirement, applicants must also have:

Education:

GL-07: You must have 1 year of graduate-level education or superior academic achievement.

GL-09: You must have 2 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a master's degree or master's or equivalent graduate degree.

Graduate education must provide the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position.

OR

Experience:

GL-07 and GL-09: You must have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to the next lower grade level in federal service. To be creditable, this experience must have equipped the applicant with the particular qualifications to perform successfully the duties of the position, and must typically be in or related to the position to be filled.

Some examples of this qualifying experience are:

GL-07:

• Experience in managing operating programs by supplying accurate financial statements, reports and other information of a factual nature to appropriate sources.
• Experience in ensuring funds are efficiently controlled, obligated, paid and reported.
• Experience updating and maintaining automated accounting system.
• Experience assisting with reconciling and balancing general ledger accounts, and making adjustments for prior year appropriations.

GL-09:

• Experience providing expertise on operating, maintaining and modifying accounting systems.
• Experience in providing interpretations of accounting reports, statements and data which points out trends, estimates the effect of proposed changes in operating programs on income, expenditures, obligation and costs.
• Experience reviewing and resolving accounting discrepancies and using accounting information to recommend solutions to management.

OR

Combination of Education and Experience:

GL-07 and GL-09: Have a combination of education and experience. This experience must have equipped you with the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform the major duties of this position as described above.

If applicable, credit will be given for paid and unpaid experience. To receive proper credit, you must show the actual time (such as the number of hours worked per week) spent in activities.

**Your eligibility for consideration will be based on your responses to the questions in the application.**

Responsibilities:

Responsible for the accurate and timely output of accounting data from the Financial Management Information System (FMIS).

Supplies timely and accurate financial statements, fund status reports reflecting budget combined with accounting data, cost reports, and special ratios where appropriate through utilization of the Financial Management Information System (FMIS).

Provides expertise on and makes manual FMIS entries through the use of over five-hundred manual FMIS transaction codes.

Provides interpretations of accounting report statements and data which points out trends, identifies deviations from plans, and projects data into the future.

Assists the supervisor by meeting with and assisting management officials in applying financial data and information derived from statements, reports and ratios to management problems.

Along with all other correctional institution employees, incumbent is charged with responsibility for maintaining security of the institution. The staff correctional responsibilities precede all others required by this position and are performed on a regular and recurring basis.