Christopher Featherstone

Background

About Christopher Featherstone

Since September 2018, I have worked for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) as a GS-14 management analyst in the Office of Internal Control (OIC) leading A-123 internal control reviews and internal audits, as well as reviews related to GAO's enterprise risk management (ERM) function. I lead our annual internal audits of all human capital related functions, including payroll, hiring, promotions, employment suitability, awards, bonuses, and retention and recruitment incentives. I also lead our internal audits of GAO's financial reporting, including: accruals (accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, etc.) and other journal voucher transactions, the trial balance, the general ledger, and the financial statements. I have also led our offices reviews of GAO's budget execution functions, and background investigations processes. I am well versed in the most recent A-123 standards, GAGAS, and updates to the COSO Risk Management Framework. We administer GAO's internal risk surveys to senior executives, and use those responses to inform our audit work. As part of our internal audit and ERM work I regularly meet with and update agency executives including the COO, CAO/CFO, CHCO, CROs and Controller. In 2019 I was first licensed as a CPA by the State of Maryland and stay up to date on the latest changes to GAAP, GAAS, and PCAOB standards. For three years from 2015 to 2018 I worked for the USAID Office of Inspector General (OIG) as a lead performance auditor overseeing the work of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). I was the Lead Auditor for the performance audits group over multiple engagements, including audits of MCC's contribution to the Power Africa Initiative; MCC's readiness to implement the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA Act) of 2014; as well as MCC's road projects in El Salvador, Georgia, Ghana, and Senegal. I traveled to El Salvador, Ghana, and Georgia as part of the road audit. As a lead auditor I oversaw and managed the work of teams of up to 4 people at a time. In 2017 I was awarded the OIG's "Auditor of the Year" award. Prior to USAID, I worked for six plus years as a management analyst at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). In my time at the GAO, I gained extensive experience leading internal control reviews and audits over agency programs and operations, including the Human Capital, payroll, travel, financial reporting, and budget execution functions. I also helped lead efforts that demonstrated GAO's compliance with new A-123 and Green Book standards that went into effect for FY16.