HAWAII: David Cohen Speaks At Finance Officers Meeting

For every grant dollar that we propose to spend, let's ask ourselves what this grant dollar will do to secure our future. When we make necessary investments in health, education and infrastructure, we're building a better future. And let's not forget about capacity building. We need to build capacity in order to manage our grant funds more effectively - capacity in financial management, accounting, grants management, auditing, economics, statistics and other areas. Capacity will not build itself -we're going to have to allocate resources to build capacity. This very conference represents an allocation of resources to build capacity. I know that no one in this room will complain when I suggest that each of your offices needs to have the resources to enable you to do your jobs properly. We need to carry this message to people outside of this room.