FederalNewsRadio's Daily DOD Report

The Pentagon is trying to balance national security with a tough financial reality. The American Society of Military Comptrollers says the Defense Department is doing a good job putting its financial management on a path to success.

A discussion featuring Lou Crenshaw — retired Navy Vice Admiral and the National Aerospace and Defense practice leader at Grant Thornton


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DOD Comptroller Publishes FIAR Plan Status Report

Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness (FIAR) Plan Status Report

Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) / CFO

Link: http://comptroller.defense.gov/fiar/documents/FIAR_Plan_May_2012.pdf   (30+ MB)

Today's GAO Publication

GAO Schedule Assessment Guide: Best Practices for project schedules.
GAO-12-120G, May 2012.

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-120G

JFMIP Conference Videos and Presentations Posted Online

The presentations and video of the 2012 JFMIP Federal Financial Management Conference, "Government Financial Management in Lean Times: The New Normal," are available online.

Find the Conference Material Here...

Treasury's FMS proving shared services works

The Treasury Department's Financial Management Service will have no trouble moving commodity technology to a shared service provider as required by the Office of Management and Budget.


FMS completed its transition to the Bureau of Public Debt for network operations and IT infrastructure support about 18 months ago under its Fiscal IT program. And that was just the latest technology service to be brought under the control of another organization.

"Both BPD and FMS work for the fiscal assistant secretary. In the conversation with him, he asked the question would it be ‘profitable'--save us time, money and energy--to look at combining the two bureau's IT infrastructure?" said John Kopec, the FMS chief information officer. "Both organizations have pretty strong CIO organizations. The BPD organization has a lot of scale in providing shared service infrastructure. Some of our applications prior to consolidation already resided at BPD."


Kopec said after looking at the potential savings and efficiency gains, the decision to move forward was pretty easy.

FMS, meanwhile, provides the oversight and governance, such as project management, capital planning and investment control and security, back to BPD.

-Jason Miller, FederalNewsRadio.com
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Today's GAO Publication

Management Report: Opportunities for Improvement in the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection's Internal Controls and Accounting Procedures.
GAO-12-528R, May 21.

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-528R

Recent OMB Memoranda

Office of Management and Budget - Budget Guidance (5% cut)
Link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2012/m-12-13.pdf

Renewed emphasis on evaluation:
Link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2012/m-12-14.pdf

“Administration’s Management Agenda” defined:
Link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2012/m-12-14-attachment.pdf

OMB begins to clarify industry's role in shared services

In the almost three weeks since the Office of Management and Budget released its shared services strategy, one of the bigger questions that remains has been how does industry fit in the equation?


Under the Bush administration's Lines of Business initiative, contractors could qualify to be a shared service provider and bid on solicitations for financial management or human resources services.

While the Obama administration's shared services strategy tries to reinvigorate the agency-side of LOB effort, vendor participation remains unclear.

As agency deadlines begin to ramp up over the next three months, OMB is beginning to clarify industry's role.


Unlike the former LOB initiatives where public and private sector providers existed, OMB is not differentiating between the two, said Scott Bernard, the federal chief architect at OMB.

Bernard said the strategy breaks down the roles in a shared service set up: the managing partner, the consumer or agency and the supplier.

Agencies have until the end of May to submit to OMB a high level portfolio survey of their internal lines of business, where they can identify potential opportunities for consolidation to a shared service provider.


Then by June 15, agencies must send to OMB a list of commodity IT areas ripe for consolidation and by June 29 a draft plan to consolidate commodity IT.

-Jason Miller, FederalNewsRadio.com
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Today's GAO Publication

Management Report: Opportunities for Improvement in the Federal Housing Finance Agency's Internal Controls.
GAO-12-499R, May 16.

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-499R

Senators probe GSA financial controls after conference scandal

Leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Thursday asked the General Services Administration to provide details about its financial management and internal controls aimed at preventing waste, fraud and abuse, in the wake of a scathing inspector general report about GSA's 2010 Western Regions Conference (WRC) held near Las Vegas.


Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-Maine), whose committee is tasked with overseeing agency efficiency and effectiveness, requested the information in a nine-page letter, released to the public Monday and filled with questions about conference spending, travel, awards and contracting. They addressed the letter to Acting GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini.

-Ruben Gomez, FederalNewsRadio.com
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OMB: Continuing to Crack Down on Government Waste

One of the Federal government’s most fundamental responsibilities is to serve as a careful steward of taxpayer dollars – to make sure that every dollar is well-spent and directed toward areas of high return. That’s a responsibility this Administration takes seriously. From his first days in office, President Obama has led a concerted and aggressive effort to streamline government and cut wasteful and inefficient spending wherever it exists so that we can focus our resources on serving the American people. From slowing the uncontrolled growth of Federal contracting to getting rid of excess real estate held by agencies and reining in spending on Federal employee travel, this Administration has already cut billions in inefficient spending across the Federal government.


Today, we’re taking another important step forward in that effort. This afternoon, the Office of Management and Budget is issuing guidance to Federal agencies to take additional actions to increase efficiency and strengthen accountability in the areas of travel, conferences, real estate, and fleet management.

Blog Post: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/05/11/continuing-crack-down-government-waste

Guidance: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2012/m-12-12.pdf

Agency plans to consolidate, share IT services due Aug. 31

Agencies have until Aug. 31 to submit plans showing how they will consolidate and share human resources and email systems, help desk support and other information technology services.

Agencies must begin to share at least two Office of Management and Budget-approved services by December, OMB announced Wednesday in a final version of the Federal IT Shared Services Strategy. And they must update those plans annually with details about ongoing consolidation efforts and their inventories of IT assets, including systems and services.

By October, OMB will launch and maintain an online IT services catalog of services and contracts that agencies can share governmentwide.

Other areas identified by OMB for shared services include financial management, administrative management, geospatial services and records management.

OMB said agencies also must detail in the reports who is accountable for their consolidation efforts, performance goals and how each IT service will be transitioned.


-Nicole Blake Johnson, FederalTimes.com
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