FederalNewsRadio - Federal CFO Insights - CFO Academy - Preparing Tomorrow's Federal Financial Leaders

CFO Academy - Preparing Tomorrow's Federal Financial Leaders

Ricardo Aguilera, U.S. Department of Defense Comptroller Chair, CFO Academy

In fall 2008, the National Defense University's Information Resources Management College opened a Chief Financial Officer Academy at Fort McNair in Washington, DC, featuring Pentagongraduate level courses for government financial managers. The CFO Academy's purpose is to prepare middle- to senior-level members of the federal financial community for senior 21st Century management and leadership responsibilities.

The Academy offers a variety of courses to prepare financial leaders, including lessons in accounting and finance, budget and cost analysis, internal controls and auditing, financial systems, and resource management.

The courses lead to a certificate in CFO leadership.

To learn more about the Academy visit www.ndu.edu/irmc.

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FederalNewsRadio - Federal CFO Insights - Kay Daly (GAO)

Kay Daly
Acting Director, Financial Management and AssuranceGovernment Accountability Office
February 18th and 25th, 2009

Status of Agencies' Efforts to Address Improper Payments
The Improper Payments Information Act (IPIA) of 2002 requires federal agencies to review all programs and activities annually, and identify those that may be susceptible to significant erroneous payments. Improper Payments include:

• Payments that should not have been made;
• Payments in an incorrect amount;
• Payments to an ineligible recipient;
• Payments for an ineligible service;
• Duplicate payments;
• Payments for services not received; and
• Payments that do not account for credits or applicable discounts.

While agencies have made progress in the past few years, major challenges continue to hinder full reporting of improper payments information, including noncompliance issues and reported statutory or regulatory barriers.

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FederalNewsRadio - CFO Insights - Tom Davis

The Honorable Tom DavisFormer Chair & Ranking Member, Committee on Oversight & Government Reform

The show's focus will be on the Obama administration's budget reform agenda and what it will take to secure Congressional support to achieve the agenda. Discussion highlights:

• Federal spending accountability
• Cutting federal spending on contractors by 10%
• Improving the effectiveness of the government contracting process
• Engaging the Hill in this reform initiative
• Improving government efficiency and measuring its performance
• Challenges facing the new Chief Performance Officer

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FederalNewsRadio - Federal CFO Insights - William Collison (FDA)

Leveraging Commercial Best Practices

William Collinson,
Acting Director, Office of Financial Management, Food and Drug Administration

The show will focus on how commercial best practices are being leveraged by federal agencies and what benefits we are starting to see across our government. Discussion highlights:

• Internal controls
• Risk control and management
• Business intelligence/analytics
• Activity-based cost accounting
• Sarbanes-Oxley
• CFO Act
• Government Performance and Results Act
• OMB Circular A-123

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FederalNews Radio - Federal CFO Insights - Thomas Cooley (NSF)

Grants Management: Challenges and Solutions for Managing Grants Across the Federal Government

Thomas Cooley - Chief Financial Officer and Director, Office of Budget, Finance and Award Management (BFA)
National Science Foundation

How are grants being managed at the National Science Foundation and across the federal government?

The "landscape" of federal grants:

• How much money are we talking about?
• What types of grants are out there to meet that purpose?

Streamlining

• What does P.L. 106-107 (the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act) mean for the federal government and their customers in the grants community?
  

Unfunded mandates

• What does that mean?
• What impact can such activities have on the grants community?

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FederalNewsRadio - CFO Insights - Jimaye Sones (DISA)

Financial Accountability: How the federal government is moving toward financial accountability

Jimaye Sones - Comptroller, Defense Information Systems Agency

Financial accountability goes beyond implementing controls or achieving a clean audit opinion…it's about moving the culture of the entire agency - not just financial managers - to become the best stewards of taxpayers' dollars possible.

The strategy to achieve this, includes four tenets
1. Integrity
2. Full and open financial disclosure
3. Fiscal discipline
4. Professional competency

Federal and commercial entities continue to improve their accountability through the requirements of OMB Circular A-123 and Sarbanes Oxley in the commercial sector where entities assess their processes and controls and implement corrective actions to become more financially accountable and to reduce their risks.

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FederalNewsRadio - CFO Insights - Phyllis Scheinberg (DOT)

Shared Services: How it is changing the role of CFOs offices across the federal government.

Phyllis Scheinberg - Assistant Secretary for Budget and Programs/Chief Financial Officer, Department of Transportation

More federal agencies are expected to adopt the shared services model as a leading practice. Shared services, a model that consolidates support operations into a service-oriented organizational unit, can substantially improve back-office efficiencies by eliminating duplication and streamlining processes. Please join Phyllis F. Scheinberg, CFO, U.S. Department of Transportation and Richard Sarkissian, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP as they discuss how shared services are changing the face of CFOs across the federal government.

Highlights:

Organizations will continue to seek to balance cost reduction and risk mitigation through the optimal mix of on/off-shore captive shared service centers and outsourcing

Shared Services will continue to be a tool to help organizations eliminate redundant functions, reduce costs, and provide a platform to realize operational synergies through common processes and data

Use of Shared Services will be top of mind for many executives as they rethink their service delivery strategy in light of new strategic directions

Shared Services operations will continue to optimize and deliver increasing levels of value to the organizations' business units by enabling them to focus on core business activities and customers
Shared Services will become a source of new talent that can be incubated in the center and moved into global line management roles, both in country and internationally

FederalNewsRadio - CFO Insights - Douglas Webster (DOL)

Enterprise Risk Management

Douglas Webster - Chief Financial Officer, Department of Labor

How can Enterprise Risk Management help CFOs reduce Federal Agency's risk exposure and some of the challenges they face in expanding its reach beyond financial compliance requirements?

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FederalNewsRadio - Federal CFO Insights - Barry Hudson (PTO)

Finance Transformation

Barry Hudson - Chief Financial Officer
United States Patent and Trademark Office

Chief financial officers (CFOs) are being forced to rethink their roles and transform the organization's finance function. The dilemma: balancing the more traditional finance reporting role with that of a strategist focused on contributing value to the overall organization.

How are leading CFOs successfully managing these roles?

Discussion Highlights:

• Four faces of the CFO
• Steward
• Operator
• Strategist
• Catalyst

Challenges facing today's CFO

• Internal controls
• Efficiency and cost
• Strategy articulation
• Performance measurement

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FederalNewsRadio - Federal CFO Insights - DOE

Department of Energy

Steve Isakowitz - Chief Financial Officer
April 16th & 19th, 2008

This program gives future and current financial professionals an insider's insight into Human Capital Talent Management

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