Transforming resource management to support an Army at war: the Army's chief financial officer examines three priorities for best use of the nation's money

Public Manager, The, Winter, 2007 by Nelson M. Ford

GFEBS is an enterprise system that incorporates three different, but related, views of money: the financial operations view, which looks back in time to support the legal requirements for accounting, reporting, and auditing; the budget view, which shows how we are allocating resources today and tomorrow; and the cost management view, which assesses affordability of various courses of action for the future, enables performance assessments, and frames investment decisions (as informed by depreciation of assets).GFEBS will synchronize these views of money and provide real-time reporting to financial managers and leaders to better inform decision making.

Third, we need to bring greater discipline to our resource decision-making processes, primarily in achieving a balance between the demand and supply sides of DoD. Demand is defined by the combatant commanders and Joint Staff, who identify what they need in order to accomplish their missions. Supply to meet those demands is provided by the military department headquarters and the defense agencies responsible for developing programs that produce required capabilities. The interface between supply and demand is difficult to manage in the best of times. In wartime, when the urgency of today's requirements makes it difficult to simultaneously address the future, it becomes even more difficult. That is why it is so important for us to understand the true cost of delivering capabilities so we can make informed decisions for balancing supply and demand. Our use of money in this way gives our Army a very effective tool in executing today's fight and preparing for the one over the horizon.

Conclusion

In summary, our goal is to make sure that the money we receive provides effective capabilities efficiently and that we maximize our "bang for the buck" now and in a period of persistent conflict. We have three priorities: understanding the cost of the Army as a going concern, strengthening financial controls, and migrating core activities back into the base budget.

Establishing a cost culture throughout the Army can catalyze achievement of these priorities. To implement this cost culture, we need to do three things: get senior leader engagement, build robust analytical tools, and bring greater discipline to our resource decision-making processes. If we succeed, we will serve the Army and the American public well by optimizing our resources in support of our nation's defense.

ASA(FM&C) Priorities

* Embed "cost of the Army" in the resource decision-making process.

* Reestablish strong management controls.

* Migrate funding from the supplemental budget back to the base budget.

Improvements in Army Financial Controls

* Wide Area Workflow reduces transaction processing costs and improves the linkages between the Army's finance and procurement functions.

* The Funds Control Module provides real-time obligation of logistics transactions and improves the synchronization of finance and logistics data.

* The Defense Travel System reduces transaction processing costs and reimburses travelers faster.