Financial management

The Pentagon and its inspector general said recent discoveries of tens of millions of dollars in uncatalogued parts offer concrete evidence of the audit’s direct connection to military readiness.

If you have a Thrift Savings Plan account what did you do in December when the high-flying stock market, after wobbling a couple months, dropped big time? Financial planner Arthur Stein has some ideas on today’s episode of Your Turn.

In an interview, one of the Pentagon’s top auditors says most of the weaknesses uncovered by its first financial audit weren’t a surprise. But there’s reason for optimism.

A “disclaimer of opinion” was a foregone conclusion for Pentagon’s first financial audit before it even started. Now the focus turns to what the Defense Department will do with the findings.

The CFO Council and the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Fiscal Service give agencies a guide to address an area of improper payments that has long been overlooked.

Demek Adams, a principal at Grant Thornton who leads the financial management practice, said agencies can jump on that bandwagon and improve not only their financial management, but their overall business processes and citizen services by making better use of the data.

The Treasury Department’s Bureau of Fiscal Service lays out ambitious goals to strengthen the central processes of disbursing, collections, reporting and administrative services.

NSF will use robotics process automation to improve its intergovernmental transactions, while Interior will apply bots to improve its electronic invoice processing.

Beth Angerman, the director of the Shared Solutions Performance Improvement (SSPI) Office at GSA, said engaging all stakeholders is an important part any large transformational effort.

The Defense Department is analyzing back-office and commercial-like services in an effort to reduce spending.