REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- Each year, the Department of Defense disburses over $579 billion by processing 161.8 million pay transactions to 6.6 million military personnel, federal civilian employees, military retirees and annuitants; 10.3 million commercial invoices, and 6 million travel vouchers and settlements.
An integral part of this is the auditors who ensure the DoD is a good steward over those resources, by identifying and eliminating fraud, waste and abuse.
The Army Materiel Command and the Aviation and Missile Command Internal Review Audit and Compliance Offices hosted their first Fraud Risk Assessment Workshop here Sept. 30 to renew this focus.
Personnel from the Missile Defense Agency, Army Contracting Command, Corps of Engineers, AMCOM and AMC came to take part in the opportunity to collaborate between Inspector General, G8, and other IRACO offices and gain Continuous Professional Education points.
Randy Flisak, director of the AMC IRACO office, explained the fraud training came from a need for Continuous Professional Education and the lack of funding and training opportunities.
"We wanted to minimize travel expenses and minimize time away from the office and to enhance the meaningfulness of the training by pulling the core group together from across Redstone Arsenal," he said.
Eric Lampkin, director of the AMCOM IRACO office, kicked off the training with a briefing on how to foster relationships in an audit readiness environment and how to overcome the challenges of being an auditor in an organization with a natural fear of being audited.
"There are natural fears with being audited like a fear of criticism and a fear of changes in day-to-day operations," Lampkin said. "We have to overcome those fears because even the most well-intentioned people in a technical world simply don't get it."
Auditors are the ones that hear or listen -- the ones authorized to examine and verify accounts, Lampkin added.
"Why do we audit?" Lampkin asked the trainees. "We must protect our stakeholders, ensure programs (are) compliant, strengthen management controls, identify efficiencies and we must identify fraud, waste and abuse."
In 2017 the Department of Defense is scheduled for its first official audit as mandated by the National Defense Authorization Act.
"Even though we have some concerns about being ready by 2017, I think that we will surprise ourselves and we will come out with a good report card," Flisak said.
The workshop also included sessions on certification programs, fraud detection auditing tools, fraud risk assessments and a brainstorming session.
Social Sharing