For many, September 30 was just another day. For those in Army budget offices worldwide, it was the end of the fiscal year and a very long day.
According to Belinda Gemme, Army Contracting Command Deputy Chief of Staff Resource Management G-8, resource managers must certify that the year-end status of funds is correct and any discrepancies are identified. While the fiscal year-end process is the culminating event, disciplined processes and procedures exercised throughout the year are instrumental to providing this final certification.
From the funds that ACC manages, the command executed more than $458 million, said Gemme. For ACC, money declared excess during the process is returned to the Army Materiel Command, who then attempts to redistribute the money to other subordinate commands who may need it, she said.
"The ultimate goal of this end-of-year process is to use all available funds for valid mission requirements," said Andrew Black, ACC G-8 budget officer. "If funds are not executed, or declared excess in a timely manner, the funds expire and are no longer available for current execution."
End of the fiscal year actions at the Mission and Installation Contracting Command, Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and the Expeditionary Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., were part of the overall ACC close out.
"There is a lot of transactional data to process in order to close out, as well as the tracking and monitoring of obligation documents" said Karen Millward-Alston, acting director, MICC DCoS RM G-8.
Millward-Alston said the MICC had to coordinate requirements across 35 offices in different time zones.
"It is difficult to forecast for the unknowns as far as payroll is concerned," Millward-Alston said. "Overtime and terminal leave are the big unknowns, and we have to ensure we have enough funding obligated to cover whatever overtime hours will be worked and leave payouts for anyone."
According to Black, the difference between this year's end of year activities compared to others was the use of an AMC checklist.
"AMC added an additional closeout requirement this year, the Year-End Checklist," Black said. "They made this a requirement during the last week of the fiscal year, making it a challenge to train all the fund centers on the new requirement."
At the MICC, Millward-Alston said the difference in close-out activities this year was subtle but effective.
"Reserving sufficient funds for supply purchases was easier this year because we now use the Single Charge Card Solution process, which means that a GFEBS (General Fund Enterprise Business System) purchase request must be generated for every supply purchase, and the Government Purchase Card limit is increased only when a purchase request is approved."
The MICC team avoided a long evening on the final day of the fiscal year by working a little longer each day
"We do not operate under the old mind-set that you have to work late every day for the whole month of September," Millward-Alston said. "We work only for valid requirements in support of closeout, and not to perform duties that should be done year-round. We also minimize the number of personnel who need to stay late, and have found that proper planning precludes a lot of unnecessary late hours."
At the ACC headquarters the same held true but the much larger work-load, made for a longer close-out.
"Each fund center was required to submit the checklist with their final flash report, and all had to be submitted before they would officially close the major subordinate commands," Gemme said. "The last group of personnel left the office around 2 a.m. CST the next morning. We were awaiting official word from AMC that we were closed."
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