Depot preparing for audit

By Staff Reports, ANAD Public AffairsApril 5, 2018

Depot preparing for audit
Inventory is more than just parts on hand when it comes to an audit, it's the cost of the item as it flows around the installation during maintenance processes. Anniston Army Depot's financial and inventory processes and statements as well as real pr... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

ANNISTON ARMY DEPOT, Ala. -- The depot's financial and inventory processes and statements as well as real property will be audited by an outside agency during the third and fourth quarters of fiscal year 2018.

Pam Robertson, the director of Resource Management; Mike Mathews, the director of Public Works; and Jeff Simmons, the director of Production Management, spoke to the workforce on The Morning Show March 28 to detail what audit readiness was and how employees would be affected.

Audit readiness is, in essence, the ability to provide documentation accounting for property, inventory and work-related hours correctly at any time.

Every employee on the installation has a role to play in audit readiness - from concurring with time to ensure it is logged correctly to inputting transactions properly into the Logistics Modernization Program.

"Every action and transaction put into LMP and the work performed on the shop floors affect audit readiness and touch the depot's financial statements," said Robertson.

The real property audits will focus on the existence of buildings and property for the depot and will cover both ANAD proper and the Defense Non-Tactical Generator and Rail Equipment Center at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, which is a component of ANAD.

"The General Fund Enterprise Business System is the system of record for all accountable real property assets in the Army. A sample number of the actual assets will be checked for Existence, which means that the property identified in GFEBS will be visited to verify it exists," said Mathews. "Other assets in the field will be checked to verify that they are entered in GFEBS."

According to Simmons, inventory, in terms of the audit, means more than just a physical item in stock.

"Inventory also means the costs of an item as it flows into, around and out of the depot," he said. "It is important that LMP and our actual new parts in ASRS and in parts cages match by quantity and location because all of the costs are on our financial statements. An audit is verifying that what we say exists is really here."

While being able to show that we properly account for each item and each individual's time indicates the depot and the Army are good stewards of taxpayer money, failure to demonstrate this may result in sanctions or loss of future funding.

"The Department of Defense comprises a very large percentage, over half, of our Nation's budget. Congress needs assurance that we are being good stewards of those dollars we are entrusted with," said Robertson.

If employees have additional questions about audit readiness or their role in the process, they can e-mail USArmy.ANAD.TACOM.list.auditreadiness-messages@mail.mil or call Ext. 4730.