Financial Management

One of the greatest challenges to improving financial management at the Defense Department (DOD) is establishing a quality, trained, professional financial management workforce. In a series of reports, GAO is providing information on qualifications, such as formal education, training, and professional certifications, and professional work experience of persons serving in key DOD financial management positions. This report provides information on key financial managers in the Air Force.

GAO noted that: (1) the four Air Force financial management executives included the: (a) Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Financial Management and Comptroller); (b) Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Financial Management and Comptroller); (c) Deputy Assistant Secretary, Financial Operations; and (d) Deputy Assistant Secretary, Budget; (2) each of the executives had attained masters degrees; (3) none held professional certifications; and (4) of the 173 other key Air Force financial managers responding to GAO's review: (a) almost 70 percent (117) were military officers, serving mainly as comptrollers and budget officers at major commands and as comptrollers at installations; (b) 56 were civilian personnel serving mainly in budget officer positions at installations; (c) all of the 117 officers and 41 of the 56 civilians reported holding bachelors degrees; (d) about 30 percent of respondents with bachelors degrees majored in accounting, while approximately 50 percent majored in other business-related areas; (e) 129 (99 officers and 30 civilians) also reported holding advanced degrees; (f) about two-thirds of these degrees were in business-related majors other than accounting, while the majors of the remaining respondents were not business-related, and two civilians held doctoral degrees--one in business administration and the other in law; (g) the officers' careers ranged from 3 to 38 years, averaging 18 years, while the civilians' careers ranged from 12 to 44 years, averaging 27 years; (h) officers with less than 12 years of experience were most often assigned as budget officers at installations; (i) about 50 percent of all respondents reported performing tasks throughout their careers in several financial management-related functions included in GAO's review; (j) 131 respondents (86 officers and 45 civilians) reported receiving training during 1995 and 1996, with 9 out of every 10 listing general topics, such as computers and supervision, as examples of the training completed; (k) about one-half also reported completing financial-related training during this period, while only about 2 out of 10 reported completing accounting-related training, such as accounting standards and financial reporting; (l) about 20 percent of the respondents reported holding one or more financial management-related certifications; and (m) of the 32 holding certificates, 6 were Certified Public Accountants (CPA), 6 were Certified Government Financial Managers (CGFM), and 24 were others, such as Certified Cost Analysts and Certified Acquisition Professional in Financial Management and Comptrollership.