Financial Management

One of the greatest challenges to improving financial management throughout the Defense Department (DOD) is establishing a well-qualified, professional financial management workforce. This is the fourth in a series of reports on the qualifications, such as formal education, training, professional certifications, and work experience, of DOD's financial management workforce. It contains information on key financial managers in the Navy.

GAO noted that: (1) the four Navy financial management executives included in this review are the Assistant Secretary of the Navy; the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy; the Director, Office of Financial Operations; and the Director, Office of Budget; (2) each of the executives had attained bachelor's degrees and three of the four executives also held master's degrees; (3) the Assistant Secretary had spent 27 years at DOD and 5 years in the private sector; (4) the other three executives had DOD careers ranging from 23 to 32 years, with two of these executives also spending part of their careers in another government agency or the private sector; (5) about 23 percent were military officers, serving mainly as comptrollers at major commands and installations, and 77 percent were civilian personnel serving mainly in comptroller and budget officer positions at installations; (6) all 44 officers and 122 of the 150 civilians reported holding bachelor's degrees, with 5 of these respondents reporting more than one major; (7) about 28 percent of these 166 managers majored in accounting, while approximately 43 percent reported degrees in business-related majors other than accounting; (8) eighty respondents also reported holding master's degrees, with 8 of these respondents reporting more than one major; (9) six of these 80 managers held master's degrees in accounting, while about 78 percent reported degrees in business-related majors other than accounting; (10) the officers' careers ranged from 4 to 33 years while civilians' careers ranged from 8 to 55 years; (11) 166 respondents reported completing training in one or more of the categories included in GAO's review during 1995 and 1996; (12) about 22 percent of the 94 respondents reported holding one or more professional certifications; and (13) the 42 managers in this group reported holding accounting and other financial-related certifications.