R 061517Z DEC 12 ALCOAST 509/12 COMDTNOTE 1650 SUBJ: 2012 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Awards for Excellence A. COMDT COGARD Washington DC R 241729Z Sept 12/ALCOAST 424/12 1. This message announces the winners of the 2012 DHS CFO annual awards program. The members below made exemplary contributions within the Department of Homeland Security financial community over the last year. 2. I am honored to announce the Coast Guard recipients of the 2012 DHS CFO awards in the following categories: a. Auditors Award for Superior Mission Achievement: LCDR David Hatchett, COMDT (CG-83) Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington D.C. He led the Statement of Budgetary Resources team responsible for identifying internal controls over financial reporting deficiencies as well as developing and implementing mission action plan (MAP) strategies and risk assessment tools, including the first ever auditor review of the Coast Guard reimbursable program and population of unfilled customer orders. LCDR Hatchetts team conducted a detailed analysis of the process to account for prior year recoveries and presented findings to the Coast Guard Financial Management and Accounting Oversight Board (FMAOB). His efforts led the thorough and timely response to over 25 Provided by Client (PBC) documents and two Notice of Findings and Recommendations. b. Senior/Executive Management Award for Exemplary Performance: CDR John Hallman, COMDT (CG-83) Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington D.C. He led a 17-person team responsible for the fiscal stewardship, coordination and execution of the Coast Guards ten billion dollar annual budget across nine appropriations. His efforts helped to improve the Coast Guards monitoring and reporting of undelivered orders (UDOs). Through a careful operational analysis of historical lapsed balances, his division was able to reduce the Coast Guards FY12 close-out position in the Operating Expense appropriation by 70 percent. c. Supervisory Award for Exemplary Performance: CWO John Leaming, Air Station Traverse City, MI. Serving as the air stations Contracting Officer and Comptroller, he supervised a staff of 13 individuals, managing an annual budget of over two million dollars, encompassing all facets of operational and logistic support. He developed a spending strategy for the air station using shrewd analysis of short and long term funding requirements that resulted in executing 100 percent of its budget. He also coordinated a flawless transfer of six aircraft between the air station and the Coast Guards Aviation Logistics Center as part of a fleet-wide upgrade of MH-65 helicopters. d. Outstanding Employee Award for Exemplary Performance: SKC Gregory Stearns, COMDT (DCMS-83) Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington, DC. His efforts to prepare the DCMS audit remediation tiger team created a solid foundation for the effective response to the PBC questions that the Coast Guard needed to answer for auditors on over 150 UDOs and expense samples. He also led the way for DCMS in UDO management and validation for over 75 percent of the Coast Guards several billion dollar obligation portfolio, personally validating over 3,100 UDOs for permanent change of station orders. e. Heritage Award for Career Achievement: Mr. John Barcynski, Coast Guard Finance Center, Chesapeake, VA. During his 34 year career, he has been a key leader in transforming the FINCEN, and more broadly, Coast Guard financial management to meet increased reporting and audit requirements while making substantial improvements in efficiency and effectiveness. He was a major part of the transition of Coast Guard financial operations from the Department of Transportation to the Department of Homeland Security. He was instrumental in the FINCENs transformation from a processing center that fed a legacy mainframe accounting system to becoming the operator of a complete, independent Federal financial reporting system. f. Meritorious Service Award: Mr. Steven Phifer, COMDT (CG-83) Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington, D.C. He volunteered for a two-month temporary assignment to the FINCEN to coordinate logistics involving more than 40 financial managers assembling support packages for the fall 2011 UDO sample, winter 2012 expense sample, and fall 2012 UDO expense and pipeline audit samples. He supervised the delivery of over 800 sample packages, some in excess of 100 pages each, satisfying auditor requests related to Coast Guard financial statements documenting execution of its ten billion dollar in annual appropriations. He also captured lessons learned from previous samples and improved the Coast Guards comprehensive documentation support matrix and agency specific reference outlining documents required to support classes of transactions. g. Auditors Award for Superior Mission Achievement Group: Real Property Surge Team. This cross-functional and cross-organizational team helped to support achievement of a qualified opinion on the audited financial statements. The team accurately verified asset packages in the Shore Asset Management system and the Oracle Fixed Assets database and created Asset Valuation Templates to ensure compliance with all Federal Real Property Council and federal accounting standards, ensuring that all corrections to the Coast Guards financial records were accurate and appropriately supported. h. Keystone Award in Superior Mission Achievement Group: HR Payroll Management Control Team. This cross-functional and cross-organizational team conducted an analysis of military pay (MilPay) and civilian pay (CivPay) entitlement controls. The team successfully developed and implemented a strategy to document and test over 100 key financial reporting controls. The team successfully developed and implemented a strategy for the USCG CivPay Management Control Program in less than a year and completed a full cycle of OMB Circular A-123 testing over internal controls. The team also skillfully developed a Risk Assessment plan and thoroughly conducted Test of Operational Effectiveness for over 30 controls. i. Ingenuity and Innovation Award Group: Central Accounts Budget Model team. The team successfully incorporated 336 million of budget authority executed at Coast Guard Headquarters into a web-based, completely transparent funds distribution model. By consolidating information from five disparate applications, each designed with a unique purpose and data management construct, it enhanced transparency and efficient allocation of funds for centralized expenses, facilitating more than nine million dollars in on-budget reductions. 3. I congratulate these award recipients on their success. This DHS wide recognition is a testament to the tremendous effort the Coast Guard is making at all levels of financial management to improve accountability and modernize the fundamental financial processes by which we do business. The work of the financial management community is critical to the success of our service, and while we still have much work to do in our efforts to improve financial management readiness, the work done to date is noteworthy - BZ to all for a job well done. The DHS CFO, Ms. Peggy Sherry, will recognize all award recipients from across DHS in a formal ceremony on 11 Dec 2012. 4. RDML S. P. Metruck, Assistant COMDT for Resources/Chief Financial Officer sends. 5. Internet release authorized.