News

Cleaning out the coffers, wing budget balanced

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Ken Scholz
  • 55th Wing Public Affairs
Sept. 29 will be just another Monday for most in the Fightin' Fifty-Fifth. But for some, it will be the final push at the end of a long road of planning to finalize the wing's transition into Fiscal 2009. The 55th Comptroller Squadron will finalize balancing more than 50 checkbooks, over $148 million in wing expenses plus the accounts of Offutt's tenant agencies such as the Air Force Weather Agency and U.S. Strategic Command before the night is done. But they aren't alone.

"It's really a team effort," said Maj. Kevin Brummert, 55th Comptroller Squadron commander, who works side-by-side with the 55th Contracting Squadron throughout the year.

"We get a list of priorities that the wing has agreed upon, and once funding comes down from Air Combat Command, we apply those dollars toward the wing's requirements. Contracting will then take the necessary actions to get contracts rolling." Simply put, he said, the comptroller provides the resources while contracting takes care of the acquisitions. The acquisitions process plays a large part in ensuring the transition to a new fiscal year is as smooth as possible.

Rick J. Kueffer, 55th Contracting Squadron Plans and Programs Flight chief said, "Management of end-of-fiscal-year data is critical to the overall success of contracting as well as the comptroller's budgeting and accounting section. We work closely with them, as well as resource advisors."

The process of closing out FY08 has been in the works for some time now. "We started this process in May when we put out the end-of-fiscal-year requirements letter," said Mr. Kueffer.

It is in September, though, that the final actions of balancing the wing budget take place.

"Initially, the beginning of September is quiet. From a resources perspective, all the remaining dollars that are in unit coffers, the comptroller controls. Although once you get closer to the end of the fiscal year, more dollars come down from ACC, and it gets busier when you try to push the money through, get them loaded into the accounting system, and then get those requirements to contracting," said Major Brummert.

Sound hectic? It is. The workload is heavy, and the folks at both contracting and the comptroller's office have steeled themselves for the second-half of the month, he added.

"We normally start ramping up about two weeks out from the end of the fiscal year. Everyone here knows we have a mission to take care of to support the wing" said Major Brummert.

As the deadline nears, contracting and finance begin to function as almost one entity.

"It gets to a point where contracting will actually make hourly distribution runs to budgeting and accounting so they can de-obligate excess funds and apply them to another requirement," said Mr. Kueffer.

"A lot of actions occur. The key is planning ahead of time to make sure you're ready to execute your requirements. Even though we start going through the planning process which occurs around June-July time frame, there's lots of work that goes on at the end of year close-out meetings," said Major Brummert.

The ending of a fiscal year, while a large undertaking, is not the only challenge faced by the 55th Comptroller Squadron.

"The biggest challenge we're being faced with in the near future is the transition of some of our workload to a call center. We've lost manning, but those jobs will be redirected to a call center which will accommodate the entire Air Force's comptroller needs. We will go through the center to process our documents in the future. Right now, though, we're still doing all the work we've done before but with fewer people," said Major Brummert.

Even with less people and the end of the fiscal year fast approaching, the 55th Comptroller Squadron continues to get the job done while performing other critical duties around the world.

"At any given point in time we have our people out in forward deployed locations. We've got folks doing everything from running spreadsheets to doing convoys," said Major Brummert. "We get tasked pretty much every air expeditionary force cycle to support the Air Force mission and that's what we're here to do. We're proud to contribute."