tailieunhanh - Improving the Defense Finance and Accounting Service's Interactions With Its Customers

In 1999, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) engaged RAND to examine DFAS's interactions with customers and to determine how those interactions might be improved. DFAS provides a range of services to Defense Department agencies in two broad categories: finance "output" and accounting services. DFAS customers believe that current DFAS accounting data are too untimely and too inaccurate to be useful and that systems acquisition and implementation are DFAS weaknesses. RAND urged DFAS to (1) develop the capability to respond to crises like the FY00 change in military pay; (2) continue its pricing reforms; (3) acquire new software commercially;. | iii Preface During the summer of 1999 the Defense Finance and Accounting Service DFAS engaged RAND to examine DFAS s interactions with customers and to determine how those interactions might be improved. DFAS was created in 1991 when the accounting and finance operations specific to each branch of the military were merged. Today DFAS provides a variety of finance and accounting services to military customers. This research grew out of earlier work that RAND undertook for DFAS leadership. That earlier work discussed in Keating and Gates 1999 focused on DFAS s internal cost structure and the implications that cost structure held for DFAS pricing policies. The logical next step was to look externally at an area DFAS knew to be problematic its interactions with its customers. This research was conducted for DFAS within the Forces and Resources Policy Center of RAND s National Defense Research Institute a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense the Joint Staff the unified commands and the defense agencies. vii Figures . DFAS Regions FY99 Expenditures by Output. 4 . DFAS Regions FY99 Commercial Invoice Expenditures per Work Unit by Region. 17 . Kansas City Region Penalty Payment Rate. 21 . Columbus Region Penalty Payment Rate. 21 . DFAS-wide Negative Unliquidated Obligation NULO Balance . 28 . DFAS-wide Unmatched Disbursement UMD Balance . 28 ix Tables . DFAS Outputs. 3 . DFAS Regional Centers and OPLOCs. 5 . DFAS s Largest Customers. 5 . DFAS Prices per Work Unit. 7 . Army Working Capital Funds Billed by DFAS in FY99. 9 . DFAS Visits. 12 . Customer Visits. 13 . Stakeholder Visits. 14 . Calendar 1998 Performance Management Information System PMIS Penalty Payment Data. 20 . Selected Provisions of the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 . 24 . Content Specifications of the CPA Exam. .