Financial Management: Providing a Foundation for Transition - AGA

17rethinking how people work and investing innew technology, but some executives say theirentities are unwilling to do either. However,such programs are working in many entities,according to respondents.Says an oversight entity executive, “The easiestway to get people to work for you is to show themthat the work they do is relevant.” If people seethat their work is important, they are willing to gothat extra mile to ensure it is done right.Reducing non-value-added work. Anotherexecutive says, “The quality of life in ourworkforce is a product of our old inefficiencies.We spend a lot of time doing manualprocesses that could be automated, and oncompliance activities seemingly for the sake ofcompliance. Fixing these inefficiencies, betterinformation technology and less non-valueaddedwork would give us the opportunity tofree up more staff time.”CFO ➔ CAOOne of the titles given to the Comptroller General of the United States is “chief accountabilityofficer,” which befits the head of the Government Accountability Office. Within a department oragency, a CAO leads a disciplined, integrated, internally consistent and enterprise-wide approachto risk, return on investment and program support. In the private sector, this is the job of the CFO,but in most federal entities no single person is responsible for all 3 major tasks. Some executivesin our survey say that a federal CFO is the ideal candidate for departmental or agency CAO.Financial management includes (or should include) risk management; financial professionals havethe skills to calculate and track return on investment; and resources always translate into budgetsand money, which are in the realm of the chief financial officer.CFO/CAORiskManagementReturn onInvestmentProgramSupport