Finance moves quick to close fiscal year

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Chris Hoyler
  • 51st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --  Everyone at Osan deals with 24-hour operations at some point during their tour - as part of their normal operations, during an exercise, or, in the case of the 51st Comptroller Squadron, every September, when a worldwide deadline draws closer and the future of the base is shaped by their hands. 

September 30 marked the end of the 2009 fiscal year, a date that impacted the entire base, Air Force and Department of Defense, as all allocated funds for the past 12 months must be obligated and spent. 

The key players in 51st CPTS are from the Financial Management Analysis flight, which had more than 15 personnel working around the clock leading up to Sept. 30. 

Staff Sgt. Shane Malone is in his eleventh year in finance and was working his fourth closeout in FMA. He said that despite working in a forward-deployed environment, the challenges this year at Osan were less than he had dealt with in previous years. 

"This is the busiest part of the year for us, but I've worked a lot more at other bases," Sergeant Malone said. "I'd say the biggest issue is just working with our sister services and their processes, because most of us are used to the Air Force way of doing things." 

Sergeant Malone explained that there are several members of the FMA flight assigned to make the purchases for one specific group or squadron. Those members serve as the conduits between the Resource Advisors in the group or squadron and the purchasing process. 

Staff Sgt. Jung Jun is assigned to make the purchases for the 51st Civil Engineer Squadron. The 51st CES is the only squadron with their own FMA representative - every other squadron works through their group (operations, mission support, medical, maintenance or wing staff). His purchases take on an increased importance with the move toward tour normalization and the corresponding construction projects the 51st CES needs to execute in fiscal year 2010 and beyond. 

"This year, their budget started out at about $15 million," Sergeant Jun said. "They had a lot of big projects though, and now we're sitting at $76 million for their budget as the year ends." 

The purchasing process takes a great deal of coordination to ensure the right amount of funds is allocated, and the FMA flight relies on the RAs and contracting to make the entire process go smoothly. 

"It's a role reversal for us in finance, because we're the customers in this case," said Staff Sgt. Mitchell Schook, who had oversight over all wing staff purchases. "We depend on the RAs to get us the information we need to make purchases quickly." 

Fortunately for the FMA team, strong planning and a jump on any typical year-end issues made this fiscal year closeout quiet for Team Osan. 

"At some bases, as soon as Sept. 1 arrives, it's 12-hour days no matter what," Sergeant Schook said. "We didn't have to do that here. We've worked late the last few days and we will again tonight to make sure everything is spent, but everything has been smooth because of the good team we have."