Individual Achievement.

Accounting and Finance

Major Command Headquarters or Higher Distinguished

Captain Regina Goff and Master Sergeant Edwin Forrest 

HQ USAFE 

Captain Goff and MSgt Forrest are the "finest financial managers." She is Chief of Financial Services and Entitlements and he is the Command Travel Pay Analyst. Together, they carefully crafted a complex Imminent Danger Pay (IDP)/Combat Zone Tax Relief (CZTR) entitlement package that passed stringent and exhaustive JCS and OSD review and ultimately resulted in an additional $3,600 per enlisted member and $6,200 per officer for personnel deployed to Europe. They also developed a first-ever headquarters operating instruction that outlines a significantly streamlined process for future IDP/CZTR requests, should they be necessary.

Meritorious

Senior Master Sergeant Perry Pias

HQ PACAF 

SMSgt Pias is the Superintendent of Financial Operations at Headquarters Pacific Air Force. After discovering that inaccurate data and an outdated process had caused a significant DoD-wide COLA reduction in the Pacific theater, SMSgt Pias alerted the Per Diem Committee and helped implement corrections that resulted in more than 800 members receiving an additional $1,100 per year. He was also instrumental in correcting an overseas TDY entitlement discrepancy, ensuring that members deployed to the same location (regardless of the operation they were supporting) received the same per diem, pay, and allowance benefits.

Unit Under a Major Command Distinguished

Major Paul Carter, III

DFAS Operating Location, Omaha, NE

Major Carter is accountable for $139 billion in appropriated funds and $240 billion in foreign military sales. Major Carter developed a local fraud detection computer program nicknamed Operation Predator that supplements the DoD program called Mongoose. This program searches through thousands of Integrated Accounts Payable System (LAPS) records and identifies potential duplicate and fraudulent payments. Within the first six months of operation, Operation Predator identified and corrected (or prevented) 59 duplicate transactions totaling over $2.7 million. Predator is now used at all Denver Center operating locations and is being considered for DFAS-wide distribution.

Meritorius

First Lieutenant E. Yumi Lafortune

16th Comptroller Squadron, Hurlburt Field, FL

1Lt Lafortune is the Financial Services Officer for the 16th Comptroller Squadron at Hurlburt Field, FL. She developed a high-tech, "cosmic" customer service system utilizing the latest in information technology. This initiative was selected as an Air Force Best Practice, briefed to the Air Force Chief of Staff, and was a key factor in her squadron's capturing honors as Best Financial Management and Comptroller Organization of the Year for FY99. This new system reduced the average customer wait from 15 minutes to 2 minutes (reducing wing-wide lost productivity by over 8,800 man-hours per year), significantly increased customer satisfaction ratings, and allows significantly more travel vouchers to be processed at any given time.

Meritorious

Ms. Melana Cunningham

US Naval Support Activity, Naples, Italy

Ms. Cunningham serves as an Accounting Officer. Her ingenuity and foresight helped lead the command through a significant upgrade of all financial management systems, resulting in a fully integrated business system. This system fostered numerous improvements, including prior and current-year suspense documents being reduced from $10 million to $300,000; a 75 percent reduction in unmatched documents, almost total elimination of labor suspense items and a 70 percent reduction in unliquidated obligations. Ms. Cunningham was also instrumental in helping numerous other organizations and commands implement/upgrade their financial management systems, resulting in positive benefits to all of CINCUSNAVEUR for many years to come.

Meritorious

Ms. JoAnne Barnes

DFAS Operating Location, Limestone, Maine

Ms. Barnes has been heavily involved in streamlining operations and providing better customer service and was singled out as the person having the greatest impact on improving accounting operations at Limestone. Some of her accomplishments include contacting and ensuring participation in the automated On-Line Payment and Collecting program by 100 percent of eligible customers, resulting in a significant reduction in delinquent accounts; identifying and clearing delinquent Veterans Administration medical bills, resulting in zero suspense items for the first time ever; and reducing aged receivable bills over 120 days old from an average of 57 per month (totaling $820,000.00) to an all-time low of 5 per month (totaling $3,000.00).

Analysis and Evaluation

Major Command Headquarters or Higher Distinguished

Mr. Paul R.DesRoches

US Army Forces Command, Ft McPherson, GA

Mr. DesRoches developed a results-oriented costing model that has proven invaluable to FORSCOM by significantly improving the Command's ability to determine and defend long-range facilities funding requirements. The model, known as the FORSCOM FAIR-SHARE system, using the results of the Army's Installation Status Report and linked to the Facility Degradation Module, provides a key element to help Army effectively maintain facility readiness and control deterioration. This model provides a pragmatic decision-malting tool for use by the major command and the installation level.