Financial Management Goals and Strategies
The implementation of the new core financial system directly
supports three of the five initiatives of the President’s
Management Agenda (PMA) as follows:
Improved Financial Performance: USAID’s
financial management system, Phoenix, is a compliant financial
system which meets federal accounting standards. Phoenix supports
the Agency in meeting reporting requirements, as well as providing
accurate and timely financial information, supporting management
operations, and issuing controls to prevent Anti-Deficiency
Act violations. Additionally, Phoenix contains a Standard
General Ledger (SGL) chart of accounts, allowing financial
transactions in Phoenix to be posted immediately to the general
ledger. Implementing Phoenix worldwide has removed the major
obstacle to achieving Federal Financial Management Improvement
Act (FFMIA) compliance and “getting to green”
since the system of record (Mission Accounting and Control
System (MACS)) did not have a SGL. USAID has also continued
its efforts to meet or exceed other milestones for this PMA
initiative.
Expanded Electronic Government: As a web-based
system that is accessible by field offices worldwide, Phoenix
also supports the e-government initiative. The system also
interfaces with other planned web-based initiatives, such
as vendor self-service, cost allocation, credit card, e-procurement
catalogue, e-travel, and worldwide funds reconciliation.
Budget and Performance Integration: The
Financial Systems Integration (FSI) project team implemented
the cost allocation module worldwide in tandem with the rollout
of the core accounting system. This will allow for assignment
of direct and indirect costs to the offices that benefit from
them and will provide management a tool for determining full
costs at the operating unit and strategic objective (SO) level.
To provide a context for the Agency’s current plans
and resources request, the status of financial management
activities is outlined below.
- Phoenix Overseas Deployment: As of June
2006, the Agency successfully completed the deployment of
Phoenix to all overseas Controller Missions. Phoenix is
currently operating in steady state mode. The Phoenix Team
continues to provide enhancements to Phoenix as well as
offer continued support to Phoenix users.
- USAID-State Collaboration: USAID continues
the coordination of e-government initiatives with the Department
of State. In November 2005, USAID and the Department of
State completed their financial systems collaboration and
are now jointly operating from a common platform in the
Department of State’s Charleston, South Carolina,
facility.
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