Complacency will not lead to being compliant Published March 20, 2015 By Lt. Col. Andrew Lind 88th Comptroller Squadron commander WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio. -- Compliant is not the same word as complacent. Well, duh, right? You can tell just by looking that the spellings are different. What is this guy trying to tell me? All too often we hear a statement like, "I'm just doing what the guy before me told me to do" or "It's the way we've always done it at Wright-Patt." The problem with that mind-set is that while we might be doing an OK job of getting the work done, it provides no assurance we are compliant with current laws, regulations or standards. Have we recently checked if the Air Force instruction has changed? Have we ensured all controls are in place? Have we validated who is authorized to approve that document? Without taking a detailed look at controls in place with each process, we have no real idea of whether or not we are compliant. Being compliant requires creating an attitude and environment where all federal employees are vigorously pro-active (ie., non-complacent) in their application of processes and activities to ensure existing laws, regulations and standards and met and exceeded. In the financial management world, we have two important compliance-driven activities coming up in the next few months -- Managers Internal Control Program (MICP) Statement of Assurance and Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness (FIAR) Statement of Budgetary Activity initial auditor testing. While both of these are nominally managed by financial personnel, there is a large role that commanders, supervisors and all federal employees' play in making these activities a success. In its simplest terms, MICP mandates that each unit "ensures that operational, financial, program and administrative internal controls provide a level of assurance towards operational and fiscal effectiveness and efficiency and minimize loss of life." This requires that personnel in every organization take a look at their programs, validate and document they have active and robust controls in the workplace, and they routinely review and assure compliance through things like Management Internal Control Toolset checklists, quality assurance reviews, management workplace observation or staff assistance visits. Initial FIAR Statement of Budgetary Activity testing will be accomplished to validate financial statements are accurate, improve operations and ensure Air Force employees have resources needed to carry out the mission while ensuring stewardship of those same resources to taxpayers. The end goal of FIAR activities is to garner and sustain unqualified audit opinions on all financial statements. Testing may include reviews of documents appointing approvers for civilian employee time-cards, proper approval of DTS voucher payments, and correct certification and expenditure of public funds. While the two programs I discuss are nominally related to management of financial resources, it is clear that compliance in these two activities is not carried out by financial management personnel only. Each of those functions requires active involvement by leadership in each organization to ensure compliance. Further, compliance is not germane only to financial resources... each of us in our daily work is required to be compliant with laws, regulations, customs, or standards that are unrelated to financial management. It could be as simple as ensuring daily that your mustache is trimmed within military regulations, to something as complicated as ensuring aircraft components are compliant with tolerances and safety limits. But in all of those things, you can't be complacent and succeed in fostering that compliant workplace or organization. You have to be willing to ask the right questions (how wide is my mustache allowed to be?), research the current guidance (AFI 36-2903, 3.1.2.2., for those wondering), and take the active step to move toward compliance. It takes active effort to examine your daily work and processes, identify that internal controls are in place, and that they are effective and compliant with current laws, regulations and standards. You simply can't become compliant by being complacent.