88th Comptroller Squadron's Financial Services Flight prepares for move to Ellsworth AFB

  • Published
  • By Capt. David Mazur
  • 88th Comptroller Squadron
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  A team of Air Force financial management experts will brief base and 88th Air Base Wing leaders here Oct. 30 on some sweeping process changes to service financial management operations.

Mr. John G. Vonglis, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management and Comptroller has deployed the Financial Service Transformation Team to prepare each base to transition to the new centralized, Air Force Financial Service Center at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota.

The Air Force Financial Management transformation currently underway is the greatest single change in the organization's 60-year history. One of the cornerstones of the financial transformation effort is the opening of AFFSC at Ellsworth this fall.

The AFFSC will centralize and streamline most financial processes now handled by individual bases. The envisioned end-state of the center is a single point of contact processing all pay affecting documents and answering customer pay inquiries.

To ready bases for the transition, the SAF/FM Financial Service Transformation Team has launched a "Cut-over" initiative. Cut-over includes both the preparation for migration of the workload and the actual migration of the workload to the Financial Service Center.

During their Wright-Patt visit, the transformation team will provide preparation guidance to the 88th Comptroller Squadron and 445th Airlift Wing Reserve Pay Office on the transition and related processes.

"The AFFSC will be established through two phases ultimately resulting in Airmen having the total force expertise of FM matters available at one location," said Roger Bick, Director, Air Force Financial Management Strategic Planning and Transformation Program Management Office, Pentagon.

Phase I will begin with the opening of the Central Processing Center in October 2007. The CPC will focus on consolidating base-level back-shop operations. The 88th Comptroller Squadron is slated to experience Phase I of the financial services transformation in April 2008.

"Such operations include, but are not limited to, processing travel and military documents," said Mr. Brick. "These transactions are termed 'back-shop' as they are not generally seen by the customer."

Phase II operations will begin in October 2008 when a '24/7' full-service contact center is established. Knowledgeable staff in the contact center will provide top-quality pay and travel service to customers via telephone, Internet, and fax.

According to Mr. Vonglis, the result of this effort will save the Air Force more than $200 million over the next 10 years; money will be available for other programs supporting the war-fighter.

Set to open its doors for business this month, the AFFSC will centralize and transform the majority of financial services currently provided by 93 separate Financial Services Offices at base level, including Geographically Separated Units and Reserve Pay Offices.

"From this point onward, Airmen will only need one telephone number to find solutions to their financial issues," said Lt. Col. Deron Wendt, 88th Comptroller Squadron commander. "Having a single contact center will eliminate the inconveniences customers experience in having to fix financial issues during the regular duty day."