Courtesy Photo | Five members of the Fleet Readiness Center East Comptroller Department received...... read more read more
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. – Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) recently received numerous accolades from the Department of the Navy for its financial management achievements during the 2023 Navy Financial Management Awards ceremony, held May 29 at the American Society of Military Comptrollers Professional Development Institute in Phoenix, Arizona.
The Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy Financial Management Awards Program recognizes and encourages outstanding performance of individuals and teams within the financial management community who exemplify the Navy’s core values and whose performance, actions and contributions have had significant impact to the Navy and financial management field.
“The exemplary service provided by our financial management team serves as a testament to FRC East’s hard work, dedication and commitment to excellence,” said FRCE Executive Officer Capt. Randy J. Berti. “Effective financial management practices are vital for identifying and mitigating risk, enabling the command to carry out its mission efficiently, safeguarding national security and remaining accountable to the warfighter.”
Of the individuals and teams recognized during the ceremony, five members of the FRCE Comptroller Department, Hunter Gillikin, Tory Littrell, Lori Mills, Adam Radel and Stacy Ferrari received recognition and were presented with plaques for their financial management efforts.
Gillikin and Littrell received individual recognition, while the collaborative efforts of Mills, Radel and Ferrari were recognized with a group award. FRCE Comptroller Tammy Amos said the actions of these five individuals have allowed for significant improvement of processes and usability within the depot’s financial management systems.
“I am grateful to have such remarkable individuals within the depot’s financial management community,” said Amos. “Each member has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to continuous improvement. It’s incredibly rewarding to see their efforts acknowledged by the Navy. Their efforts and influence go way beyond our team, setting a standard of excellence that will hopefully motivate others to reach for their highest potential.”
FRCE Budget Officer Andrew Frossard said he nominated Gillikin for the Contribution to Leverage Data Analytics Award as a result of Gillikin’s strategic use of data to improve the depot’s financial management operations.
“During the initial conversion to the Navy Enterprise Resource Planning system, FRC East briefly lost all internal and external reporting capability. When the system came back online, even experienced users found it extremely difficult to retrieve and understand the data,” said Frossard, who supervises Gillikin in his role as a financial management analyst. “Hunter leveraged his own knowledge of financial reporting and began working with various raw data reports to gain an understanding of the information, layout and meaning of financial data within the new system. Within a few months, Hunter was able to regain the reporting abilities desperately needed by the command to make better informed decisions on indirect funding resources.
“As a result of this effort, he was hand selected to serve on the Comptroller Department’s Budget Formulation and Reporting Team, where he developed and implemented standardized reporting process for use across all FRC East departments,” Frossard continued. “This achievement saved approximately 1,000 labor hours, with an estimated value of about $50,000 annually within the department’s indirect budget.”
While committed to improving the depot’s reporting capabilities, Gillikin said he began researching the benefits of incorporating automation into operations.
“Over time, I was able to incorporate data into a new software that focuses on automation, saving a significant amount of time,” said Gillikin. “With this system, we no longer have to go in and pull reports that would normally take hours; it’s all automated, which was the whole intent. It eliminates the repetitive tasks, takes out all the confusing language and puts the data into a more familiar and understandable format.”
Littrell, who serves as a financial management analyst, was recognized by the Navy with the Outstanding Trainee Award. As Littrell’s supervisor at the time, Ryan Jones said he nominated Littrell for the award because of her commitment to professional development and workplace optimization.
“Tory has attained a vast amount of training experience and financial management skills, and she provides us with invaluable insights she learned from the many training development programs, career rotations and information gathering sessions she has attended,” said Jones. “During an external rotation of the Naval Acquisition Development Program Internship, Tory sought out and found a document acceptance tool that would lead to labor cost savings, automation of tasks and, most importantly, increase mission readiness.
“Despite her loaded work schedule, she made time to learn, speak with the developers of the tool and become exceptionally knowledgeable on the matter,” Jones continued. “Her willingness to learn and apply efficiency tools led to the entire Comptroller Department and Business Office to adopt and utilize the tool permanently.”
The Navy recognized the hard work and dedication of Mills, Radel and Ferrari, a team of individuals within the depot’s Budget Formulation Branch, with the Optimizing Stewardship in the Budget Process Award. Frossard, who supervises the team and nominated them for the award, said the team is well-deserving of the honor.
“This team took the initiative and sprang into action to review and validate an antiquated and somewhat burdensome budget process that, historically, requires a minimum of two to three weeks of continuous work and many overtime hours,” said Frossard. “In two short months, the team developed new processes that effectively reduced the turnaround time from three weeks to one week per budget submitted. Their efforts have maximized efficiencies and enabled FRC East the ability to provide fast and accurate narratives during budget submissions.”
Mills was honored to be included in the award, but as the team lead, said her role was more supervisory and less-hands on than that of Stacy and Adam.
“Over the years, we had developed a few new processes, but Stacy and Adam took it to the next step,” said Mills. “I was selected to receive this award as the team lead, and that is a great honor. But for the most part, the work that earned this recognition was done by Stacy and Adam. They were instrumental in this whole process.”
Mills emphasized the importance of remaining diligent within the financial management community.
“It is very important that we make every dollar count and that we are being fiscally responsible not only within the depot, but in the long term, because we're fiscally responsible to the taxpayers,” said Mills. “Because when it comes down to it, tax dollars are what pay for all of this, so we need to make sure we remain responsible and mindful of that always.”
Amos said in addition to the depot’s obligation to maintain fiscal accountability to taxpayers, responsible financial stewardship plays an important role in warfighter readiness.
“Effective financial stewardship at FRC East plays a crucial role in the support we provide to our nation’s warfighter,” said Amos. “There are competing demands for every dollar within the federal budget, and our customers want predictability, not surprises. Offering stable rates to our customers makes it easier for them to anticipate expenses and allocate the resources necessary for proper maintenance schedules. This directly impacts mission readiness as the aircraft maintenance schedules are what keep the aircraft used by the fleet operational and safe.”
FRCE is North Carolina's largest maintenance, repair, overhaul and technical services provider, with more than 4,000 civilian, military and contract workers. Its annual revenue exceeds $1 billion. The depot provides service to the fleet while functioning as an integral part of the greater U.S. Navy; Naval Air Systems Command; and Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers.
| Date Taken: | 06.17.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 06.17.2024 10:19 |
| Story ID: | 474126 |
| Location: | CHERRY POINT, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 28 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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