Chief financial officers highlight their job challenges
Blurred roles of CFOs and information officers create confusion, said senior official.
Chief financial officers described the political challenges of financial management, and confusion over the role of CFOs and of chief information officers, at a conference on government accounting Tuesday.
Samuel Mok, CFO of the Labor Department; Natwar Gandhi, CFO of the District of Columbia; and Edward Long, CFO of Fairfax County, Va., spoke of the need for communication, transparency and technology during the third annual leadership conference of the Association of Government Accountants based in Alexandria, Va.
The 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act, which led to the creation and placement of chief information officers at large federal agencies, blurred the roles of CFOs and CIOs, said Mok. CIOs oversee information technology and CFOs are in charge of financial management. "If we install a new accounting system, is that technology or bookkeeping?" Mok asked.
According to a Federal CFO Council Survey by the Office of Management and Budget, CFO responsibilities vary from agency to agency. At the Commerce Department, for example, the position is responsible for procurement and budget formulation, while the officer at the Agriculture Department has neither of those jobs.
Mok, who also received the Distinguished Federal Leadership Award from the AGA Tuesday, urged his fellow CFOs to get out into public more. "How many CFOs stood next to Cabinet members on the budget rollout [Monday]?" he asked.
Gandhi said that when CFOs do get publicity, it's often negative. "My role is to say 'no' all the time. I'm known as Dr. No," said Gandhi. While telling political officials the budget cannot afford programs can be difficult, it is his job to prevent the District from going bankrupt, he said. He acknowledged that the decision to close D.C. General Hospital in 2001 hurt Mayor Anthony Williams politically.
"It's an extremely difficult balancing act for anyone who holds this office," said Gandhi, a former accounting professor.
Other officials sometimes treat the CFO as the person to fix financial problems, said Long. "[Other officials] seem to think you can do anything," he said, including "creative financing."