I send you greetings from the home of the Finance Corps and Regiment, Fort Jackson, SC. 

  Following COL Steve RIVIERE’S request for an early retirement, I was truly honored to be asked to serve as interim Commandant and Chief of the Corps and Regiment.  As Steve turns the page to a new chapter in his life, I ask you to join me along with the members of our Financial Management (FM) community in expressing our sincere appreciation for his selfless service and extend our very best wishes to him for continued good health and success.  

  We are now in the ninth year of the Global War of Terrorism and I want to use this opportunity to pass on my deep thanks and admiration to the soldiers and civilians in our FM community that continue to perform in an exceptional manner.  Our Army Chief of Staff characterizes the world in which our Army will operate over the next several decades as an “era of persistent conflict.”  Understanding this environment, developing the right force structure and doctrine and having the necessary training in place to keep the FM community relevant in supporting the Warfighting Commander will be essential as we move forward. Through the collective vision of the members of RAFINO and your outstanding legacy we are better positioned to meet the challenges that confront us.  

  With six months under our belt with the new Branch Code 36 (the merger of BC 44-Finance and Functional Area 45-Comptroller), I see our community making great strides in moving toward a multi-functional financial management discipline in support of our Army.  Although we have always looked at financial management as having two core processes (resource management and finance operations) and captured it as such from a doctrinal perspective, we must now ensure Commanders understand these mutually supporting processes, now merged together, to form a complete FM package and give them a single focal point for FM operations at the Army Service Component Command (ASCC), Corps and Division levels through the G8.

  We continue to work to refine our tactical FM unit structure and the FM assets we have embedded in our G8 cells and the FM SPOs.  With the recent publication of FM 3.0 (Army Operations), Financial Management is part of the Sustainment Warfighting Function and thus our tactical units and the FM Support Operations (SPOs) are an integral part of the sustainment commands.  Now entering our third rotation with our new modular structure, the FM Redesign that we are working through TRADOC and Army channels looks to fix identified capability gaps and will allow us to better enhance our structure so we can more effectively perform our battlefield competencies.  This FM Redesign Force Design Update should be advancing through the required approval channels this spring.

  On the doctrine side, in December 2008, we initiated the Program Directive for the revision of FM 1-06 (Financial Management Operations).  Although FM 1-06 was last published in September 2006, we will update it to capture many of the lessons learned that have doctrinal implications on our force structure as well as on the way we provide FM support to our expeditionary Army across the full spectrum of operations.  We look to have it published in FY 2010.

  On the near horizon, the General Fund Enterprise Business System (GFEBS) will totally revolutionize the way the Army does business.  The important “take away” is that although GFEBS is much bigger than an FM system, the FM community will play a major role in its success as the Army shifts to a new “Cost Culture”.  This shift in culture will require us to learn new skill sets in the area of cost analysis and management.  These skill sets are vital in that they will allow us to provide critical information to commanders where they can then make informed decisions about the effective use of available resources.  Within the Financial Management School (FMS), we continue to work hand-in-hand with the GFEBS PM team as they move forward with GFEBS fielding and training.  TRADOC has officially designated the FMS as the sustainment training proponent for the financial management aspects of GFEBS.  We have a dedicated team of military, civilians and contractor personnel that are working diligently to adapt our current courseware for the changes associated with GFEBS as well as to develop the additional functional courses necessary to develop the new skill sets for the FM community.

  Thanks for your continued mentorship and support to our Army, soldiers, civilians and families.

To Support and Serve. 

Troy. A. CLAY

COL, FC

Commandant

Visit us at http://www.finance.army.mil/