FORT GREGG-ADAMS, Va. –
Defense Contract Management Agency received an improved audit outcome for fiscal year 2023. After just its second year within the new audit system, the agency earned a qualified opinion of the Government Contract Property Administration System, or GCPAS.
“(This improvement) marks a big step toward accounting for all government property in the possession of contractors,” said Roxanne Banks, DCMA’s Contracting Directorate’s executive director. “We’ll build upon the (fiscal year) 2023 success and move forward in FY 2024 with the goal of achieving an unmodified audit opinion for our service provider role. The audit results reflect favorably on all the hard work done throughout the year by our property administrators and plant clearance officers.”
DCMA’s Audit Operations Team led the GCPAS service provider audit effort, which is focused on the directorate’s Government Contract Property Center, or GCPC. The center administers more than $115 billion worth of government property on contracts assigned to the agency for contract administration. This includes over 15,000 actions of property loss and plant clearance dispositions, as well as property closeout processes DCMA performs each year.
“(Those numbers) represent approximately 12% of DOD property accountable under the Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness, or FIAR, effort,” said Andrew Obermeyer, DCMA’s senior audit readiness advisor. “Our team works closely with the GCPC staff to perform internal control testing and to document property administration controls in support of the audit. We collectively provided over 300 evidentiary packages to support last year’s audit.”
The GCPAS was audited for the first time in fiscal year 2022, which resulted in a disclaimed audit opinion.
“(That opinion) was largely due to the continued use of legacy eTools that were not built with controls to satisfy FIAR audit requirements,” Obermeyer said. “GCPC completed its transition the following year to the new Plant Clearance Capability in its designated module within the Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment, or PIEE, which largely resolved issues associated with the fiscal year 2022 disclaimer. The following year’s audit result exceeded the audit roadmap projection and was a significant improvement for the agency.”
The GCPAS is one of over 30 service providers that cover key business areas across DOD and was established to meet requirements outlined in SSAE18, a generally accepted auditing standard used across DOD and other organizations. This provider allows agency customers to rely on DCMA services to avoid conducting separate FIAR audits on the same property business transactions.
“Additional benefits of the GCPAS as a service provider will be realized through decreased costs associated with conducting audits and a true accountability of all property assets in the possession of contractors,” said Obermeyer. “The standalone audits can rely upon the service provider actions for key business areas and accelerating the achievement of a successful DOD-wide audit opinion.”
The Audit Operations Team is working on GCPAS improvements for fiscal year 2024, which include completing the transition from its current eTool functionality to new capabilities located in PIEE. The team will also continue to identify ways to streamline audits while ensuring reporting entities receive the support needed for their standalone audits.
GCPAS personnel recognition:
Audit Operations Team members
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Andrew Obermeyer, Senior Audit Readiness Advisor
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Michael Kicielinski, Performance Improvement Officer
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Scott Rigg, Performance Improvement Officer
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Kimberly Stauffer, Management Analyst
Additional audit support staff
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Josh Gannon and Compliance Team
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Luke Wayne and Plant Clearance staff
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Melissa Weaver, FIRM Center
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Peterson Petit, IT support (previously provided by Sherkinna Hammond and Tammy Ryan)