'Check It' Campaign Celebrates Year of Success

By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA
American Forces Press Service

Aug. 3, 2007 - Defense officials today recognized the end of the first phase of the "Check It" campaign, which raises awareness about internal management controls within the Defense Department. Check It was launched a year ago by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England as a way to remind members of the defense community to do their jobs to the best of their ability and double-check for mistakes. The first phase focused on raising awareness about internal management controls and employees' responsibility to check their work.

At today's ceremony, England thanked all those who participated in the campaign and encouraged them to continue their support through the next phase of the program, which focuses on improving processes to prevent mistakes.

"At the end of the day, this is the ultimate service organization. Part of that service is absolutely making sure we do things the best we can every day," England said. "You're going to come to work every day, you might as well do the best you can."

Seven groups of people from communities within and outside the Defense Department were recognized today for their participation in Check It. These groups all developed campaign slogans within their communities and promoted awareness of internal management controls.

Tina Jonas, the Defense Department's comptroller and chief financial officer, applauded the groups for their innovative ideas in the Check It campaign. "It's about people and our mission," she said. "If we don't do our particular job right, it can compound things and ultimately affect the mission our men and women are doing."

The second phase of the program, which will continue for at least another year, will start to measure the quality of the work coming out of the defense community and how it can be improved, Jonas said.

"Our bottom line of continual improvement and process improvement is making sure that lives are protected, that our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, whether they're handling weapons, whether they're doing security, whether they're in the hospital rooms, that they have the support that they need and that mistakes aren't made," she said.