Comptrollers prepare for DEAMS implementation

by Senior Airman Melanie Bulow-Gonterman
6th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

5/9/2014 - MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla.  -- Michael Sorrento, Chief Information Officer, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management and Comptroller, visited MacDill Air Force, Fla., to discuss the implication of the Defense Enterprise Accounting and Management System, May 1 through 2, 2014.

DEAMS is the Air Force's planning system supporting the Department of Defense Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness Plan. Under the legacy system, the Air Force was unable to achieve audit readiness, a mandate included in the National Defense Authorization Act.

Sorrento and a team of financial management experts held several town halls over the two-day visit. They provided background information and stressed the importance of the plan.

"We are doing this because we have to do something about our current accounting environment and to lay the ground work for improved financial processes and practices," said Sorrento.

The implementation of the DEAMS started at each major command and are now being rolled out to base level. MacDill along with four other Air Mobility Command bases will go live on June 1.

"We are going to be audited on our financial statements starting next year. If we cannot go through audits on a regular bases, make progress and get to a point where we can show the accountability of our business activity, it will become increasingly more difficult to operate in the political environment," stated Sorrento.

The Air Force being audited will provide the reliance taxpayers and congress need to ensure that spending is accounted for.

"I know that every one of you are professional and do the right thing to get the job done; the challenge is we cannot prove it," stated Sorrento. "That is the foundation of why we are trying to start with the transactions and work our way through because that's going to present one building block on the road to a better financial position."