Top AF financial manager visits McChord for DEAMS rollout

by Tech. Sgt. Sean Tobin
62nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs

4/2/2014 - JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- Dr. Jamie Morin, the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management and Comptroller, made a brief visit to the 62nd Comptroller Squadron here March 2, to oversee the unit's implementation of the Defense Enterprise Accounting and Management System, a new financial management system rolling out Air Force wide.

DEAMS is the Air Force's Enterprise Resource 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 2010 National Defense Authorization Act.

The 62nd CPTS implemented the system April 1, and is among just a handful of other units throughout the Air Force to have done so thus far. Later this year, the Air Force will ramp up DEAMS integration, rolling out the system to other units en masse. The lessons learned from these early adopting units will be used in future implementations across the service.

During his visit here, Morin met with 62nd CPTS Airmen to learn more about their specific mission at McChord, to discuss the DEAMS implementation and to offer words of encouragement. Morin told Airmen that their work here will provide for a smooth system rollout for other bases.

"The whole of Air Mobility Command is watching to see the lessons learned here as we do the rollout so that the mass of bases that are coming online in June can do it as smoothly as possible," Morin told 62nd CPTS members during a questions and answers session.

Morin encouraged them to carefully document the lessons learned during the transition in order to help ensure future implementations go smoothly.

"You are setting the standard here," he said. "We've got a lot of work to do in rolling out this system over the next couple years, but the whole Air Force will benefit greatly from lessons learned right here."

Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James, in a keynote speech at the Air Force Association Warfare Symposium and Technology Exposition Feb. 21, stated that one of her top priorities for the Air Force is to make every dollar count.

"We need to make sure our programs are on budget and on schedule," James told the AFA. "We need to be able to deliver auditable books of how we allocate and spend our money."

Morin echoed those statements, telling the members of the 62nd CPTS that their task of implementing DEAMS will ensure that priority can be carried out.

"We are blessed with incredibly talented folks who are doing their best every day to squeeze the maximum amount of combat capability out of every tax dollar that is entrusted to us," Morin said. "We are really in a critical time where we can step up to the challenge of a tough budget environment."

Morin concluded his Q-and-A session by imparting words of encouragement to the CPTS members and reiterating the importance of their task.

"If we do step up, I have confidence we are going to make a major difference for this nation," he said. "We will take huge steps toward giving the taxpayers and Congress confidence in our stewardship of their money."