TABLE OF CONTENTS
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OVERVIEW
2.1 What is the purpose of this chapter? This chapter establishes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) policies and responsibilities relating to financial management systems.
2.2 What is the scope of this chapter? All organizations within the Service are subject to this policy.
2.3 What is the overall policy?
A. Our policy is to develop and maintain a coordinated and unified suite of financial and mixed systems to meet the financial management needs of the Service. Unified means that the financial data, included in the core and mixed systems, is defined in accordance with the standards established by such agencies as the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), U.S. Department of the Treasury, and U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
B. We will, in a cost-effective manner, establish and maintain a single, integrated financial management system. A single, integrated financial management system does not necessarily mean that there is one software application covering all financial management system needs. Instead, it means the unified set of financial systems and the financial portion of the mixed system interact to accurately account for and report on our financial status.
2.4 What are the authorities for this chapter?
A. Budget and Accounting Procedures Act of 1950 (31 U.S.C. 3512, et seq.).
B. The Budget and Fiscal, Budget, and Program Information (31 U.S.C. 1101, et seq.).
C. Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 (Pub. L. No. 101-576).
D. Clinger-Cohen Act (also known as the Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996) (40 U.S.C. 1401, et seq.).
E. Federal Acquisition Regulations System (48 CFR 1400).
F. Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 (Pub. L. No. 104-208).
G. Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA Reform) (Pub. L. No.113-283).
H. Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act of 1982 (Pub. L. No. 97-255).
I. Financial Accounting Standards Board, Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 168, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) (2009).
J. Grants and Agreements - Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (2 CFR Part 200).
K. OMB Circular A-11, Preparation, Submission, and Execution of the Budget.
L. OMB Circular A-123, Management's Responsibility for Enterprise Risk Management and Internal Control, Appendix D, Compliance with the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996.
M. OMB Circular A-130, Managing Information as a Strategic Resource.
N. OMB Circular A-134, Financial Accounting Principles and Standards.
O. OMB Circular A-136, Financial Reporting Requirements.
P. Prompt Payment (5 CFR Part 1315).
Q. 341 Departmental Manual (DM) 1, U.S. Department of the Interior (Department), Financial Management Systems – Policies and Responsibilities.
2.5 What terms do you need to know to understand this chapter?
A. Core Financial System. For the Department (including the Service), the Financial and Business Management System (FBMS) is the official financial management system. FBMS supports business management processes related to financial management, budget execution, acquisition, grants and cooperative agreements, real and personal property management, fleet management, aviation, travel, enterprise information management, and reporting.
B. Financial Management System. As defined by OMB Circular A-123, Appendix D, the financial management system includes an agency's overall financial operation, reflecting the people, processes, and technology to capture, classify, summarize, and report data in a meaningful manner to support business decisions. It includes hardware, applications and system software, personnel, procedures, data, and reporting functions. The financial management system can be fully integrated with other management information systems (i.e., mixed systems) where transactions automatically flow into an accounting general ledger. The financial management system could also include manual processes to post transactions from other management systems into the accounting general ledger.
C. Financial System. As defined by OMB Circular A-123, Appendix D, the financial system is an information system or set of applications that comprise the accounting portion of the financial management system that maintains all summary or detailed transactions resulting from budgetary and proprietary financial activity. The financial system encompasses processes and records that:
(1) Identify and record all valid transactions,
(2) Describe on a timely basis the transactions in sufficient detail to permit their proper classification for financial reporting,
(3) Measure the value of transactions in a manner that permits the value’s recording in the financial statements, and
(4) Determine the time period in which transactions occurred to permit their recording in the proper accounting period.
D. Information System. As defined in 44 U.S.C. 3502(8), the term “information system” means a discrete set of information resources organized for the collection, processing, maintenance, use, sharing, dissemination, or disposition of information.
E. Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (JFMIP). The JFMIP is a joint and cooperative action undertaken by the U.S. Department of Treasury, GAO, OMB, and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The goal of the JFMIP is to improve financial management practices in the Federal Government.
F. Mixed System. As defined by OMB Circular A-123, Appendix D, a mixed system is a hybrid of financial and non-financial portions of the overall financial management system. The following are examples of mixed systems: payment and invoice systems, procurement systems, receivable systems, loan systems, grants systems, payroll systems, budget formulation systems, billing systems, property management systems, travel systems, or other mission operational systems that impact a financial system.
RESPONSIBILITIES
2.6 Who is responsible for the Service’s financial management systems? See Table 2-1.
Table 2-1: Financial Management Systems Responsibility Table
These employees… | Are responsible for… |
A. Director | (1) Ensuring that our financial management systems comply with Federal accounting and reporting standards; and (2) Ensuring that we develop and maintain mixed and financial systems in a manner that maintains unified data and facilitates electronic transfer of data into FBMS, the core accounting system. |
B. Assistant Director - Management and Administration (i.e., AD-MA or Associate Chief Financial Officer) | (1) Ensuring that our current and proposed financial management systems meet standards set in OMB Circular A-123 and by the JFMIP; (2) Ensuring information on each applicable Service system is maintained on the Department's inventory of financial management systems; (3) Reporting to the Department our inventory of current and proposed financial management systems; and (4) Reporting to the Department on resources for financial management activities, including budget authority and full-time equivalent (FTE) employment data. |
C. Directorate Members (e.g., Assistant Directors, Regional Directors) | (1) Ensuring that user controls over financial management systems are implemented and in place; (2) Ensuring that their current or proposed system is established, maintained, reviewed, improved, and reported on in accordance with OMB Circular A-123 if they are a system manager over a Service or Region-specific financial or mixed system; and (3) Monitoring organizations outside of the Service that process their transactions on behalf of the Service. |
D. Assistant Director - Information Resources and Technology Management (i.e., the Associate Chief Information Officer) | (1) Providing advice on the design, development, security, and implementation of financial management systems; (2) Collecting information to ensure that what is provided is consistent with the Agency Information Technology (IT) Portfolio Summary; (3) Reporting amounts related to financial management systems to the Department through the approved capital planning and investment control system, which is gathered through the annual IT Spend Plan submission; (4) Reporting additional information for financial management systems that are defined as major investments to ensure that the systems are aligned with strategic and performance goals; and (5) Reporting planned spending on financial management systems in excess of $500,000 annually and updating the information throughout the fiscal year. |
E. Joint Administrative Operations (JAO) Administrative Operations Center (AOC), Financial Operations Chief | (1) Disseminating Federal and Departmental policy and providing guidance to Service personnel on financial management system requirements, and (2) Advising Service staff on Federal and JFMIP accounting requirements for financial management systems. |
F. JAO Policy, Economics, Risk Management and Analytics (PERMA), Risk Management Branch Chief | Managing the process for gathering the data for OMB Circular A-123 and working with JAO AOC Financial Operations as needed. |
G. System Owners and Managers | (1) Complying with system security requirements as described in OMB Circular A-130, Managing Information as a Strategic Resource; (2) Incorporating security into the architecture of their information systems to ensure that security supports the Service's operations; and (3) Achieving adequate security proportional with the level of risk and magnitude of harm. (See 270 FW 7, IT Security Program). |
H. Financial Assistance Managers | (1) Monitoring outside organizations that process transactions; and (2) Requesting that outside organizations provide assurances that their internal controls are operating effectively. Generally, the outside organization can provide an annual audit report detailing an independent public accountant’s review of its internal controls. |