The Air Force is steadily making gains towards meeting the statutory deadline of being audit-ready—like the Defense Department overall—by the end of Fiscal 2017, but challenges remain, Jamie Morin, USAF’s comptroller, told lawmakers last week. “The Air Force has made some very good and important progress on some of our key interim deliverables over the last year or two,” said Morin in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee’s readiness and management support panel. For example, Morin said, the Air Force has asserted audit readiness for its Fund Balance with Treasury Reconciliation effort. He said this is “analogous to balancing the Air Force checkbook, albeit one with approximately 1.1 million transactions per month.” He noted: “We’re matching up 99.99 percent of them, which is an essential enabler for our broader audit-readiness effort.” One looming challenge is fielding the service’s new enterprise resource planning systems, such as the Air Force Integrated Personnel and Pay System, Defense Enterprise Accounting Management System, and Expeditionary Combat Support System, on time, said Morin. They will replace Vietnam War-era bookkeeping systems. Delays “will impact our ability to successfully complete an audit,” said Morin. (Morin’s written testimony)
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.