The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of the Chief Financial Officer recently completed the transition of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to a DHS integrated financial, procurement, and asset management system.
The TSA transfer was completed on October 30, an agency spokesperson said, migrating about 1,100 TSA and U.S. Coast Guard finance center employees to modern, integrated systems. U.S. Coast Guard Finance Center employees will use these enhanced capabilities to process TSA’s annual operating costs, which amount to more than $8 billion.
“The new system brings automated and integrated controls, use of a common accounting line with standard business practices, and the most up to date security now and in the future,” DHS said, adding the new system “will help move the workforce away from transaction-level processes to focus on data reporting and analytics.”
The work under DHS’s Financial Systems Modernization program was undertaken by IBM as system deployment agent under the Eagle II contract.
“This modernization is cornerstone to our ability to provide complete, accurate, and useful financial information within the Executive Branch and to Congress, and integral to expand our business intelligence capabilities at TSA and beyond,” said Troy Edgar, DHS Chief Financial Officer, in a statement.
“Financial systems modernization is a key priority at DHS, and we have achieved this major milestone because of the years of planning, preparation, and testing completed by TSA, U.S. Coast Guard, and led by the DHS Joint Program Management Office teams,” Edgar said.
“Despite many challenges, we have achieved a ground-breaking transition for TSA and DHS,”
commented Pat Rose, CFO at TSA. “Being on a new system will make our mission support functions more efficient and effective, ultimately freeing up more resources for improving and supporting front-line operations.”
DHS said it plans to expand the upgraded financial management system, which currently includes TSA, Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the Coast Guard Finance Center, to include the entire U.S. Coast Guard enterprise in 2021.
