82nd CONS, CPTS, team up for FY 2012 EOY closeout

  • Published
  • By Dan Hawkins
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  It's 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 20 and most of the base is heading home at the end of the workday. However, inside the 82nd Contracting Squadron, the duty day grinds on, with an end-of-year (EOY) deadline looming at midnight to make sure Sheppard's fiscal year (FY) 2012 budget is completely obligated and spent.

This grueling day is one of many for the acquisitions career field that requires extra work hours in the month of September as the calendar page races to the end of the fiscal year.

The 82nd CONS, along with the 82nd Comptroller Squadron, manages a hectic and intense operations tempo every year during September, which marks the end of the government's fiscal year. The long hours and heavy workload while "burning the midnight oil" is all part of ensuring the needs of the base and the assigned units are met in this age of shrinking budgets and reduced resources.

"Towards the end of the year, we are working considerably more than we would be during a typical day during the fiscal year," said Jimmy Beeson, 82nd CONS base and specialized acquisition flight chief. "What we're trying to do is obligate the dollars that are starting to fall out on things that did not get executed during the year and what people were holding on to making sure they could get through the fiscal year."

Two deadlines mark the EOY closeout process. Sept. 20 marked the base's "soft" closeout, with a midnight deadline to ensure Sheppard fully executed its FY 2012 budget.

The actual end of the fiscal year is midnight on Sept. 30, after which no funding can be executed at the base level.

Between the "soft" closeout and the actual end of the fiscal year, the base executes any additional funds flowing down to the base from the Air Staff level and Air Education and Training Command. The key to executing "fall-out" funding is preparation.

"We have everything ready to go, or RTA (ready to award)," Beeson said. "We're simply waiting for the dollars to fall through. Once it comes through funded, we can push the button and fund the contracts."

Executing over $30 million alone during the month of September and $140 million during the entire fiscal year is not a feat the 82nd CONS can pull off without some help. A vital partner in the EOY closeout is the 82nd CPTS.

While contracting handles the sourcing and negotiation end of securing goods and services for the base, the comptrollers ensure the money is spent correctly and the vendors are actually paid for the execution of the contract.

"We come up with a budget analysis to find out how much we need to spend towards items that contracting finally puts on an award," said Master Sgt. Daniel Rea, 82nd CPTS superintendent. "All the documents the resource advisors are requesting for their commanders, we give them an overview to make sure the money is spent out of the right accounts... that it's a legal purchase within this fiscal year and it doesn't violate any laws or regulations. All that is done before we certify the funds and the document goes to contracting."

One of the contracts completed and awarded on Sept. 20 was the funding of a $16 million food-service contract to help staff the dining facilities, which is vital to ensuring the technical training mission happening every day. Additionally, building renovations, road repairs and classroom modernization projects were wrapped up as well.

One of the ways contracting has tried to help the customers around the base get prepared for the EOY closeout and normal operations was through the initiation of "Buy-Me University", an on-line education source located on the Sheppard Air Force Base website.

Created in a partnership with the comptrollers, "Buy-Me University" is a collection of forms, informational guidance and checklists designed to create a self-help guide to understanding the contracting basics.

"We work with the resource advisors embedded in the squadrons and groups to educate our customers so when we receive products, they know exactly what we need from them," Beeson said. "The coordination's required, the reviews required and the specifications so that we can ensure that not only can we process that smoothly, but that we can actually get (the customers) what they need."

For Senior Airman Andrew Hoffman, 82nd CONS contracting specialist, the team building aspect of the EOY closeout process is one of the best parts despite some of the marathon work days.

"It's definitely a morale builder," Hoffman said. "We are probably spending more time this month with our contracting family than our actual personal families. It's a great benefit that we can rely on each other to have that support to work long hours and weekends."

And what is the day after EOY closeout like?

"It's a big sigh of relief, " Rea said.