Author: Danielle    Lelio

Major: Accounting

Graduation Year: 2018

Thesis Advisor: David Barrett

Description of Publication: The U.S. Army’s financial management system has been struggling with material weaknesses and problematic internal control failures for the past ten years. Within the Army General Fund, there have been 20 material weaknesses1 uncovered via audit. These weaknesses indicate that there are financial management problems within these areas and there are problems within the Army’s internal financial control and reporting systems. In order to navigate these problems, a series of plans were created to improve controls in the areas most prone to weakness in preparation for the fiscal year 2018 full Department of Defense audit. One of the areas in which one can see the most material weaknesses is the Fund Balance with Treasury account, which is part of the General Fund. The issues present in the Fund Balance account mainly stem from problems surrounding the lack of standardization of data input, human error when transferring data between systems, and difficulty tracing summary-level numbers back to transaction-level details. Attempts to solve these weaknesses have included developing a universe of transactions to help trace information back to the transaction level, the creation of an automated tool to identify differences between account numbers when reconciling, and restructuring data reporting systems.

Location of Publication:

URL to Thesis: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors/340