Did you know FLAIR has been performing

the state’s financial management func-tions for more than 30 years and was built when 8-track players were popular? While FLAIR has done its job managing the state’s financial responsibilities, a 2014 study found that FLAIR will struggle over time to meet the growing needs of the State of Florida’s budget and its state agencies. Last fiscal year, the Department of Finan-cial Services officially embarked on an effort to replace FLAIR and the Cash Management System (CMS). This effort is referred to as the Florida PALM (Planning, Accounting, and Ledger Man-agement) Project and is led by a dedi-cated team of state staff. Hundreds of DFS and agency staff participated in more than 70 workgroups, workshops, and meetings with the Project team to help develop standard business processes and shape Florida’s financial management future. Now, the Florida PALM Project team is finalizing system requirements and assembling standard business proc-esses based on agency feedback and collaboration with DFS and agency sub-

ject matter experts. These requirements and processes will be included in a solici-tation that is expected to be released in 2016 for a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. In the coming months, be sure to check out the Florida PALM Project’s website at www.MyFloridaCFO.com/FloridaPALM for updates on the Project and to learn more about proposed standard business proc-esses. The Florida PALM Project had a strong first year thanks to the support and guidance of Florida’s state agency staff. If you have feedback or questions about the Project, please reach out to the Florida PALM team at FloridaPALM@MyFloridaCFO.com.

The Ledger: A Newsletter for State Agencies

Florida Department of Financial Services

www.myfloridacfo.com

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View the Reference

Guide to State

Expenditures

From the DFS Division of

Accounting and Auditing

inside

Grant Consortium 2

Object Code Project 2

Deliverables 3

Fraud 4

Welcome to the inaugural edition of The Ledger. This newsletter is the product of many

hands within the Division of Accounting and Auditing, all of which work tirelessly with our state agencies on issues involving payments, contracts, and proper accounting for state expenditures. Since taking office in 2011, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater has em-phasized his vision for increased transparency and greater accountability in government spending. These principles go right to the heart of the daily functions of Accounting and Auditing. The goal of this publication is to share pertinent information with you, our cus-tomers, as well as to create a vehicle for the collaboration and sharing of ideas and best practices, big or small. Please feel free to share this publication with your colleagues, and we’d love to get feedback on the topics we’re discussing.

Issue 1: November 2015

2

During 2013 several agencies partici-pated in meetings to help us under-stand the impacts of standardizing the object codes. Beginning in 2014, DFS hosted five workshop and two labs to help agencies understand the changes, the conversion approach, the impacts, and tasks that would help each agency be prepared. Fi-nally, on January 30, 2015, the new statewide object code list was loaded into FLAIR and available for agen-cies to use and fourteen online train-ing modules were launched to sup-port agencies and educate them on the conversion activities. Our State Agencies stepped up to the plate! Several agencies began using the new object codes as soon as they were available. Agencies tackled converting records in FLAIR, such as encumbrances, property records, and payables. New Set File records were established and cross-walks were built. Every agency par-ticipated in training, completing over

The Department of Financial Ser-

vices (DFS), Division of Accounting & Auditing (A&A) is excited to say the Object Code Standardization Project has been successful! Over two years ago work on the pro-ject began as a collaborative effort between A&A and our partners in the Division of Information Systems (DIS). Months of research, plan-ning, and effort took place to deter-mine all the areas in FLAIR and other systems that may be impacted and to develop a conversion ap-proach to implement the new struc-ture. At the same time, our Bureau of Financial Reporting took on the huge task of analyzing all of the ex-isting agency unique object codes and developing a standardized list that would meet the needs of all agencies. All of this work began to standardize and streamline the state’s accounting records in prepa-ration for a new accounting system.

2,000 training modules in just four months! As we go to press, our final agencies have converted and the expenditure object code phase has come to an end. Thanks to many hours of hard work, and a tremendous amount of coopera-tion, we are one step closer to our State’s new accounting system. For more information, please check out the project’s website at: http://www.myfloridacfo.com/Division/AA ObjectCodeStandardizationPro-ject.htm. Please feel free to email the project team at ObjectCodeProject@myfloridacfo.com with questions as well. Questions or comments about this article? Click HERE

Division of Accounting

and Auditing www.MyFloridaCFO.com/Division/

AA/

The mission of the Division of

Accounting and Auditing is to

safeguard public assets, settle the

state’s financial obligations, report

financial information, and improve

accountability of the state.

Division Director

Christina Smith

Assistant Directors

Rick Sweet

Rachael Lieblick

Accounting and Auditing

200 East Gaines Street

Tallahassee, FL 32399-0318

(850) 413-5510

Object code standardization project A success

Grant Consortium Resumes The Florida Grant Consortium is a group consisting of grant managers, financial specialists, administrators and associated employees of the State of Florida who are responsible for the proper use of State, Federal, and/or private grant funding admin-istered by the State of Florida. Its mission is to provide a forum that promotes the accountability of state funds by increasing awareness of statutory requirements and encour-aging best practices in grants and grant management. Florida Grant Consortium work-shops are held quarterly and in-clude a special focus on the needs of grant managers. The workshops are open to all State of Florida em-ployees who work in grants. Please go to http://www.myfloridacfo.com/Division/AA/Grants/default.html for more infor-mation and to register for the next

workshop, scheduled for December 2015. Questions or comments about this article? Click HERE

Is this yours? Search for your unclaimed property at www.fltreasurehunt.org/. Contact the Bureau of Unclaimed Property at 850-413-5515 for more information.

3

Regardless of whether a contract is between a state agency and a vendor

or a recipient/sub-recipient, the agreement should be divided into quantifiable,

measurable, and verifiable units of service that must be received and accepted in

writing by the contract manager before payment. Each deliverable must be directly

related to the scope of work and include minimum performance levels to be met by

the provider. As seen below, a vague scope of work may lead to difficulty develop-

ing deliverables.

Along with detailed deliverables that are directly related to the scope of work, the

agreement should also include financial consequences that the agency will apply if

the contractor fails to perform in accordance with the agreement. Below are

examples of deliverables for the various methods of payment:

Reports are often confused with deliverables. Reports are generally not considered a deliverable, but instead merely a means for documenting the performance of required services. As Samuel Goldwyn once said, “A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.” A detailed, written agreement, complete with a thorough scope of work and corresponding deliverables, is the critical component necessary to guiding a healthy, positive relationship between a provider and state agency. Questions or comments about this article? Click HERE

Deliverables

References:

215.971 and 287.058, F.S.

*

Reference Guide to State Expenditures

The mission of

the Bureau of

Auditing is to

provide

reasonable

assurance to

the taxpayers

of Florida that

funds disbursed

from the State

Treasury are

valid

obligations of

the State and

are in general

compliance with

State Statute.

4

The Office of Fiscal In-

tegrity is the investiga-

tive arm of the Division

of Accounting and Audit-

ing and is comprised of

accountants, analysts,

investigators and sworn

law enforcement offi-

cers. Its goal is to un-

cover and investigate

the misuse and theft of

state funds.

OFI’s primary emphasis

is on contract and state

grant fraud, where

fraudsters are misdirect-

ing state funds or per-

haps utilizing a double-

billing or false billing

scheme. Other types of

cases investigated by

OFI include Unclaimed

Property fraud; theft or

misdirection of elec-

tronic payments; state

travel reimbursement

fraud; payroll related

schemes and P-card

fraud.

Once an investigation is

initiated, OFI has access

to a wide variety of con-

fidential databases that

are available only to

criminal justice agen-

cies. However, the

greatest investigative

tool that OFI has is its

ability to subpoena bank

records and other finan-

cial documents that will

answer the question of

how the state’s money

was ultimately spent.

OFI has developed a

great deal of expertise in

following money through

bank accounts utilized

by fraudsters.

When OFI believes they

have sufficient evidence

to charge someone

criminally, they present

the case to a state or

federal prosecutor in the

form of a probable

cause affidavit that lays

out the charges and

supporting evi-

dence. The Probable

Cause affidavit leads to

an arrest warrant that,

once signed, is used by

our detectives to make

the appropriate ar-

rests. The case then

typically leaves the in-

vestigative phase and

enters the prosecution

phase where OFI starts

working in support of the

prosecutor.

If found guilty, the per-

petrator’s penalty

ranges from probation

and restitution to lengthy

prison terms.

A recent case investi-

gated by OFI involved

the executive director of

a non-profit that pro-

vided a wide variety of

services to the physi-

cally disabled. The ex-

ecutive director took

over complete control of

the non-profit’s bank ac-

counts, and used their

state funding to pay for

his personal expenses--

which over the span of a

few years added up to

$1 million. The activities

of the executive director

caused the non-profit to

become insolvent and

led to his arrest by OFI

detectives for criminal

charges of Aggravated

White Collar Crime,

Grand Theft, Organized

Fraud and Communica-

tions Fraud. He was

convicted on all counts

and ultimately sen-

tenced to 39 years in

state prison.

Many cases are initiated by consumer complaints or tips from state em-ployees. Cases are also referred to OFI by pro-gram offices within other state agencies, the vari-ous Inspectors General; and state, federal and local law enforcement agencies. If you are aware of a situation in-volving the theft or mis-use of state funds, we would encourage you to call OFI at 850 413-5514 or by email at OFI@myfloridacfo.com.

The Fight Against Fraud: It Starts with Contract

and Grant Managers

“The executive

director took

over complete

control of the

non-profit’s

bank accounts,

and used their

state funding to

pay for his

personal

expenses--

which over the

span of a few

years added up

to $1 million.”

Questions or comments about this

article? Click HERE

5

Then

Thank you for reading the inaugural issue of

The Ledger!

www.MyFloridaCFO.com/Division/AA/

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