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Title: Office of the Chief Financial Officer Annual Report 2010

Abstract

In March, a review team consisting of CFOs from other national laboratories, industry, and members of the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) convened for three days to conduct a comprehensive peer review of the OCFO. This was the first time in almost a decade that the financial operations of the Laboratory had been reviewed. The Committee relayed their observations on our strengths, and their very thoughtful recommendations for improvement, which we are actively pursuing. These improvements, when implemented, will benefit the entire Laboratory for many years to come. The complete report is available on the OCFO website (www.lbl.gov/Workplace/CFO). In August, the senior management team of the OCFO participated in a strategic planning retreat. The purpose of the two and a half day exercise was, of course, to update our strategic plan, but instead of spending days developing a written document, we enlisted the expertise of a seasoned journalist who also happens to be a very talented graphic artist. He listened carefully to our ideas and committed them to a visual roadmap. All members of the OCFO, Business Managers, and the Laboratory Leadership Team reviewed this draft roadmap. By having a completely visual strategic plan that is postedmore » widely throughout the OCFO, all employees can easily see and identify with the goals that we are all working towards. FY2010 was an extraordinary year. The Laboratory welcomed its seventh Director, Dr. Paul Alivisatos, who wasted no time communicating his vision and priorities for Berkeley Lab. They include five very ambitious initiatives: Carbon Cycle 2.0, The Next Generation Light Source, a Safe and Efficient Lab, Building Community, and Space. In response, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) developed twelve specific initiatives that align completely with these five priorities. We will be very focused on these in the coming fiscal year, but for now, let's review what happened in FY2010. FY2010 was a pivotal year for the Procurement and Property Department. A provision of the management contract that was signed fives years ago required us to achieve cost savings of $30M. I am proud to announce that this last fiscal year we reached that goal, in large part due to the implementation of eBuy, and the negotiation of strategic sourcing contracts. Our last wall-to-wall inventory exceeded all the Department of Energy's (DOE) national targets and DOE approved the LBNL property system unconditionally. Of the total inventory, 92.3% or 25,601 assets were accounted for using barcode scanning that made the inventory process much more efficient. The effective management of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds was strengthened by the continued successful partnership that LBNL shares with our DOE Site Office. They provided authority, support and clarity to this very complex task. The Laboratory's ARRA Stimulus Committee played a critical role in assuring internal controls, compliance with DOE regulations and quality financial management. The LBNL Budget Officer led a DOE complex-wide effort to identify and share how various DOE facilities track and report ARRA-funded projects, share best practices, evaluate issues and discuss solutions. LBNL has been recognized as a leader in this process and will continue to share knowledge and best practices with other DOE laboratories. Continuous education of our staff as well as the greater Laboratory population was still a major focus of the OCFO. With the help of many OCFO senior managers and staff that acted as subject-matter experts, the Core Financial Management Program was completely re-engineered and resulted in a revised classroom and web-based curriculum that will be formally rolled out Lab-wide in early FY2011. The Office of Sponsored Projects and Industry Partnerships (OSPIP) led the effort to select and purchase four Click Commerce software modules for the LBNL electronic Scientific Research Administration (eSRA) project. In early FY2010, the implementation of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) module, responsible for the human subjects review process, began and should be completed in early FY2011. OSPIP also began implementation of the grants and contracts module and we expect an early go-live of 'Grants Express' in mid-FY2011 with a full completion date in FY2012. The peer review's most substantial recommendation for improvement involved the Laboratory's central financial systems. To quote: 'financial reporting system is outdated and inadequate. There is an inability to easily extract data; the field has little confidence in data; people spend more time mining data than analyzing data; requires field users to create & rely upon shadow systems; causes proliferation of program administrators and resource analysts. These issues impact the quality & execution of research; and the data warehouse lacks understanding & ownership.'« less

Authors:
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
Business Services Division; Operations Division
OSTI Identifier:
1003827
Report Number(s):
LBNL-4139E
TRN: US201103%%340
DOE Contract Number:  
DE-AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
99; BUSINESS; CARBON CYCLE; COMPLIANCE; EDUCATION; IMPLEMENTATION; LIGHT SOURCES; MANAGEMENT; MINING; NEGOTIATION; OWNERSHIP; PERSONNEL; PLANNING; PROCUREMENT; PROGRAM MANAGEMENT; PROLIFERATION; RECOMMENDATIONS; REGULATIONS; TARGETS; WEBSITES; OCFO, Finance, Budget, Annual, FY2010

Citation Formats

Fernandez, Jeffrey. Office of the Chief Financial Officer Annual Report 2010. United States: N. p., 2010. Web. doi:10.2172/1003827.
Fernandez, Jeffrey. Office of the Chief Financial Officer Annual Report 2010. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1003827
Fernandez, Jeffrey. 2010. "Office of the Chief Financial Officer Annual Report 2010". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1003827. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1003827.
@article{osti_1003827,
title = {Office of the Chief Financial Officer Annual Report 2010},
author = {Fernandez, Jeffrey},
abstractNote = {In March, a review team consisting of CFOs from other national laboratories, industry, and members of the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) convened for three days to conduct a comprehensive peer review of the OCFO. This was the first time in almost a decade that the financial operations of the Laboratory had been reviewed. The Committee relayed their observations on our strengths, and their very thoughtful recommendations for improvement, which we are actively pursuing. These improvements, when implemented, will benefit the entire Laboratory for many years to come. The complete report is available on the OCFO website (www.lbl.gov/Workplace/CFO). In August, the senior management team of the OCFO participated in a strategic planning retreat. The purpose of the two and a half day exercise was, of course, to update our strategic plan, but instead of spending days developing a written document, we enlisted the expertise of a seasoned journalist who also happens to be a very talented graphic artist. He listened carefully to our ideas and committed them to a visual roadmap. All members of the OCFO, Business Managers, and the Laboratory Leadership Team reviewed this draft roadmap. By having a completely visual strategic plan that is posted widely throughout the OCFO, all employees can easily see and identify with the goals that we are all working towards. FY2010 was an extraordinary year. The Laboratory welcomed its seventh Director, Dr. Paul Alivisatos, who wasted no time communicating his vision and priorities for Berkeley Lab. They include five very ambitious initiatives: Carbon Cycle 2.0, The Next Generation Light Source, a Safe and Efficient Lab, Building Community, and Space. In response, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) developed twelve specific initiatives that align completely with these five priorities. We will be very focused on these in the coming fiscal year, but for now, let's review what happened in FY2010. FY2010 was a pivotal year for the Procurement and Property Department. A provision of the management contract that was signed fives years ago required us to achieve cost savings of $30M. I am proud to announce that this last fiscal year we reached that goal, in large part due to the implementation of eBuy, and the negotiation of strategic sourcing contracts. Our last wall-to-wall inventory exceeded all the Department of Energy's (DOE) national targets and DOE approved the LBNL property system unconditionally. Of the total inventory, 92.3% or 25,601 assets were accounted for using barcode scanning that made the inventory process much more efficient. The effective management of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds was strengthened by the continued successful partnership that LBNL shares with our DOE Site Office. They provided authority, support and clarity to this very complex task. The Laboratory's ARRA Stimulus Committee played a critical role in assuring internal controls, compliance with DOE regulations and quality financial management. The LBNL Budget Officer led a DOE complex-wide effort to identify and share how various DOE facilities track and report ARRA-funded projects, share best practices, evaluate issues and discuss solutions. LBNL has been recognized as a leader in this process and will continue to share knowledge and best practices with other DOE laboratories. Continuous education of our staff as well as the greater Laboratory population was still a major focus of the OCFO. With the help of many OCFO senior managers and staff that acted as subject-matter experts, the Core Financial Management Program was completely re-engineered and resulted in a revised classroom and web-based curriculum that will be formally rolled out Lab-wide in early FY2011. The Office of Sponsored Projects and Industry Partnerships (OSPIP) led the effort to select and purchase four Click Commerce software modules for the LBNL electronic Scientific Research Administration (eSRA) project. In early FY2010, the implementation of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) module, responsible for the human subjects review process, began and should be completed in early FY2011. OSPIP also began implementation of the grants and contracts module and we expect an early go-live of 'Grants Express' in mid-FY2011 with a full completion date in FY2012. The peer review's most substantial recommendation for improvement involved the Laboratory's central financial systems. To quote: 'financial reporting system is outdated and inadequate. There is an inability to easily extract data; the field has little confidence in data; people spend more time mining data than analyzing data; requires field users to create & rely upon shadow systems; causes proliferation of program administrators and resource analysts. These issues impact the quality & execution of research; and the data warehouse lacks understanding & ownership.'},
doi = {10.2172/1003827},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1003827}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Dec 20 00:00:00 EST 2010},
month = {Mon Dec 20 00:00:00 EST 2010}
}