Thursday, November 14, 2019 numerous employees of the FAA and the Department of Transportation (DOT) traveled between two government buildings for two separate recognition ceremonies; one at the FAA headquarters building in the morning, and the other ceremony at the DOT headquarters in the afternoon. For those employees who could not be there in person, web streaming was available. Several FAA employees had the distinct honor of being recognized as recipients of the DOT Secretary’s 52nd Annual Awards Program.
The Phyllis Scheinberg Award is established to honor the memory of Phyllis Scheinberg, Assistant Secretary for Budget and Programs, serving as Chief Financial Officer from April 2005 to January 2009. Ms. Scheinberg served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget and Programs from 2001-2005. A presentation is made annually to DOT employees who are members of the financial management community, and have made a significant contributions to the mission of the Department in the budget, finance or performance areas.
During the FAA ceremony, special remarks were provided by Steve Dickson, FAA Administrator, while Lisbeth Mack, Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Human Resource Management served as Mistress of Ceremonies. Ms. Mack introduced various FAA Executives as they presented individuals and team recipients with awards for their respective organizations.
Timothy Arel, Deputy Chief Operating Officer for the Air Traffic Organization (ATO) presented the EEO/Affirmative Award to the ATO Succession Planning Group. Thirty-two members were part of this award-winning team. The Aeronautical Center was proud to have Greg Brooks, AML-4023 and Jennifer Myers, AAM-520 as part of this team.
Mark House, Acting Assistant Administrator for Finance and Management (AFN) recognized the Department Procurement Platform (DP2) Team – (DOT Led) as the winner of the DOT Secretary’s Partnering for Excellence Award. Mark House noted, "The Enterprise Services Center (ESC) in OKC is a ’go to’ team, helping people balance their books. They were remarkable in consolidating eight legacy systems into one. They know how to standardize processes to meet agency requirements. Getting a clean audit is a long and weary road and it takes a lot of talent to collect tons of complex data and be able to explain it to auditors. They have succeeded in obtaining clean audits for 13 years in a row. ESC cut the number of Personal Identification Verification (PIV) licenses needed to gain access to those legacy systems, saving $450,000 in license fees and another $100,000 in maintenance fees. This is just one example of their ability to act as good stewards, using tax dollars appropriately."
The DP2 award-winning team is comprised of nine members. The Aeronautical Center was proud to have several distinguished members as part of this team. Special congratulations to:
Rigo Driscoll, AMK-313
David Greer, AAQ-002
Heather Scott, AMK-310
Tammy Wiley-Karth, AMK-300
Ricky Woods, AMK-316
Sara Musler, AMK
Mark House spoke about the partnership between ESC and AFN’s Financial Statements and Reporting Division, and how they came together to form the DOT Financial Reporting Team. "It’s an enormous task to appropriately account for the $87B that the DOT spends each year. There are thousands of financial transactions processed every year. The team keeps track of trust funds, general funds, revolving funds and special funds. They keep track of who we pay and how we pay them," explains House. He continued, "Accounting for all of these financial transactions can be complex, to say the least. It requires coordination across many offices of DOT."
The DOT Financial Reporting Team is responsible for tracking how every penny is spent. They have streamlined business processes and used robotic software (known as ’bots’) to automate some aspects of financial reporting. This process has reduced the number of hours that employees have to spend poring over spreadsheets, manually processing transactions, or generating reports and reconciling accounts. This automated process frees up personnel, so that they can complete higher priority work, which further standardizes the financial statement reporting across the DOT. Of course, the result of all this hard work is conveyed in an audit at the end of the year. House expressed, "We have this team to thank for keeping up that sterling reputation."
Special congratulations to the DOT Financial Reporting Team, earning the 2019 Phyllis F. Scheinberg Award. This twenty-nine person team was fortunate to have several members of the Enterprise Services Center. Special congratulations to:
DOT Financial Reporting Team
Nicole Boydston, AMK-335
Daniel Bush, AMK-214B
Magnolia Cook, AMK
Diana Fisher, AMK-335
Michael Glick, AMK-335
Andrea Hill, AMK-335
Monica Ingerson, AMK-214B
Julieanna Johnson, AMK
Michelle Landolt, AMK-214
Jevon Mallett, AMK-331
DeAndre Moore, AMK-330
Jennifer Pierce-Johnson, AMK-214B
Christopher Sage, AMK-214B
David M. Stone, AMK-333
Donna Wallace, AMK-210
Congratulations to all Aeronautical Center employees who received recognition in the 2019 DOT and Phyllis Scheinberg Awards. Your extraordinary accomplishments are due to the careful and diligent stewardship you provide to the agency.
