Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) optimized two accountability programs by formally integrating their complex self-assessment pre-inspection checklists. The standardization improves efficiency and is expected to improve overall accountability through more consistent evaluation of risk areas.

Working across the headquarters and enterprise over a nine month period, a NAVSUP Continuous Performance Improvement (CPI) team developed combined checklists for the Managers' Internal Control Program (MICP) and the NAVSUP Inspector General (IG) Command Inspection Program.

The MICP provides assessable unit managers a self-assessment of their compliance with federal laws, DoD policies, and NAVSUP instructions requiring efficient business processes, reliable financial reporting and documentation of key processes through internal controls. The IG inspects a command's functional areas to determine how well the command is executing its mission in accordance with law and governance.

"I commend everyone involved for their efforts and hard work in this area," said NAVSUP Commander Rear Adm. Jonathan Yuen. "It was clear to me this was a herculean effort that required a considerable amount of coordination on the part of the assessable unit managers and the functional area managers across the NAVSUP enterprise."

Prior to the integration, all activities had to complete a combined total of 579 separate documents. The team reduced that to 369 documents. This 210 document difference amounts to a 36 percent reduction.

"This integration effort was important because it singled up two formerly disparate activities into one cohesive process," said NAVSUP Inspector General Glenn Lintz. "The integration created a synergistic effect which optimized both programs and will make the enterprise stronger and more efficient."

"Now, leaders throughout the enterprise can manage using the MIC program as it was intended, through controls established by their own assessable unit," said Lintz. "The systematic nature of the MIC self-assessment process encourages commands to 'embrace the red' by self-identifying and fixing hard spots. If the assessable unit was developed using the standards from the former IG checklists and the local managers' controls, the IG inspection team can also use that single source as the authoritative document to inspect to standard."

The positive impact of the integration will be seen throughout the entire NAVSUP enterprise. The use of the integrated self-assessment checklist will be more efficient and less labor-intensive than before. The workload associated with maintaining two separate lists of questions will be cut in half, and the time employees previously spent answering redundant questions will be reduced.

"Such transparency and stewardship increases the taxpayer's faith in the Navy," said Russell Young, who headed the original NAVSUP headquarters CPI project, and coordinated and assisted the various echelon III replication projects within a follow-on project. "It ensures annual reviews of management controls, ongoing auditability and inspection readiness. "The combined skillsets of managers, comptrollers, and the inspector general work together to ensure that the Navy is leveraging effective controls and meeting our Financial Improvement Audit Readiness (FIAR) obligations to the taxpayer."

As the CPI facilitator for the NAVSUP headquarters CPI team, Young was part of an integrated group assisting the NAVSUP echelon III CPI replication team projects headed by Kim Dobson and Jeanie Cole at NAVSUP Business Systems Center; Stacey Terrell and Ruby McGill at NAVSUP Global Logistics Support; Michael Good and Jennie Hadley at Navy Exchange Service Command; and Deb Feaser, James Chavis and Kristy Ropars at NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support.

NAVSUP's mission is to provide supplies, services, and quality-of-life support to the Navy and joint warfighter. With headquarters in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and employing a diverse, worldwide workforce of more than 22,500 military and civilian personnel, NAVSUP oversees logistics programs in the areas of supply operations, conventional ordnance, contracting, resale, fuel, transportation, and security assistance. In addition, NAVSUP is responsible for food service, postal services, Navy Exchanges, and movement of household goods.

For more information, visit http://www.navy.mil, http://www.facebook.com/usnavy, or http://www.twitter.com/usnavy.

For more news from Naval Supply Systems Command, visit http://www.navy.mil/.