Transforming a Federal Agency

Chapter 9Financial and IT Modernization

This is where the rubber meets the road. It's the most extensive area of our remediation efforts. We had to go back to the basics and focus on the fundamental blocking and tackling of the finance functions and understand where technology could aid the transformation. We spent considerable time dissecting the root cause of the issues, understanding where people were not being efficient, and assessing if we had the right risk-assessment protocols. It was important to triangulate these concepts. Getting to the root cause helped pinpoint issues that could be remediated with current state technology (such as robotics process automation or intelligent data extraction) or with improved policy and procedures statements. Also, we needed to improve our enterprise risk assessment so we could identify issues earlier and focus our efforts on matters that are material to the financial processes.

Financial Transformation Plan

Before we launched a detailed financial transformation plan, we had to identify and discuss the core issues. The list was extensive, as follows:

Related to HUD Consolidated Reporting

• Inability to report timely, accurate, compliant, and auditable financial statements
• Inconsistency and delays in financial and operating reporting
• Insufficient project management around financial reporting process (reporting schedule, roles, and responsibilities)
• Lack of validation processes, internal controls, and supporting documentation
• Lack of ...