DOD picks financial framework leaders

The Defense Department has named seven "domain owners" to oversee implementation of the department's financial management enterprise architecture (FMEA), scheduled to be released late next month.

The FMEA project is an ambitious undertaking designed to consolidate and standardize all of DOD's financial reporting systems.

The domain owners will be responsible for implementing the architecture in seven defined areas, or domains. The domain owners and their specific domains are:

* Deidre Lee, director of Defense procurement and acquisition policy, will be responsible for the acquisition and procurement domain.

* Diane Morales, deputy undersecretary for logistics and material readiness, will handle the logistics domain.

* JoAnn Boutelle, DOD deputy chief financial officer, will be the domain owner for financial accounting operations and financial management.

* John Roth, DOD deputy comptroller for program and budget, will be the domain owner for program and budget and funds control.

* Norma St. Claire, director of DOD's Joint Requirements and Integration Office for the undersecretary of personnel management, will handle the personnel and readiness domain.

* Priscilla Guthrie, deputy chief information officer for DOD, will be the domain owner for technology infrastructure and command, control and communications.

* Raymond DuBois, deputy undersecretary for installations and environment, will be responsible for the real property and environmental liabilities domain.

The domain owners will "assume the responsibility for all activities included" in their respective domains, said Steve Worton, director of DOD's Business Modernization and Systems Directorate. Worton said the domain owners were recently named to their posts, and they will be responsible for implementation in a wide range of areas.

"They will, first and foremost, have to lead the transformation of their business areas and establish the governance which others will follow," Worton said.

In addition, they will be responsible for resolving funding issues, managing cross-domain issues, advocating for change within their domains, reviewing the domain portfolio and enforcing compliance with FMEA principles.

"I think we have covered the department well with these selections, Worton said. "The domain owners will work closely with their respective agencies and services to justify projects and funds."

Catherine Santana, deputy director for enterprise architecture in the DOD Financial Management Modernization Program Office, said experts from her office are offering their services to the domain owners to ease the transition.

"The domain owners have the priority to continue the rollout of FMEA and we can offer our expertise to help extend and refine the architecture," she said.

The financial management modernization project is designed to help the department obtain a clean financial audit — something it has been unable to do. With the war, this goal would seem to be low on the agency's priority list. However, senior DOD officials have stressed the importance of the effort to DOD's warfighting mission.

"This program will not be lost in the war or any other event," Santana said. "We will continue to move forward. This project still remains 'number nine' on [Defense] Secretary [Donald] Rumsfeld's 'Top 10 list.'"