Bloom heads to Treasury

Comptroller of the Currency Web site

Thomas Bloom, the former director of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), reportedly turned down the offer from the Federal Aviation Administration to become their chief financial officer, and instead accepted a job in the Treasury Department.

Bloom on Dec. 2 was named senior deputy comptroller and chief financial officer at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates the nation's banks. He is scheduled to take the position on Dec. 15.

"A major priority of mine since becoming comptroller has been to modernize our financial and management systems," said Comptroller of the Currency John Hawke, Jr.

Bloom "not only implemented innovative performance and measurement tools at DFAS, he restructured the agency into a customer-focused, strategy-based and metrics-driven organization. Those skills will help ensure that the OCC continues to modernize and improve its financial and management systems," Hawke said.

Bloom announced his impending departure to pursue "new challenges and opportunities" on Nov. 13. At the time, sources familiar with Bloom's departure indicated he had received an offer from the FAA to take over the agency's finances, but neither DFAS nor FAA officials would confirm that.

Bloom oversaw DFAS for five years, and said he was leaving behind a leaner organization. Over the course of his tenure, he has reduced the total workforce at the agency by about 25 percent, from more than 20,000 in 1999 to slightly more than 15,000 today.

He has also held CFO posts at the General Services Administration and the Commerce Department. He was Inspector General for the Education Department and worked from 1985 to 1988 as chief accountant and as a professional accounting fellow at the Federal Home Loan Bank System.