Labor's Mok says 'aloha'

The Labor Department’s chief financial officer, Samuel Mok, announced he is leaving to return to the private sector.Mok, who has been Labor’s finance head for more than five years, said in a letter to the CFO Council it was time to do something different. His last day is May 15, he said.The Senate confirmed Mok in January 2002, and he became the department’s longest-serving CFO. In his position, Mok led Labor’s move to green on the financial performance portion of the President’s Management Agenda.He also worked closely with Labor’s chief information officer, Patrick Pizzella, to upgrade the Financial Management Line of Business initiative the department’s financial management system. Labor awarded a $5.3 million contract to Mythics Inc. in May 2006 for hosting, operation and maintenance services.“Under Sam's leadership, DOL continued to receive clean audit opinions -- now for 10 years in a row,” Pizzella said. “And his focus on eliminating improper payments made DOL one of the first agencies to get to ‘green’ on that new initiative."Mok also led the charge to reduce Labor’s improper payments by $259 million by the end of fiscal 2007, and implement the E-Travel system under the e-government initiative. By implementing E-Travel, Labor cut the cost of processing travel vouchers from $62.59 to $24.75.Before coming to Labor, Mok served as the managing member of Condor Consulting, a Washington-based international consulting firm. He also served as the Treasury Department’s CFO and comptroller. At Treasury, Mok focused on implementing management control programs to enhance financial reporting.Mok received his master’s degree in auditing from Catholic University in 1982, earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Fordham University in 1968. He also graduated from the Army’s Institute of Administration at Fort Benjamin Harrison and from the U.S. Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Va.“As many of you know, my motto in life is to make some money, have some fun and leave a footprint,” Mok wrote in his letter to the CFO Council. “I will continue to do that as I move on to the next phase of my life.”