18th CONS, CPTS sigh in relief as end of year comes to close

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Sara Csurilla
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  After working day and night the past few weeks, members of the 18th Contracting and Comptroller Squadrons finally sighed in relief as fiscal 2011 came to an end.

At the end of every fiscal year, Sept. 30, members from the 18th CPTS and CONS are in a frenzy working with each other and multiple organizations on the island to get dollars where they need to be and contracts awarded to the proper vendors.

This year the 18th CONS reported awarding approximately $103,682,745.87 across 1162 actions, a significant drop from last year and the 18th CPTS had a budget of $150 million, about a $50 million decrease from last year.

"[Compared to years in the past] this year went smooth," said Lt. Col. Seung Paik, the 18th CPTS commander, "because there wasn't a lot of money coming down, and when there's a lot of money that's when things get pretty hectic. Although this year was pretty quiet, it was still very productive."

Because the fiscal year ends at exactly midnight Sept. 1, and sometimes funds aren't even available until hours before, team members from both 18th CONS and 18th CPTS worked well into the morning hours to get all their numbers right.

"Just as every end of year, my team works hard tracking the finances dollar for dollar for the entire wing," Paik said. "For FY11 we had a check book of $150 million, our goal was to spend it down to zero and the way it looks now, we got it down to where we under spent or over spent approximately $1000. We will not know for sure for about a week when the dust settles."

Although Sept. 30 will always be one of the busiest days for these two squadrons their hard work can be recognized all year round.

"At the beginning of each fiscal year, base personnel begin working more closely with 18th CONS to identify requirements so required actions are completed and 18th CONS can 'pull the trigger' as end of year, or 'fallout,' funding becomes available," said Airman 1st Class Compean, 18th CONS contracting specialist. "We do this in close partnership with the 18th CPTS. A myriad of public laws, regulations and directives govern federal contracting, which charge contracting personnel to ensure taxpayer dollars are always spent wisely."

"Contracting personnel work year-round, not just in September, in order to prepare as many requirements as possible," the contracting specialist continued. "All this work is done knowing that many of them are not likely to get funded at all. However, there is always hope that funding will become available to award unfunded mission requirements up to the last minutes of the fiscal year, so we must be prepared to get all our customers what they need in order to perform their mission."

The past few years have shown a trend financially, budgets are getting smaller and smaller and money just isn't available like it used to be.

"Since 2008, the annual operation budget has steadily gone down," Paik explained. "It goes down a little more every year, and 2012 looks like it's going to be even less."

With the country in such a financial strain, it's obvious these two squadrons will face some challenges in the future, but with the experience from this end of year and one's in the past, Team Kadena can sleep well knowing their finances are in good hands.