planning strategies to anticipate and minimize the effects of sequestration and the government shutdown while preserving AOC’s core mission. Key examples include making personnel roster adjustments, developing a strategic hiring schedule, managing overtime hours and increasing the usage of temporary and seasonal employees. In recent years, we created efficiencies with the increased reliance on federal shared services such as Treasury’s Web-based Invoice Processing Platform and beginning the phased migration of AOC’s Human Resources Information System. Utilization of shared service platforms not only streamlines and standardizes procedures and helps ensure that we comply with government laws and regulations, it also allows us to focus on mission-based tasks.

Further, to improve our financial reporting timeliness, completeness and accuracy, AOC implemented Treasury’s Government-wide Treasury Account Symbol Adjusted Trial Balance. This update replaced the functionality of multiple, separate Treasury reporting systems as the primary means of submitting agency trial balance data into a single data collection system. AOC also migrated to Treasury’s Central Accounting Reporting System to enhance the detail and frequency of the financial data reported to Treasury for payments and collections in the Intra-governmental Payment and Collection system. These improvements increase the usability and currency of government-wide financial information to support the managerial oversight of government resources.

Over the last few years, we have made significant strides towards a strong Internal Control Program. The successful downgrade of our Internal Control material weakness in FY 2013 galvanized our commitment to develop a comprehensive risk-based Internal Control Program across the agency. In FY 2014, we sustained this downgrade and began rewriting our Internal Control policy, creating a procedure implementation manual and developing a training syllabus to frame a management training program. We will continue strengthening and expanding our program to ensure controls are integrated and that standardized procedures for monitoring and testing are in place.

Through our prioritized planning process and focus on reducing agency costs, we worked with Congress to redirect resources to needs that otherwise would not have been funded. As a result, in the short-term, we were able to meet sequestration requirements without a significant impact to our major capital renovation projects. However, continued spending reductions will impact our future operational accomplishments. As we did last year, we delayed lower-prioritized repairs and improvements throughout Capitol Hill to ensure major projects were unhindered by the budget cuts. Without the long-term funds to fully address our maintenance requirements, we concentrated on the most pressing repairs to ensure that facilities remained operational. However, in doing so, we delayed repairs that will eventually become necessary to address. Continued deferral of maintenance projects will only increase their future cost.

Therefore, as we plan for future years, the importance of permanently working lean and institutionalizing efficiencies becomes increasingly important. We remain fully committed to meeting this challenge and will continue to implement proactive measures and self-imposed spending reductions. By ensuring funds are efficiently and effectively used and transparently accounted for, AOC is able to direct the resources we receive to the highest priority projects and ensure that we meet our core mission to Serve, Preserve and Inspire. I express my sincere thanks and appreciation to AOC’s financial management professionals, whose consistent efforts to plan, execute and account for the agency’s fiscal resources is the foundation of our strong financial stewardship.

Sincerely,

Thomas J. Carroll, CFM

Chief Financial Officer

December 3, 2014