Managing the Chaos of Financial Management

This paper addresses a two-part research question: Do USAF installation-level financial managers confront undue chaos in budget execution? If so, does this chaos result from recent Department of Defense (DoD) initiatives to decentralize control of previously centrally managed accounts? World political changes, domestic spending priorities, and expanding defense missions have complicated budget execution. Financial managers must use limited resources to satisfy less limited requirements despite an environment of external controls, lack of flexibility, and changing rules. Although financial red-tape is not a new phenomenon, decentralization adds new ramifications. Because no systematically developed body of knowledge exists concerning the degree of unnecessary budget chaos or the efficacy of decentralization, this project proposed to define such data. Since this is a perception-based issue, this project developed a methodology dependent on the perception of the individuals most qualified to render an opinion: USAF installation commanders, and major command (MAJCOM) and installation comptrollers.