CPAG News

CGFM: Multiple Benefits for Multiple Clients

By: Christina M. Camara

Why become a Certified Government Financial Manager if you don’t work for government?

The benefits of earning the CGFM for government finance professionals are well known, but two members of AGA’s Corporate Partner Advisory Group (CPAG) recently talked about how the CGFM helps their private sector organizations and the clients they serve.

AGA’s CPAG Program, which boasts more than 50 corporate partners, brings together executives from industry and government to exchange problems and solutions, build trust and work together to make government more accountable. One message government executives are hearing is that AGA’s CGFM credential is not only a valuable addition to the resumes of government employees, but it also helps professionals at private firms demonstrate their expertise to work on government finance projects. Consider these comments.

Michael T. Smokovich, CGFM, Senior Vice President, Delta Solutions—Having once served as the chief financial officer of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and as a deputy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Smokovich knows what it takes to successfully bring a new financial management solution to a federal agency.

One of the reasons failures occur, Smokovich said, is because the people who are working on the systems “don’t understand the playing field they’re working in.”

“What happens with the CGFM is there’s a whole lexicon of terminology and understanding that goes with the federal environment in particular, but also with state and local governments.”

He recalled talking with vendors working on an IRS systems project who had no understanding of budgetary accounting. “How are they ever going to succeed if they fail to understand what it takes to solve the problem?”

“If you go through the process of understanding all the principles, standards, rules and conventions that are made known to people in the certification process, you have a better way of understanding what your clients are saying about their particular financial management problem,” he said.

Having CGFMs on the project team is a good marketing tool for the firm and it gives the government clients the confidence that the contractors are speaking the same language.

Smokovich said federal agencies or private firms that contract with government should “buy into” the CGFM. “If you have young people coming into the federal environment or the corporate environment to work with government, it’s a good investment.”

Ron Smith, CGFM, Vice President of Enterprise Financial Services, Systalex —Smith said government agencies are starting to request CGFMs on project teams contracted to install new financial systems. It is becoming more and more important for the contractors to receive the same training as the financial managers themselves, he said.

“We’re moving into an era of what I’ll call a ‘blended work force,’ with the financial functions that were formerly performed by government employees now being done by contractors,” said Smith, who has also worked for the federal government before moving to the private sector.

Smith, who has been in the federal financial management consulting business for 30 years, said he is constantly on the lookout for talented systems accountants who are knowledgeable about the federal environment, but it’s difficult to find people with a good grasp of federal rules and regulations.

The CGFM, he said, is “an indication of a skill set that a person has. It’s another measure of their potential value to a project.”

To become a CGFM, candidates must have the appropriate education and professional experience and pass three rigorous examinations that cover a broad range of issues in federal, state and local government financial management. Click here for more information about AGA’s CGFM Program. Click here for detailed information about AGA’s Corporate Partner Program .