AGA TOPICS Newsletter

From the National President

By: Samuel T. Mok, CGFM, CIA, CICA

After serving more than eight months as your National President, I am very pleased to report to you that much has been accomplished with the help of the NEC, the NBD and the National Office staff. The following are some highlights.

1.      1. A stronger process of internal control attestation has been drafted by the FBC and will be presented to the NBD this June for ratification. Relevant senior managers within the National Office will be required to attest to the adequacy and compliance of established internal control processes within their area of responsibility (similar to key elements of OMBA123 or SOX). The chain of attestation will go from senior managers to the executive director, the executive director to the treasurer, and finally, the treasurer to the National President who in turn attests to the NEC. This will address the three important management control questions I’ve talked about frequently (What do you know? When did you know? Should you have known?)

2.      2. The governance committee is hard at work to frame an updated governance process within AGA so that current and upcoming management challenges are met in a timely, efficient and effective manner. National President-Elect Billy Morehead, CGFM, has indicated his support to continuing this process. I believe the enhanced governance process, once in place, will greatly reduce possibilities of unpleasant management surprises for the elected leaders of AGA. It will also increase transparency, accountability and communication between the elected volunteer leaders of AGA and the full-time salaried office staff.

3.      3. For the first time in AGA’s history, we have undertaken a significant branding effort with the Federal News, a major market radio program in Washington, D.C. There are indications that the program has been very well received and has enhanced the branding of our AGA name among a very important constituent group within the nation’s capital. It has also created a platform for AGA to speak to relevant financial management issues before influential government decision-makers and policy analysts. I hope this will continue to serve as the AGA mouthpiece to raise relevant financial management issues before government opinion makers. The intellectual content of this radio program is property of AGA and can be used by interested chapters to create their own local programs, an important branding asset not available at the local chapter level in the past.

4.      4. I have undertaken a series of steps to prepare Billy Morehead (President-Elect) and Lisa Casias (President-Elect Designate) to assume their elected positions. I have included them in nearly all my decision-making processes regarding AGA, particularly when impacting the National Office staff. This will be the first time in recent memory when the President-Elect and the President-Elect Designate are so well prepared to hit the ground running upon taking office.

5.      5. I have begun to expand the inclusion of the Chief Operation Officer (COO) of AGA, Susan Fritzlen, in my interaction with the executive director and my successors. This will ensure that the COO is fully “up to speed” with significant executive issues facing AGA. I would like to see that over a period of time, executive succession (a continuity of operation) within AGA becoming a non-issue.

My successor, Billy Morehead, aspires to become the “education president” of AGA. I applaud him for that goal and I believe it is very timely and important to have somebody like Billy promoting education issues for AGA. Billy’s efforts will be supported through the help of our executive director, Van, who shares very similar professional credentials and experience with Billy. I have great hopes for AGA due to the talent of these two people.

In order for Bill and Lisa to be more successful than any past National President, I am committed to help put in place a very strong and transparent management process within the AGA National Office. This will adequately support the ambitious and visionary goals of future National Presidents, regardless of their management agenda. I believe I have made very decent headway so far.

One remaining issue to be tackled is the proper balance of authority and accountability between the elected volunteer National President and the full-time, salaried executive director.

While I have often stated for the record that the national staff, especially the executive director, is doing an exemplary job to the best of our knowledge, we the elected leaders know very little about what they do, how they go about discharging their responsibilities and how funds are disbursed within the official aggregate budget. It is very important to point out that there is no known hint of inappropriate behavior or improper fund expenditure. I do believe that a better degree of transparency is the best disinfectant against potential waste fraud and abuse.

I believe this is an area that merits further discussion and examination by the NEC, the NBD as well as the general membership. Any conclusion should be drawn in an evolutionary manner with the support of the majority of the elected leaders as well as the membership.

As a member of this premier accountability thought leader—AGA—we all have worked very hard and contributed much to build the AGA brand.

It only makes sense for all of us to do everything we can to enable AGA to have and maintain the best in class transparency and accountability process. 

Sam