Photo By Kristen Pittman | Ryan Hank and U.S. Army Col. Wade Germann, both with the Office of the Program Manager...... read more read more
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NEW CUMBERLAND, Pa. - A collaboration between the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of National Guard to develop a more comprehensive Foreign Military Sales financial reporting process is producing significant results and building on a decades-long military partnership.
The Office of the Program Manager - Saudi Arabian National Guard Modernization Program provides technical and supervisory assistance to Ministry of National Guard in support of their modernization efforts. A subordinate command of USASAC since 1979, OPM-SANG has most notably equipped, trained, advised and assisted MNG in fielding five light armored vehicle brigades, three combat aviation brigades and one logistics support and training brigade.
While the Army Security Assistance Enterprise, with OPM-SANG as the lead, has made major strides in supporting program development, operations and execution, the financial reporting procedures were overdue for an upgrade. The lag in fiscal transformation was brought into the spotlight when MNG received new reporting requirements from the Ministry of Finance in 2024, stemming from Saudi Arabia’s ‘Vision 2030,’ which implemented an accrual-based accounting system to promote stronger fiscal responsibility and transparency.
MNG’s Project Affairs and General Department of Military Procurement, which manages FMS, is now required to report monthly on every aspect of their finances including expenditures, commitments, funds remaining on cases—known as available authority— and how long the available authority has been sitting idle. They also had to consider projected requirements for the next five years to determine how much remaining authority would be utilized and how the authority could be re-programmed to meet upcoming priority requirements as identified by MNG’s Aviation and Ground platform owners.
“What we found out is that our current FMS financial reporting methods are not adequate to provide our partner with the level of detail requested,” said Paviola Duri, deputy director of OPM-SANG’s Continental United States Management Office (CMO). “One of the primary financial and billing reports utilized by MNG is the DD 645. This is a quarterly FMS billing report which the Defense Finance and Accounting Service provides to partner nations depicting costs incurred to date and forecasted costs related to the next quarter’s financial requirements. However, this report does not provide the level of detail MNG needs to support the accrual accounting efforts and financial execution details needed going forward.”
The issue with it is, “it’s just a canned report,” said OPM-SANG CMO chief Ryan Hank, explaining there is no tailored feedback to the partner or guidance on how to interpret the data and apply it toward future decision making. “We’re assuming our partners know how to read this, but we discovered they may not,” said Hank.
To resolve this knowledge deficit, OPM-SANG coordinated with DFAS to hold in-depth training for MNG on the Department of Defense Form 645 to ensure they thoroughly understood the document and the data within it. This was an integral step in helping the partner nation understand the financial reports already available to them, but it still wasn’t sufficient for what MNG PA needed to provide to the Ministry of Finance.
Together with USASAC’s G8, the OPM-SANG CMO team retooled how they use existing systems and developed new financial products, processes and reports to fill the information gap for their partner.
Digging deep into MNG’s financials, including billing, invoices and disbursements dating back through 2020, they reviewed itemized expenditures and separated them into four categories: inventory, assets, services and others. They implemented a monthly status of funds report that gives MNG a detailed look at total case value, as well as committed, expended and disbursed funds. The team also created a delta report, a month-to-month comparison highlighting changes and movement of case funds.
OPM-SANG also exceeded the mandated once-a-year financial management review by implementing an additional internal financial review and holding annual budget working groups to assist MNG’s future forecasting.
“These reviews and working groups provide MNG’s PA with the necessary information to maintain a healthy trust fund level, thus ensuring future payments would be covered and their available funds stayed above the minimum thresholds set by DSCA (Defense Security Cooperation Agency) and DFAS,” said Duri.
With access to timely, accurate and detailed financial data, Project Affairs can demonstrate prudent and efficient use of Royal decreed funds and justify requesting additional funds as necessary.
Duri credits the unique structure of OPM-SANG—being above standard level of service and case funded—with their ability to surpass policy standards, but she envisions this becoming the framework for a new standard across the ASAE.
“We’re a little bit more personalized and we can give that level of detail and attention to our partner nation, but I honestly believe this should be the standard cross border to educate our partners on how the financials move and the health of their financial status,” said Duri.
Adapting to meet partner needs and increasing transparency on stewardship of funds strengthens relationships and increases trust to ensure the U.S. remains the partner of choice for FMS during a time when near-peer competitors are looking to try and replace U.S. military-to-military relationships.
“If there were ever a time in the history of FMS that we need to rethink how we are doing things, I think that time is now,” said Hank. “We must remain loose and agile, so we are flexible and not bogged down when the needs of our partner nations change.”
| Date Taken: | 05.23.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.27.2025 12:05 |
| Story ID: | 498933 |
| Location: | NEW CUMBERLAND, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 35 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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