Photo By Heather Wilburn | Naval Air Systems Command Deputy Comptroller Melissa Brach, left, presents Fleet...... read more read more
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. – The Assistant Secretary of the Navy honored Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) for its exceptional financial management performance during the Department of the Navy Financial Management Awards Ceremony June 18.
Three individuals from the FRCE Comptroller Department – Andrew Frossard, Jennifer Bean and Alana Erevia – received recognition for their financial management achievements. This marks the second consecutive year that members of the depot’s workforce have been recognized by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for their contributions.
The Department of the Navy Financial Management Awards Program recognizes individuals and teams who exemplify the core values of the Department of the Navy and whose outstanding performance, actions and contributions have had a significant impact on the Navy and the financial management field.
FRCE Commanding Officer Capt. Randy Berti said financial stewardship is essential to the depot’s ability to fulfill its mission and provide high-quality service to the fleet.
“Our Comptroller Department plays an extremely important role in the depot’s ability to support warfighter readiness,” said Berti. “Effective financial management practices allow us to deliver fast, comprehensive services to the fleet at the lowest possible rates, while also serving as good stewards of the taxpayer’s dollar. Their innovative approach and commitment to success highlights the depot’s dedication to excellence and are yet another reason I am proud to be FRC East’s commanding officer.”
Andrew Frossard, who serves as the Budget Division director, was presented with the Contribution to Optimize Stewardship in the Budget Process Award, which recognizes those who have made significant contributions to optimize stewardship and trust in the Department of the Navy’s budget process.
FRCE Military Comptroller Maj. Matt Shulman, who nominated the three individuals for the awards, said Frossard’s mission-driven mindset and ability to optimize available resources make him highly deserving of this recognition.
“Andrew embodies leadership, and his influence goes beyond the financial management community,” said Shulman. “He asks the hard questions and is not afraid to roll up his sleeves and dig for answers when needed. He continues to find innovative ways to increase efficiency and challenge norms in the name of fiscal responsibility and improvement.”
According to Shulman, Frossard has played a key role in improving the command’s approach to its annual budget process.
“Andrew realized that the typical ‘take last year’s budget and add X percent’ is an unacceptable answer, especially in an environment, where we have to be more fiscally austere,” said Shulman. “He led the charge across the command to revolutionize our budget. He has challenged requirements and set a new mindset for our department heads.
“Andrew has also hammered in an offset mentality that focuses on balance by defunding lower priority items when higher priority funding requirements arise,” he continued. “His contributions to the department, along with his concise and candid communication have been critical in significantly reducing the command’s indirect budget without impacting readiness.”
Frossard said refining the depot’s budget process was a key focus since his arrival to the depot’s Comptroller Department.
“The team and I have focused on going through each department to identify their core requirements and must-pays, that way everything is properly funded,” said Frossard. “We categorize everything based on priority – the musts, the needs and the wants. The must-pays are our highest-priority items that must be funded for the depot to operate accordingly. The wants are low-priority items that we only fund if there’s money available. It’s a tedious process but, overall it’s been a beneficial change for the command.”
Frossard said instilling these changes to boost the facility’s financial standing has been a collaborative effort.
“This has been a team effort,” said Frossard. “The indirect budget team, a small team of about four to five people, and I have worked together to get after this and find solutions. However, the command’s Comptroller Department is a giant team, and we all work together to tackle things. There are a lot of different people and teams involved in these types of decisions, and each has their own part to play. One team builds the plan and another executes it. There is no way one person or team could have accomplished this on their own.”
Supervisory accountant Jennifer Bean and Alana Erevia, who was previously a business financial manager for the Comptroller Department and now serves as an F-35 business operations specialist for the Central Coordination Department, earned the Contribution to Business Processes and Internal Controls Award. This award recognizes those who have made significant contributions to standardize the Navy’s business processes and strengthen internal controls to improve accountability.
Shulman said when FRCE transitioned to a new business and financial system in 2022, there were many Naval Supply Systems Command sales orders that did not transfer properly, making it seemingly impossible for the command to bill customers for its maintenance, repair and overhaul services. Each sales order that did not transfer properly generated a “conversion document” that needed to be translated into a version that is compatible with the new system before FRCE could bill customers, receive payments and close out the sale. Realizing the importance of closing the conversion documents, Bean and Erevia jumped into action. Shulman said their demonstration of effective leadership, collaboration and problem-solving skills, in addition to their development of a functional solution, are why he nominated them for this award.
“Jennifer and Alana have spent over a year spearheading the development and implementation of a highly effective, multi-step process that allowed us to continue closing out Naval Supply Systems Command conversion documents,” said Shulman. “This was no easy feat; there are quite a lot of factors that go into developing a detailed, step-by-step process that addresses many different elements. They’ve put countless hours into researching the sales order and billing process, testing different scenarios and validating results.
“Together, they have successfully overcome significant challenges to transform a complex and no-longer-efficient procedure into a streamlined and successful operation,” he continued. “Their hard work and dedication to excellence, along with their ability to drive transformative change within a complex system, makes them highly deserving of recognition.”
Erevia said in 2023, she and Bean visited Fleet Readiness Center Southwest onboard Naval Air Station North Island, California, to learn more about the system and how they were closing out conversion documents; afterward, they were motivated to begin developing a solution that was fit for FRCE.
“We were able to learn a lot while visiting our sister site,” said Erevia. “When we came back, we started out with smaller documents until we got the hang of it. Even though we went to Southwest to learn how they were approaching this, we all operate differently. The types of workloads that FRC East takes on aren’t the same as Southwest. We might have more components whereas they may have more aircraft, so we had to come up with a different method that best suited the depot’s needs.”
Bean said their process has proven to be a quick and easy solution for closing out the conversion documents that were created when sales orders did not properly transfer into the new financial management system.
“Before Alana and I got involved, they had been working on closing out a single conversion document for two and a half years,” said Bean. “With our process, we were able to close it out within half a day. It’s a much simpler process and now that it’s been implemented, we are closing out conversion documents daily. We’re no longer having to send help desk tickets or spend a lot of time working on them. It’s helping the command’s financial metrics, reducing our dormant sales orders and saving a significant amount of time.”
Since implementing the new process developed by Bean and Erevia, the command has successfully closed out more than $330 million in sales orders, reflecting a significant financial and operational impact, Shulman said.
“Their innovative approach ensures that each step of the process includes a validation process, which is important because it helps safeguard the accuracy and integrity of each transaction and ensures we consistently achieve the desired outcomes,” said Shulman. “In addition to closing out over $330 million in sales orders in the 2024 fiscal year – a major achievement on its own – Jennifer and Alana were able to close a singular document that resulted in a positive $2.8 million impact for the command. Most of the sales orders don’t result in that much financial gain so it was a huge accomplishment.”
Frossard emphasized the importance of remaining fiscally responsible and the impact it has on readiness.
“Our support of the warfighter lies in how well we manage our funding,” said Frossard. “Every dollar that’s not spent appropriately takes away funding from something else. We must take that into consideration when we are looking at money because everything we do here has a dollar amount tied to it. It’s our responsibility to make every dollar count because it is how we support the warfighter. We have to make sure we are ready and able to provide the fleet with the timely delivery of quality products.”
Frossard also highlighted the positive impact good financial management practices have on taxpayers.
“All of us who work here are taxpayers,” said Frossard. “That should always be in the back of our minds: These are our dollars at work, so we want to see good choices being made with this money. By remaining good financial stewards, we can continue to make the most out of the taxpayer’s dollar.”
FRCE is North Carolina's largest maintenance, repair, overhaul and technical services provider, with almost 3,900 civilian, military and contract workers. Its annual revenue exceeds $865 million. The depot provides service to the fleet while functioning as an integral part of the greater U.S. Navy; Naval Air Systems Command; and Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers.
| Date Taken: | 07.07.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 07.07.2025 09:13 |
| Story ID: | 542108 |
| Location: | CHERRY POINT, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 47 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Navy commends FRCE for financial stewardship and innovation, by Samantha Morse, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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