Has there ever been a time when you suggested to your chain of command the need to purchase a tool or new piece of equipment to replace items that are well beyond their years, or for new, 21st Century technology that would help you to perform your job faster and with higher quality? If so, how many times did you hear “good idea, but we don’t have the money for that”? If it feels like you ran out of fingers and toes trying to figure how many times that happened, then you’re not alone.
“This urban legend of not having money needs to be snooped,” said Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s (NNSY) Production Resources Officer (Code 900) Capt. Frank Gasperetti. “Most likely, this myth came about because of years of being told to ‘don’t over spend.’ ‘Don’t waste taxpayer money.’ Furthermore, we have allowed the chain of command to say ‘no’ vice finding ways to get to ‘yes.’
Gasperetti continued, “It’s simple to tell someone the tooling or material is not in the budget. When in reality, that tooling or material is a requirement, so therefore, get the budget to support the requirement.”
NNSY’s annual budget goes towards payroll, project material, project contracts, overhead purchase of minor property, overhead equipment maintenance and other overhead (i.e. information technology requirements, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command requirements, Defense Logistics Agency requirements, etc.).
“During the Gemba walks on the waterfront with the shipyard commander and other senior leaders, employees mentioned that they needed tools and materials to perform their job as well for any repairs or maintenance required for current machines and equipment to fulfill the shipyard’s mission, but there was no money available for those tools and materials,” said NNSY’s Comptroller (Code 600) Susan Wood. “After the Gemba walks, the senior leaders would come to Code 600 looking for additional funds. Good news is rarely do codes completely run out of funding prior to the September 31st deadline, the last month of the fiscal year. It is important to note that the code will have to either redistribute the current money allocated towards its budget based on the priority of the item or the comptroller will have to reallocate funds depending on priority and need of the command.”
Gasperetti added, “It takes a constant reinforcement to tell folks we have money. Production Department is committed to driving requirements and developing a plan to spend for those said requirements and is able to adjust according if the need for unexpected requirements arise and the shipyard recognizes these spending requirements are justified and worth putting the money against.”
A common way of thinking is to save the funds until the third or fourth quarter, not knowing what new and unexpected funding requirements might arise. According to various shipyard funding administrators, it would be in the best interest of codes to spend their funding in the first and second quarter. If an unexpected funding need occurs within the last two quarters, the department and the comptroller will work together to obtain the additional funds needed to complete the mission. This would also mitigate the risk of something not getting ordered before the end of the fiscal year due to workloads and time constraints of the employees who do the actual ordering.
“NNSY tends to get sweep-up funds late from unused funding from other commands within the Fleet,” said Deputy Comptroller Jamie Finlay. “We have done a great job over the last couple of fiscal years preparing and executing those sweep-up funds. Money always goes towards those that are ready to execute the funding; in other words, contracts ready to award or a JML staged and ready to go, including correct sourcing.”
It’s recommended that before you start handing in your wish list to your chain of command, remember to be wise about what you are asking for. Do you need 100 of a particular item or will 50 be more than adequate? Are all the bells and whistles required or necessary for a new piece of equipment or machine, or can a basic or above basic package be more than sufficient? Is it a “need,” a “want,” or a “nice to have”? And one of the biggest questions of all, are you spending money on things that you don’t necessarily need, because of the old government adage “If you don’t use it, you lose it and will get less money next year”?
Remember, the next time you come up with a good idea for spending government funding on and you’re told “no,” work with your chain of command to find out how to turn that “no” into a “yes” if it supports a requirement. To paraphrase the Great Knight from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: “spend wisely.”