For the past few conferences IGFOA has focused on improving accounting and financial practices in the governments. The current conference addressed the single audits and how to improve management of the audits, new auditing standard GASB-54, and developing and using performance measures to monitor and improve financial office performance.
The IGFOA Executive Committee built the agenda for the conference based on input solicited from IGFOA members, feedback from previous conferences, and current issues facing government accounting. The goals of the December 2011 IGFOA conference were to:

• Review progress made in implementing GASB 54 (Fund Balance Reporting) and discuss follow-up worked needed,
• Exchange information on the latest Performeter analysis,
• Present and discuss best practices in Finance Office performance improvement and single audit,
• Provide training to IGFOA members on fraud prevention, risk/vulnerability assessment, and internal controls,
• Update the performance measurement action plans for finance office operations, and
• Build government specific plans to implement GASB 54, enhance performance measures and process improvement, and initiate fraud prevention/risk assessment/internal control practices.

IGFOA_Maui_2011_Professional

Download the Performeters at the links below:

• American Samoa 2010
• FSM 2010
• Kosrae 2010
• Pohnpei 2010
• Chuuk 2010
• Yap 2010
• Guam 2010
• Marshall Islands 2010
• Virgin Islands 2009

The Performeter is an analytical tool that takes a government’s financial statements and converts them into useful and understandable measures of financial performance. The Performeter uses financial ratios and a copyrighted analysis methodology to arrive at an overall rating of 1-10, which indicates the overall financial health and performance of a government.

Since 2002, PITI-VITI has been developing Performeters annually for each of the insular areas. As a result, multiple years of cumulative data is now available for each government. In addition to being able to track overall scores, the Performeter can also be used to track individual trends withinratios: Net Assets, Fund Balances, Revenue Dispersion, Intergenerational Equity, etc.

Learn More

The Association of Pacific Island Public Auditors (APIPA) held its 22nd annual conference on Majuro, July 4-8, 2011.  The conference was hosted by the RMI Office of the Auditor General (OAG).  The Graduate School USA provided training and logistical support to the conference through its Pacific Islands Training Initiative (PITI) program, giving conference participants the opportunity to receive up to 40 hours of continuing professional education (CPE) credit.  All of the week’s courses were held at RMI’s International Conference Center and the neighboring Nitijela Conference Room.

Two hundred and ninety-nine (299) participants attended this year’s conference, down slightly from the 337 participants who attended last year’s conference on Pohnpei.  Participation in recent years is shown in this table:

(Attendance in 2007 was lower than in most recent years primarily because of the greater difficulty and expense of traveling to American Samoa for most potential participants.)

Participants came from American Samoa, Chuuk, CNMI, Guam, Hawaii, Kosrae, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Pohnpei, and Yap.  A total of 1,433 course certificates were awarded for 9,752 hours of CPE credit.

Five instructors led the training sessions:  James Blume, Ralph Capio, Elizabeth Cohn, Charles Hester, and Jeanne Yamamura.  Sixteen (16) courses were provided during the conference in four training tracks:  Audit, Audit Supervisory, Finance, and Advanced Finance.  An APIPA Executive Meeting was held in the evening of July 5^th.  Attendees included all the principals or their proxies from the various Pacific audit offices, other key RMI OAG staff, and PITI Program Manager Stephen Latimer.

The official APIPA 2011 website remains accessible online at http://www.apipa2011.org.  APIPA 2012 will be held in Palau, with dates to be determined.

Since 1999 the Island Government Finance Officers’ Association (IGFOA) has met at least annually to participate in professional development and networking activities and to establish an agenda for financial management improvement. The conferences have also provided a forum for participants to discuss common issues and strategies, and to develop a shared agenda for training, organizational development, and technical assistance.

The Spring 2011 IGFOA Conference focused on implementing GASB-54 (Fund Balance and Governmental Fund Type Reporting) and performance improvements in finance office operations. The objectives of the conference were to:

1. Review key issues and ideas presented during the GFOA Conference and discuss how they apply to the insular governments.
2. Review GASB-54 and apply the new standard in a case study and in individual governments.
3. Identify best practices in implementing GASB-54 and how the standard impacts other financial management, budgeting, and legislative practices.
4. Review the status of performance measures in finance offices.
5. Apply internal controls to the prevention and detection of fraud.

20 Participants from American Samoa, CNMI, FSM, Guam, Palau, and the RMI Graduated from the 2011 Executive Leadership Development Program.

The ELDP has been designed to assist the insular areas with developing and retaining the qualified, skilled staff that will become the future leaders of their respective governments. Program participants met four times over the course of a year to develop skills in leadership, management, government finance, procurement, and auditing.  The ELDP serves the insular areas of Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Palau, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The ELDP includes five major components:

1. Formal training.  ELDP participants met four times over a twelve month period for one week of training in Guam, the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Hawaii.  The training focused on managerial and leadership skills, as well as technical training in areas such as auditing and accounting.
2. Mentoring.  Each participant completed a self-evaluation and identified a mentor throughout the 12 month program.
3. Developmental assignments.  Participants identified developmental assignments that focused on real-world issues in their organizations, giving participants the opportunity to hone technical skills and apply their learning in selected project areas.
4. Reading and group assignments.  Participants completed reading assignments and group assignments between cohort training sessions.
5. Major project in home organization.  Each ELDP participant defined and completed a major project for his or her home government.

This year’s graduating class included:

(American Samoa) Jason Betham, Florence Haro-Ale, Petti Matila; (Chuuk) Eleanor Samuel-Mori, Jayson Robert; (CNMI) Geraldine Demapan, Sixto Igisomar, Lillian Pangelinan; (Guam) Vincent Duenas, Reynaldo Edrosa, Shawn Scott; (FSM National Government) Jane Chigiyal, (Kosrae) Stanley Raffilman, Shiro Sigrah; (Marshall Islands) Jelton Anjain, Clarence Samuel; (Palau) Harley Fletcher, Sally Techitong-Soalablai, (Pohnpei) Alpino Kerman, Cynthia Saimon.

Four participants from the United States Virgin Islands completed a similar, Washington DC based program.

Additional information on the Executive Leadership Development Program can be found online at http://eldp.pitiviti.org.  The application process for the third ELDP cohort will begin February, 2012.

ELDP II Session Four (Hawaii) Professional May, 2011

ELDP II Session Four (Hawaii) May, 2011

Try to accomplish as much as you can to help in the growth of your government and the economy

Good morning family, friends, and distinguished guests.  I would like to thank you all for being present at this auspicious event.  I would like to thank the ELP staff for everything they have done for all of us as we head back to our agencies with a new outlook on what it actually means to be a leader.  I would also like to thank my classmates for selecting me to be a speaker at our graduation.  I am still in a bit of shock that I got selected, but nevertheless, thank you all for selecting me.  In addition, I would like to thank Ms. Marina Tinitali, who is the Senior Policy Specialist at the U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs.  On behalf of the government of the Virgin Islands, I would like to say thank you for helping us prepare and get current with our audit reports.  Also, thank you for being an integral part as to why I am standing here as a graduating member of the 2011 ELP class.  We are truly grateful for all you have done and will continue to do.  Thank you.  After receiving the email from Mr. Rias, I notified my team of the honor, and the first thing out of their mouths was to give them a shout out, so here goes.  I would like to shout out team #1, Solid Gold.  I thank you all for putting up with me for the last 9 months.  We had an amazing journey with each other, and I will never forget each and every one of you.

I remember after getting back to St. Thomas after orientation in Richmond, I walked into my Executive Assistant Commissioner’s office and asked him why I was chosen to attend the program.  My reason for asking him that question was I didn’t feel like I belonged in the company of all of you.  I listened as each one of you got up to introduce yourself that first day, and I remembered hearing all of those individuals that stated they were already in a leadership position.  It was not that I felt belittled in anyway, but I felt that the spot should have been given to someone that was already operating in that capacity – big mistake.  The only things he didn’t do was curse, and strangle me.  He lectured me for about a half-hour on why I was chosen, but most importantly, he stated that my time to lead a team was swiftly arriving.  I had no idea that I was viewed in that way by my superiors, and that more than anything guaranteed that I personally would settle for nothing less than my best effort for the entire 9 months I would be in the program.

Some of the accomplishments that have occurred in my life during my time in the ELP include me being placed in the lead role to oversee the treatment of fixed assets for the government of the virgin islands.  A fixed asset module was created on our enterprise resource planning financial system to track these assets, and I will be in control of this module starting at the beginning of fiscal year 2012.  Along with the fixed assets, I have also been the co-lead of a team of individuals that keeps track of all the liabilities that are incurred by our government in a given fiscal year.  I was also given the opportunity to represent my government at the Government Finance Officers Association and the follow on Island Government Finance Officers Association conferences just a couple of weeks ago in San Antonio, Texas.  I was asked to attend the conferences in my commissioner’s place due to his inability to travel because of the economic crisis that has begun to affect our territory.  To be asked to represent my commissioner and the Government of the Virgin Islands at the conferences in conjunction to being a particpant of the ELP will forever be a highlight of my life, both personally and professionally.

Over the past 9 months, I have met some outstanding individuals through the executive interviews, and the detail and shadowing assignments.  One of the outstanding individuals I met was the governor of the Virgin Islands, Mr. John P. De Jongh Jr.  I did one of my executive interviews with him and he left me with very encouraging words that I wish to share with you all today.  He said, “don’t get too caught up with the short-term, but rather continue to make plans for the long-term.  He said that is so important because our career is like a door – it opens and eventually it will close.  He continued by saying while that door is open, it’s imperative that you try to accomplish as much as you can to help in the growth of your government and the economy .  I truly believe that is what I did over the last nine months, and will continue to do, and that new found attitude is a direct byproduct of the ELP.  I am truly grateful to have met each and every one of you, and you truly will never be forgotten.  Thank you.

–

For more information on the Graduate School USA’s Executive Leadership Development Program, please visit http://eldp.pitiviti.org.

Download the Performeters at the links below:

• American Samoa 2009
• CNMI 2009
• FSM 2009
• Kosrae 2009
• Pohnpei 2009
• Chuuk 2009
• Yap 2009
• Guam 2009
• Marshall Islands 2009
• Palau 2009
• Virgin Islands 2008

The Performeter is an analytical tool that takes a government’s financial statements and converts them into useful and understandable measures of financial performance. The Performeter uses financial ratios and a copyrighted analysis methodology to arrive at an overall rating of 1-10, which indicates the overall financial health and performance of a government.

Since 2002, PITI-VITI has been developing Performeters annually for each of the insular areas. As a result, multiple years of cumulative data is now available for each government. In addition to being able to track overall scores, the Performeter can also be used to track individual trends withinratios: Net Assets, Fund Balances, Revenue Dispersion, Intergenerational Equity, etc.

The IGFOA Executive Committee built the agenda for the conference based on input solicited from IGFOA members, feedback from the last conference, and current issues facing government accounting. The goals of the December 2010 IGFOA conference were to provide IGFOA members with the information and skills needed to implement GASB 54 – Fund Balance Reporting; build government specific plans to address the GASB 54 changes in the governmental accounting structure; exchange information on the latest Performeter analysis; provide training to IGFOA members in management and leadership best practices; and update the performance measurement action plans for the finance office operations.

IGFOA_Hono_2010

The Association of Pacific Island Public Auditors (APIPA) held its 21^st annual conference on Pohnpei July 19-23, 2010.  The conference was hosted by the Pohnpei State Office of the Public Auditor (OPA).  The Graduate School provided training and logistical support to the conference through its Pacific Islands Training Initiative (PITI) program, giving conference participants the opportunity to receive up to 40 hours of continuing professional education (CPE).  All courses were held at the College of Micronesia campus.

Participants

Three hundred and thirty-seven (337) participants attended this year’s conference, up slightly from the 323 participants who attended last year’s conference on Guam.  Participation in recent years is shown in this table:

Attendance in 2007 was lower than in most recent years primarily because of the greater difficulty and expense of traveling to American Samoa for most potential participants.

Participants came from American Samoa, Chuuk, CNMI, Guam, Kosrae, Marshall Islands, Palau, Pohnpei, and Yap.  In all, 1,921 course certificates were awarded for a total of 11,332 hours of CPE.

Instructors and Courses

Five instructors led the training sessions:  Bill Allen, Frank Crawford, Phil Flora, Steven Morgan, and Jeanne Yamamura.  Twenty-one (21) courses were provided during the conference in four training tracks:  Audit, Audit Supervisory, Finance, and Advanced Finance.  The instructors, course titles and number of participants attending each course are shown in the following table:

APIPA Executive Meeting

An APIPA Executive Meeting was held in the evening of July 21^st.  Attendees included all the principals or their proxies from the various Pacific audit offices, other key Pohnpei State OPA staff, and PITI Program Manager Jason Aubuchon.

Notes and Observations

The APIPA website (http://apipa2010.org) was a key tool for planning, organizing and administering the conference.  Complete course schedules were offered on the website, as well as online conference registration, course descriptions, and background information about the instructors.

The staff of the Pohnpei State Office of the Public Auditor devoted many hours of work to make the conference a success.  Their efforts are greatly appreciated.  Special thanks also to the U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs for funding the training element of the program via the Pacific Islands Training Initiative (PITI).