Comptrollers burn midnight oil to closeout Kunsan

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Brigitte N. Brantley
  • 8th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
KUNSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --  When midnight struck Sept. 30, financial analysts with the 8th Comptroller Squadron could finally take a breath -- they had successfully executed another fiscal year's closeout.

Working long hours for weeks, the analysts reached Pacific Air Forces' goal of a 98 percent "soft closeout" by Sept. 20. Their speed in closing out most of the 8th Fighter Wing's annual $55 million budget led to Kunsan being awarded an additional $2.8 million to spend before the month concluded.

"We ramped up preparations for closeout at the beginning of August and didn't slow down," said 1st Lt. Joseph Sysko, financial analysis flight commander. "This is my third closeout, and without a doubt, this is the best team I've had the pleasure working with. All the analysts and resource advisors have handled so many end-of-year buys and, because of their success and hard work, we were able to spend the remaining funds as efficiently as possible."

Between Aug. 1 and closeout, the analysts saw an increase of $16 million to the annual budget. The extra money received not only funded all of the repairs to recent typhoon damage, but was also used for facility projects and much needed unit supply and equipment purchases.

A unique aspect of closeout here is the lack of a standard Air Force contracting squadron, meaning the Air Force analysts must work closely with Army contracting officials. Operating in this joint environment provides challenges, but close communication and teamwork throughout the year paid off during the final hours.

They also rely heavily on unit resource advisors to determine mission requirements and what needs to be bought. Some of the most time-consuming parts of closeout are searching open documents for residual funding and coordinating with each office.

"It takes a lot of time to handle the documents and see what stage of accounting each request is at," said Master Sgt. Ronilo Ordonez, 8th CPTS NCO in charge. "Toward the end of closeout, it is a lot of long hours in front of a computer making sure things are done."

During the closeout weekend, the financial analysts put in more than 200 man-hours to make sure the Wolf Pack was funded to "Take the Fight North."