Page 26 - Financial Report 2020

PRIVACY AND CIVIL LIBERTIES OVERSIGHT BOARD

The Board requires a strong foundation of administrative, managerial, and organizational
capabilities to operate as a freestanding agency and strategically drives for a stronger
institution by committing to achieving the highest standards for its workforce,
cybersecurity, financial management, operational capacity, and protection of classified
information. Despite its small agency size and limited workforce, the Board’s operational
support fulfilled an impressive list of accomplishments relating to the agency’s human
resources, financial management, cybersecurity, and physical/personnel security in FY
2019 and 2020, achieving the Board’s fifth strategic goal of strengthening the institutional
capacity of the agency. Some of the organizational and managerial successes recognized are
as follows:

H UM AN R ES O U R CE S A N D F IN AN C IA L M A NA G EM EN T

Ø Increase of staffing level from less than 50 percent in early FY 2019 to over 90
percent at the end of FY 2020 through an active recruitment effort, which enabled
the Board to fill key vacant positions with highly qualified personnel with
professional backgrounds in intelligence, counterterrorism, privacy and civil
liberties, oversight and investigations, federal accounting, and information
technology;

Ø Implementation of new, cost-efficient benefits, flexible work schedules that are
customary at other agencies, and other initiatives to enhance employee morale,
retention, and development;

Ø Appointment of a Chief Financial Officer and recruitment of a full-time accountant to
increase oversight of accounting functions and provide a conduit for stronger
financial management;

Ø Successful migration of the agency’s financial and payroll services to shared services
provided by the Departments of Treasury and Interior, respectively, providing the
agency with new technological systems and promoting more efficient and effective
coordination with service providers, thus achieving better value for taxpayer
dollars;

Ø Completion of the Board’s second and third external audit of the agency’s financial
statements, resulting in unmodified audit opinions for two consecutive years; and

Ø Completion of the Board’s first full internal controls assessment, which found no
fraud, waste, or abuse.

FY 2020 AGENCY FINANCIAL REPORT 17