American
Logistics Association
The
American Logistics Association is a voluntary, nonprofit
organization of manufacturers, manufacturer's representatives,
brokers, distributors, publishers, and other companies that
sell or provide products and services to the military resale
systems and MWR/Services. At ALA, we use the term
"military resale systems" as a broad term that
includes all military exchanges and commissaries, Department
of State stores, Veterans Canteen Services, as well as all of
the armed forces' Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR)
activities that involve a product or service.
A
global organization, ALA is represented by members in
countries around the world. Our members are diverse, with
companies of all sizes in a wide variety of industries, but we
all have one commonality.
We
are advocates for military total quality of life
62nd Annual Convention
September 29 - October 1, 2009
Baltimore Waterfront Marriott
Baltimore, MD
Registration
is now open!
ALA
recognized for support of the DeCA West CONUS Store Directors
Conference: 7 – 9 July 2009
From
left to right: CSM Victor Garcia, DeCA Senior Enlisted
Advisor, Philip E. Sakowitz, Jr., DeCA Director & CEO,
John Wilson,
ALA
Southwest Chapter President, CPFD, Russ Moffett, VP,
Commissary Affairs,
ALA
,
Pat Nixon, President,
ALA
,
Keith Hagenbuch, Acting Director DeCA West, Master Chief
Valdez, DeCA West Senior Enlisted Manager.
Military’s oldest and
largest exchange system to welcome new commander
DALLAS
– The Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) is
scheduled to welcome its new commander in a 3 p.m. ceremony at
the military command’s headquarters on Aug. 15.
Brig.
Gen. Keith Thurgood will take command of the $8.9 billion
military retailer from Maj. Gen. Bill Essex. General Thurgood
arrives to AAFES from the Army Reserves where he served as the
Assistant Division Commander of the 95th Division in Oklahoma
City, Okla. Chairman of the AAFES Board of Directors and
Deputy Chief of Staff of Manpower and Personnel Lt. Gen. Roger
Brady will preside over the ceremony.
During
General Thurgood’s more than 24 years of service, he has
been assigned to a variety of command and staff positions,
including command at company, battalion and brigade levels.
His overseas assignments include an extended tour in Germany
and multiple training assignments in Japan and Korea.
General
Thurgood is a graduate of the Transportation Officer Basic and
Advance Courses, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff
College and the U.S. Army War College. He holds a
Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Brigham Young
University, a Masters of Science in Business Administration
from Boston University, a Masters in Strategic Studies from
the Army War College and a Ph.D. in Candidate Organizational
Management and Leadership from Capella University.
“Keith’s
military and business experience are well suited for AAFES,”
said General Brady. “The knowledge he has gained
during his civilian business and military service careers are
the perfect combination needed to continue strengthening the
exchange benefit.”
General Essex will retire from the Air Force on Oct. 1, 2007,
after more than two years of service at AAFES.
DeCA receives ‘clean’
audit for fifth straight year
By Kevin L.
Robinson, DECA
FORT
LEE
,
Va.
–
Five consecutive years and counting: that’s the mark
the Defense Commissary Agency has set after independent
auditors gave DeCA an unqualified opinion for fiscal 2006. In
business, an unqualified opinion says that an organization’s
financial statements accurately represent the firm’s
financial standing and were done according to accepted
accounting principles.
The unqualified opinion puts DeCA in a select group with only
three other DoD agencies that have received five consecutive
unqualified or “clean” opinions. The other agencies are
the Military Retirement Trust Fund, the Defense Contract Audit
Agency and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service.
“We receive about $1 billion a year in federal funding to
deliver a commissary benefit that generates more than $5
billion in sales,” said Patrick Nixon, DeCA director and
chief executive officer. “The public has trusted us to be
good managers of their tax dollars, and at DeCA we take that
trust very seriously. This fifth clean audit opinion means we
are doing the right thing with our expenses and reporting
methods.”
DeCA’s financial statements and internal controls are
reviewed annually by KPMG, an international auditing firm.
Internal controls are the methods that an organization creates
to ensure that the process of compiling information for its
financial reporting is efficient and accurate.
There are five possible outcomes when KPMG checks DeCA’s
finances. They range from no opinion at all to an adverse
opinion to an unqualified opinion, the top of the ladder.
Throughout the year, DeCA employees are laying the groundwork
for a clean opinion by being accountable for doing their best
in delivering an efficient and effective commissary benefit,
said Pam Conklin, DeCA’s chief financial executive. “This
clean opinion is everybody’s business.”
Because DeCA is a nonprofit agency, its balance sheet must
reflect its net “position,” which indicates how well it
manages its funds. Profit-making organizations use net
“worth.” During the evaluation period, KPMG auditors
conduct site reviews and testing at various locations
including commissaries, DeCA headquarters, regional offices,
as well as outside organizations, such as the agency’s human
resources operations division and Defense Finance and
Accounting Service-Columbus. The reviews and testing generally
cover such areas as time and attendance, annual inventories of
resale stocks, equipment inventories, property accountability,
and information technology controls over financial systems.
“Any system is only as good as its people and DeCA has some
of the best,” said Carol Burroughs, chief of the accounting
compliance and reporting division. “DeCA has been so
successful for a number of reasons – conscientious and
experienced employees, excellent internal controls, ongoing
process reviews and improvements, management involvement and
support, and the herculean efforts of the accountants to make
it all come together for each quarterly reporting period.”
The audit process for fiscal 2007 is already well under way as
DeCA prepares to raise the bar higher to meet revised auditing
standards recently put into effect for fiscal 2007 financial
statement audits.
DeCA receives top score
in DoD for its statement of assurance
By
Kevin L. Robinson, DECA
FORT LEE
,
Va.
– In today’s business climate, an organization is judged
by its financial responsibility and reporting integrity. The
Defense Commissary Agency became the poster child for such
accountability after receiving the highest score in the
Defense Department for its fiscal 2006 statement of assurance.
DeCA led 34 DoD activities with a score of 3.2 on a 5-point
scale, up 0.4 points from its fiscal 2005 score. The United
States Special Operations Command was second with 3 points and
six other organizations were tied with 2.8.
“It’s a foundation of good business operations to have
everyone – from the cashier to the store director to the
zone manager to the agency director – understand the fiscal
responsibilities involved with delivering the commissary
benefit,” said Patrick Nixon, DeCA director and chief
executive officer. “Years ago, we made a commitment to make
wise business decisions with our future investments and keep a
keen eye on how we manage our budget. Our statement of
assurance echoes that commitment.”
All DoD activities are required to submit their statement of
assurance by Sept. 1. The statement is outlined in the Office
of Management and Budget’s Circular A-123, which defines
management’s responsibility for internal control in federal
agencies. Internal controls are defined as the organization,
policies, and procedures that managers use to ensure an agency
meets the three objectives of its internal control: (1) the
efficiency and effectiveness of operations; (2) the
reliability of financial reporting; and (3) the agency's
compliance with all laws and regulations.
The statement of assurance represents an agency director’s
assessment concerning the effectiveness of his agency’s
internal controls. “Because of DeCA’s dedication to sound
administrative and program controls, in addition to our fifth
unqualified or ‘clean’ audit opinion, Mr. Nixon was able
to give an ‘unqualified’ statement of assurance,” said
Pam Conklin, DeCA’s chief financial executive, “meaning
that there were no material weaknesses in our control systems
that required reporting outside of the agency.”
The Office of the Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) scores an
agency’s statement of assurance in five areas: report
timeliness; format to include accuracy and completeness of the
report; extent of component-wide program execution; extent of
component-wide training conducted; and weakness reporting.
DeCA vaulted to the top by maxing out the score in the first
four categories, achieving its fifth straight unqualified or
“clean” audit opinion and demonstrating excellence in
implementing even tighter restrictions for its internal
controls established by Appendix A of Circular A-123, said Tim
Hoke, internal control program manager.
“OMB (Office of Management and Budget) issued Appendix A in
2005, with fiscal 2006 being the first year of
implementation,” he said. “DoD then issued specific
guidance on how to comply with its requirements. It was
DeCA’s implementation of this guidance that made the agency
an outstanding performer and a standard-bearer in DoD for
fiscal responsibility.”
The Defense Department’s emphasis on financial
accountability spelled out in Circular A-123 reverberated from
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, legislation passed in response
to a number of high-profile corporate
and accounting scandals. Sarbanes-Oxley set new
requirements and raised existing standards to evaluate and
disclose the effectiveness of an organization’s internal
controls regarding financial reporting. The law also
stipulated that organizations’ financial reports withstand
the scrutiny of independent audits, and chief executive
officers and chief financial officers must certify the
accuracy of those reports.
Nixon applauded the agency’s management analysts and
accountants for their many hours of diligence in preparing the
statement. The preparation of the document alone is an
exercise in teamwork and attention to financial details –
attention to detail attributable to DeCA’s many assessable
unit managers at headquarters and region level who are charged
with gathering information on the internal controls
performance of their directorates.
DeCA’s growing reputation for financial vigilance comes from
a top-down management philosophy that has made sound fiscal
management a culture of responsibility throughout the agency,
Nixon said.
“The real heart of internal control is simply making sure
that every one of us is doing our jobs to the best of our
abilities, and that someone is always making sure that the job
has been done correctly,” he said. “The more we focus on
the risks involved in our business, and the steps we take to
minimize those risks, the better we will be able to provide
the invaluable benefit we provide to our customers
Eight Billion Dollar
Military Retailer Names Michael P. Howard as Chief Operating
Officer
DALLAS
– The Army & Air Force Exchange Service’s military
leadership has named Chief Financial Officer Michael P. Howard
as the 111-year old retailer’s new Chief Operating Officer
as of Oct. 21, 2006.
“I first assessed the skills and attributes I believe would
be most needed to fit the situation AAFES must deal with in
the next couple of years,” said AAFES’ Commander Maj. Gen.
Essex. “AAFES faces the toughest financial picture in 2007
and 2008 that it has faced in many years. Capital
programs to support BRAC and restationing are very costly,
competition outside the gate is increasing, and the need for
military Morale, Welfare and Recreation dividends will only
continue to grow.” Story
Nixon to received
American Visionaries Award
By
Cherie Huntington, DECA
FORT
LEE, Va. – Patrick Nixon, chief executive officer and acting
director of the Defense Commissary Agency, received the American Visionaries Award from National
Industries for the Blind (NIB).
This
inaugural award recognizes Nixon for his “positive impact on
the lives of people who are blind.”
Jim
Gibbons, NIB president and chief executive officer, praised
Nixon for his commitment and innovative thinking. “Under
your leadership, the Defense Commissary Agency has expanded
employment opportunities for literally all of our military
resale associated agencies,” Gibbons wrote in the award
letter. “…You have not only left a mark, you have
contributed to our foundation for the future.”
NIB
contracts with DeCA to supply and stock kitchen and household
items such as brooms and mops, time savers and convenience
items usually featured on “J-hooks” attached to commissary
shelves. Sales have grown to more than $22 million annually to
DeCA.
Nixon
became DeCA’s chief executive officer in June 2001 after
serving nearly a year as director of DeCA’s former Eastern
Region.
Nixon
is a 1972 graduate of the University of Maryland. He earned a
juris doctor degree in 1978 from the University of Baltimore
School of Law and completed graduate studies with the European
Institute of Public Administration in Brussels, Belgium, and
Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, in
Cambridge, Mass. He holds advanced studies certificates in
corporate governance from Tulane University School of Law and
its Freeman School of Business.
His
other awards include the Presidential Rank Award for
Meritorious Senior Professionals and Executives, Secretary of
Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service, Senior
Executive Service Exceptional Performance Award, Defense
Commissary Agency Distinguished Civilian Service Award, and
four DeCA Meritorious Civilian Service Awards.
The
Defense Commissary Agency operates a worldwide chain of
commissaries providing groceries to military personnel,
retirees and their families in a safe and secure shopping
environment. Authorized patrons purchase items at cost plus a
5-percent surcharge, which covers the costs of building new
commissaries and modernizing existing ones. Shoppers save an
average of 30 percent or more on their purchases compared to
commercial prices – savings worth about $2,700 annually for
a family of four. A core military family support element, and
a valued part of military pay and benefits, commissaries
contribute to family readiness, enhance the quality of life
for America’s military and their families, and help recruit
and retain the best and brightest men and women to serve their
country.
Army Announces Next AAFES
Deputy Commander
DALLAS
– The U.S. Army has announced that BG James Lewis Kennon
will be the Army & Air Force Exchange Service’s
(AAFES’) next Deputy Commanding General. BG Kennon,
currently Director, Logistics, Engineering and Security
Assistance, J-4, United States Pacific Command, Camp H.M.
Smith, Hawaii, is expected to report to AAFES’ World HQ in
Dallas before the end of July.
“We
are excited about the skill set BG Kennon will bring to
AAFES,” said AAFES Commander Maj. Gen. Bill Essex. “His
background and experience in logistics should be a valued
asset to AAFES’ global mission of service and support.”
A
graduate of Chaminade University Honolulu, Hawaii with two
Masters Degrees from
Central
Michigan
University
and
National
Defense
University
, BG Kennon’s 36-year career has taken him from
Vietnam
to
Hawaii
and to the majority of the Army bases in between. “The Army
has allowed me to visit almost every corner of the globe,”
said BG Kennon. “At every stop, AAFES was there for me and
my family. I look forward to playing a part in
maintaining the benefit AAFES is known to deliver.”
AAFES
operates thousands of facilities worldwide; including more
than 12,000 facilities in more than 35 countries and in 49 of
the 50 states. These include 3,150 retail facilities of
which 161 are main stores on Army, Air Force, and Marine
installations around the world. AAFES also plays a large role
in contingency operations with 55 stores throughout Operations
Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.
