scope:

PURPOSE OF THE QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM

General.

The quality assurance program is directly linked to the Air Force value-"Excellence in All We Do" and is a visible commitment to superior performance and continuous improvement in supporting America's Airmen. The program helps reinforce the obligation to taxpayers to ensure adequate internal controls are in place to properly safeguard the nation's and taxpayer resources. The Financial Management (FM) organization is a vital team in the support of Air Force operations at installations across the globe. The allocation of resources to meet mission requirements, the responsibility for taking care of the financial needs of Airmen, and protecting the hard-earned treasure of the American people demand we perform with increasing effectiveness and efficiency. While evolving Financial Improvement and Audit Remediation (FIAR) requirements, smaller staffs, high deployment tempo and resource constraints provide challenges to daily operations, FM leaders and staff strive to sustain high performance levels. That means, financial managers need a way to measure performance and to continually meet standards of excellence across the enterprise. The purpose of the Quality Assurance Program (QAP) is to internally evaluate efficiency and effectiveness and continually improve. Financial managers do this through compliance based reviews to see if standards are meet, find out who's doing it best, and mirror those best processes across the FM team. The QAP also provides the FM with reasonable assurance that internal controls are present to ensure taxpayers resources are maximized and Airmen receive financial support. The QAP supports other programs such as audit, Inspector General (IG), Manager's Internal Control Program (MICP), Manager's Internal Control Toolset (MICT), etc. As the Air Force works to consolidate these programs, QA managers at every level should identify and take actions to cross-reference, not recreate, duplicate requirements and reduce redundant administrative processes.