Director's Message

August 25, 2006

To: All DHS employees

From: Bruce Goldberg, Director

"Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out."  ~James Bryant Conant

I'd like to take the opportunity this week to update you on our progress toward improved financial management, accountability and transparency.

We've faced a number of fiscal challenges during the past few years. To address those issues, I asked a team of financial experts to review the agency and provide us with a thorough evaluation and a correction plan. That work was completed this spring and we have developed a comprehensive plan with short-, medium- and long-range goals and deliverables. 

I'm happy to report that we are making steady progress toward improving our transparency and accountability. We have a comprehensive blueprint for change, we are carrying it out, and we are on track.

We are working closely with the Legislature to regularly report on our progress, discuss remaining issues and develop solutions. Just this week we met with legislators on the DHS Fiscal Oversight Committee to give a status report.

We are tackling issues in several key areas -- cash flow management, cash controls and working capital. In all areas we are streamlining processes and getting rid of cumbersome "workarounds" that have made the agency's financial management system more complex instead of fixing underlying problems.

We are now charting cash flow on a daily basis, and will end one long-standing cash flow process Sept. 1 that for many years has cost us needless delays and processing fees. Next year's implementation of the new Medicaid Management Information System also will help reduce the agency's historic cash flow problems.

In addition, we are streamlining accounts receivable and accounts payable processes, increasing the use of fiscal controls, improving our forecasting procedures, and developing short- and long-term plans to address other fiscal issues. Our financial staff are committed to making these changes happen. There is a lot of work left to do, but we're already seeing improvements.

Once we resolve the existing problems, however, we will have the ongoing responsibility of ensuring that new problems don't crop up in the years ahead.

One way we're doing that is to develop a sound budget for 2007-2009. We are in the final stages this month of crafting our Agency Request Budget, which was developed through an open and inclusive process, and which adheres to our principles of transparency, accountability and efficiency.

After the 2007 Legislature approves the final DHS budget, each of us will play a role in maintaining sound fiscal processes and in being good stewards of the public money that supports the services we provide. We must learn to think about program delivery in a way that incorporates a wise use of resources with the most appropriate services for our clients. Fiscal accountability is essential to the success of our mission -- how we use our resources determines how well we can meet our mission of assisting people to become independent, healthy and safe.

At this past week's meeting, a member of our Fiscal Oversight Committee, reflecting on our history of budget changes, commented that they would like to see "budgeting without plot twists." Plot twists and surprise endings belong in mystery novels, not financial management. Where our budget is concerned we all need to know and understand the beginning, ending and every scene in between. We all need to become fiscally educated, understand our program budgets within the context of the overall agency budget, and manage to both budget and mission expectations. That's what good fiscal management and stewardship are all about, and that's what I expect of DHS.

To provide feedback email: DHS.Directorsoffice@state.or.us