Agile Agency
Taking the following action will increase auditor retention, audit efficiency, audit effectiveness and reduce costs.
What you’re about to read could EASILY become DCAA’s Holy Grail.
DCAA has two debilitating problems, retention, and compensation.
Retention – DCAA possesses an aging workforce. Auditors with critical institutional knowledge are approaching retirement while new hires are leaving in droves. I recently reconnected with a colleague from my TI in 2011. He attended a concurrent session in Memphis. We were discussing the Agencies difficulty at attracting and retaining talent. He hammered the situation home in real time. He had recently undertaken an effort to see how many of his class remained. He concluded that as of 1/10/17 seven students or 41% (7/17) are no longer with DCAA. Additionally, his instructor had also left the Agency. Therefore, including 
the instructor, 8/18 or 44% are no longer with DCAA. By any measure, that represents a devasting loss of talent and resources in only five years. Agency attrition is a disaster. That’s the bad news. The good news is, it doesn’t have to be.
Compensation – DCAA auditors have taken more than a 7% pay cut each year for more than two decades. Click Here.
Last year Deputy Director Saccoccia visited Central Region. He spoke to us at Lockheed. Mr. Saccoccia said “We Must Be Agile.” He said this repeatedly and emphatically.
I maintain the Agency can achieve the agility the Deputy Director exhorts us to accomplish at little or no cost. Further, while implementing the plan, DCAA will become more useful to our customers and more desirable both to existing and potential employees.
Harvard University agrees:
The Harvard Business Review RAVES: This approach is essential for companies seeking to develop new products quickly and flexibly. The shift from a linear to an integrated approach encourages trial and error and challenges the status quo. It stimulates new kinds of learning and thinking within the organization at different levels and functions. Just as important, this strategy for product development can act as an agent of change for the larger organization. The energy and motivation the effort produces can spread throughout the big company and begin to break down some of the rigidities that have set in over time.
DCAA should take the Deputy Director’s and Harvard Business School’s advice to heart. I believe that if we adopt the “agility model” throughout the agency, it will assure DCAA remains at the “Tip of the Spear” as we aggressively support the warfighter and the taxpayer.
What we’re doing now to encourage innovation and facilitate propagation of useful ideas isn’t working. Rewards are principally predicated upon timing, not efficacy.
For example, when I was reading and researching in preparation to produce my Benford’s presentations (Click Here), I ran across this 2002 publication from Mr. Curtis Smith (Click Here). Mr. Smith is now a Program Manager with Headquarters OTS. This auditor’s 2002 efforts precipitated no agency-wide action. General implementation of Benford’s didn’t happen until 13 years later. MRD 15-OTS-014(R), Introducing Benford’s Law Analytical Technique was published June 1, 2015. Mr. Smith’s efforts were too early. My efforts were too late as the MRD was already in the works. Conversely, my OneNote auditing application (Click Here) was submitted too soon. The active effort to solicit and publish “Innovations” wasn’t underway at the time of my 2014 submission.
Exclusive of the time dedicated to reading, researching, applying and writing the Benford’s Law articles, my investment was about $800.00 for books and software.
As Mr. Saccoccia said, neither he, nor you, nor I can do anything about compensation. But, compensation isn’t the only thing that motivates DCAA auditors. The opportunity to read, research, write, innovate and make significant contributions is also high on their list.
What if Mr. Smith’s 2002 article on Benford’s had been the product of a cross-agency collaboration? What if DCAA was abuzz with self-forming teams, self-directed and dedicated to solving problems and propagating solutions?
DCAA can be even more innovative, even more valuable and contribute even more than we do now. The introduction of an Agency wide “Agility Program” will make the Defense Contract Auditing Agency an “Auditing DARPA.”
I recommend that we grant every auditor, GS12 and above, a personal R&D Budget of 
$1,000.00/year. The expenditure or lack thereof should be 100% discretionary with the auditor with one stipulation, the expenditure must be for the benefit of the Agency. As this is a personal research and development budget, “Benefit” must be loosely interpreted.
When the “Agility Program” is implemented, communicating these funds and the purpose thereof to potential employees and incorporating “Agility Training” into TI will help with both employee acquisition, retention, and ambition. What new GS7 wouldn’t want to expedite the climb to GS12 to participate in a group making a significant difference to the nation?
For well under 1% of DCAA’s annual salary budget, we’ll have self-forming teams of financial professionals collaborating and pooling their individual R&D budgets to tackle significant problems. Innovation and excellence become the rule of the day. Unlike the past, the timing of contributions will no longer affect their adoption. These collaborative efforts will assure efficiencies are propagated, not lost. The camaraderie inspired by these efforts will increase retention, employee satisfaction, and Agency efficacy. This approach will permit those auditors seeking to significantly expand the scope of their responsibilities the ability to do so through both unilateral and collaborative action. Observing, codifying and edifying those that contribute will provide incredible new insights into employee development permitting the Agency to more effectively identify those auditors willing to go the extra mile for the Taxpayer and the Warfighter.
The benefits returned by our Auditors will far exceed the investment.
As Mr. Saccoccia repeatedly noted, agility is imperative. I agree.
May we begin?
Respectfully,
Dave Zenker, CPA, MA
