Budget Formulation & Execution
Federal agencies must integrate and report on budget and performance data to demonstrate results against goals. Agency initiatives and programs will only reach their full potential when strategic planning and budget formulation activities are rooted in strong budget execution.
Empirical assists agencies in the development of budget strategies, collection and analysis of financial data, cost collection and estimating, and the development of detailed spending plans, cost tracking, and reporting systems, empowering financial leaders to improve current program performance and decision-making.
Budget execution is crucial to effective management of programs and funds. Empirical helps agencies to ensure the financial resources obligated to them are directed and controlled toward achieving the program objectives and mission goals. Empirical helps agencies to:
- Optimize funding by reallocating funds from underperforming programs to more critical programs
- Ensure execution of the budget complies with laws, regulations, and Governmentwide policies, including OMB Circulars
- Provide guidance and establish internal policies and procedures for managing the approved budget in accordance with established plans and authority
Department of Labor (DOL), Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) – Budget Execution Success to Achieve Program Goals
Goals: DOL’s OCFO needed an effective method to establish transparency in the formulation, integration, execution, and reporting of the agency’s $29B annual budget.
Solutions: Empirical supported the OCFO with an end-to-end budget execution process, including analyzing and validating that the appropriate financial resources were in place to support the efficient and timely execution of the agency’s budget. Empirical developed an interactive reporting and visualization dashboard solution to track and report on budget execution at the program level. Empirical’s methodology for risk analysis projections enabled the OCFO to identify potential program overspending via indicators and to proactively reconcile or shift program funding.
Results: Our team’s support allowed for better analysis and predictive analytics necessary for leaders to make informed budgetary decisions, proactively address potential issues, and achieve program goals throughout the fiscal year.
With many Agencies lacking the staff and knowledge of changing financial regulations and data to make informed budget formulation and execution decisions, Empirical can provide the necessary expert guidance, technical skills, and regulatory knowledge to help agencies to be better stewards of their budgets and effectively plan for future requirements.
Department of Homeland Security, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) – Budget Execution Success
Goals: ICE OCFO needed additional support and more accurate data to successfully execute their budget and proactively identify funding gaps.
Solutions: Our team completed data entry cleansing to eliminate invalid balances and inaccurate data in their financial ERP system, as well as reviewed issues with the Statement of Budgetary Resources. The Empirical team analyzed obligation and expenditure activities and provided insight and projected spending trends by program.
Results Empirical enabled the OCFO to identify specific contracts and programs with low execution rates, improving fund usage and the knowledge to reallocate funds to more critical programs. Based on the position paper prepared by Empirical that received concurrence from FASAB, ICE was able to avoid any material weaknesses.
