Homeland Security chief financial officer to step down

The Homeland Security Department's top financial executive announced Tuesday that he will leave this spring.

In a resignation letter to President Bush, Andrew Maner, who took over as the department's chief financial officer in early 2004, said he will step down on March 3. Bush announced that he intends to nominate David Norquist, deputy undersecretary of Defense for budget and appropriations affairs, to replace Maner.

"This decision has been the most difficult in my career, but it is one that is best for my family and for me at this time," Maner wrote in a message to his staff. He added that he had delayed his departure "several times at the request of DHS leadership."

The CFO told his staff that he is not sure where he's headed in March. "The next steps for my family and career aren't clear yet," he said. "For now, I will take a breath and contemplate several terrific opportunities offered to me." Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a statement that he has "worked closely with Andy" and has relied on the financial chief's "steady performance and sound counsel."

But the department has been under pressure to replace Maner with a Senate-confirmed CFO, as required by a financial accountability law enacted in October 2004. The law, initiated by Rep. Todd Platts, R-Pa., chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Management, Finance and Accountability, also requires the department to obtain audit opinions on internal controls--checks and balances designed to detect fraud or mismanagement--starting this fiscal year.

Platts last summer scolded DHS officials for taking too long to find and nominate a Senate-confirmed CFO. In a statement Wednesday, he said his subcommittee "looks forward" to working with Norquist, if he is confirmed, "to ensure that financial management at DHS is the high priority the law intended it to be."

Homeland Security started implementing financial controls required under the 2004 law during Maner's tenure, Platts said. He commended Maner for his work on the "critical task of determining how to streamline and integrate legacy financial systems."

In a list of his accomplishments over his two-year tenure as CFO, Maner noted that he reduced the number of financial service providers in the department from 19 to eight. He also cited his work on eMerge2, a project to integrate financial data across the department so managers have access to timely and reliable information.

That project has been slow to gain momentum. In September 2004, Maner awarded BearingPoint Inc. a blanket purchase agreement worth up to $229 million to work as the prime contractor for eMerge2. But last summer he suspended the company's work to rethink the strategy for integrating systems.

After reaching the conclusion that the project was headed in the wrong direction, Maner decided to let BearingPoint's contract expire on Dec. 22, said Larry Orluskie, a Homeland Security spokesman. The company's solution hinged on moving the department's component agencies to a single financial system--a move determined to be ill-advised since some DHS agencies already had strong systems in place.

Maner decided it would be best to let agencies with such systems continue to use them, Orluskie said. Instead of moving to a single system, the department will look to ensure that existing systems are compatible, and will aim to have a central warehouse of financial data readily accessible to senior leadership, he said.

BearingPoint's work on eMerge2 was not a waste, Orluskie said. The department spent only $6 million of the $229 million possible, he said. And the firm helped Maner get a better handle on the financial systems already in place, he said.

"Faced with many challenges in standing up the Department of Homeland Security, it is truly remarkable that so much has been accomplished under such challenging circumstances in so little time," Maner wrote in his letter to Bush.

Among other accomplishments listed in his message to staff, Maner cited the "financial stabilization" of the Transportation Security Administration and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau. The latter agency has experienced persistent budget shortfalls. He also noted that he helped the Federal Emergency Management Agency "meet the urgent needs of citizens and communities affected by seven major hurricanes, while ensuring taxpayer dollars [were] protected from waste, fraud and abuse."

FEMA's disbursement of disaster relief has, however, come under criticism. A Senate investigation into the agency's disaster relief program for the 2004 hurricane season found "serious shortcomings," such as inappropriate or inconsistent damage designations and reimbursements.