Being in charge of a government-funded program means paying strict attention to the amounts,
figuring the finances down to the penny, and adhering to various notions of law.
The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program which is aimed at promising drug trafficking and its impacts in the
USA uses effective systems of structural-financial management.
Whereas these systems facilitate the effective operation of the affairs of the programs’ funds without compromising on public money accountability.
The National HIDTA Assistance Center (NHAC) provides staff with essential Financial Management System Training for effective stewardship of HIDTA’s financial assets.
Complex Financial Regulations and Systems
For featured respondents, the primary threats stem from six areas of risk management: program management,
federal grants, internal controls, financial reporting, regional HIDTA offices, and fraud prevention.
The HIDTA program receives its funds through federal grants therefore it must adhere to strict finance policies and procedures.
Some of the key challenges include:
Complex Grant Management: Funding from HIDTA is governed by federal grant guidelines by this it is mandatory to demonstrate high levels of compliance in budgeting, reporting and expenses.
Multiple Funding Streams: Quite frequently, HIDTA programs implement multiple source of funding which means multiple set of requirements for tracking and reporting.
Manual and Disorganized Processes: The problem is that if not well trained, managing finances can be extremely manual, uncoordinated and riddled with a lot of mistakes.
Accountability Pressure: As public money is being used, the pressure on HIDTA managers to be as creditable and accurate as possible is immense knowing that each dollar should reach the desired area.
Such problems put at risk the very effective achievement of HIDTA’s goals and objectives through non-compliance, misused funds or indeed penalties.
The Risk of Poor Financial Management
Supposes you are an employee of a regional HIDTA office which provides tracking and management of multi-faceted funding
but offers little advisement on the systems that support finances.
Lack of proper finance management skills will prompt the team to misuse the available capital sometimes
spending lots of money or else using little money in many areas.
Even petty mistakes accumulate over a period and compiling the financial data accurate becomes almost impossible,
budgeting and even accountability becomes a challenge.
For instance:
Basically, failure to meet SHS objectives may lead to missing some deadlines for grant reports that leads to the non-renewal of funding.
It means that wrong records could keep recording more expenses on particular things and fail to recognize others,
which is not good when it comes to accounting.
There is no training in the management of the financial system, whereby it is hard to know how money is spent or audited.
Inadequate communication between the groups involved in handling of finances and program owners
could even escalate the problems experienced in budgeting and forecasting levels by contributing to frustration in the working process.
These are cumbersome issues that cause time barriers within HIDTA’s work and hinder the fight against drug-trafficking as its mission.