OCIO Highlights

October 18, 2007 marks a major milestone in the history of the Department of Health and Human Services – the completion of the Unified Financial Management System (UFMS) implementation for HHS.  On that date, the Indian Health Service (IHS) completed the successful implementation and deployment of the UFMS, the final agency of HHS to do so. HHS now has an integrated, financial management system that will consistently produce relevant, reliable and timely financial information to support decision-making and cost-effective business operations at all levels.

The UFMS is part of the Departments’ response to the President’s Management Agenda which calls for a more efficient and effective government. The purpose of this endeavor is to achieve greater economies of scale, eliminate duplication, and provide better service delivery.

The completion of this final release supports over 65,000 HHS employees and is one of the largest federal financial management system implementations of its kind in the world.  What’s more, it has the distinction of being implemented on schedule and within the budget.  It provides sound financial controls for HHS, standardizing processes and consolidating financial operations on a single technical platform.  The new system now satisfies the three categories of financial management systems requirements mandated by the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMIA):  Office of Management and Budget; Federal accounting standards and the United States Standard General Ledger at the transaction level.

The main goals of UFMS:

Benefits include: