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United States Patent and Trademark Office Performance and Accountability Report Fiscal Year 2003 Message From the Director |
Message from the Chief Financial Officer
I am pleased to present the USPTO's Fiscal Year (FY) 2003 Performance and Accountability Report. This is my first report since becoming Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer in February 2003. It was an honor to be selected for this role and I look forward to leading this fine organization. This is our 11th consecutive year of unqualified audit opinions on our financial statements and the seventh year in which our auditors noted no material weaknesses in our control structure. In addition, this past year we received the prestigious Certificate in Excellence in Accountability Reporting from the Association of Government Accountants for our FY 2002 Performance and Accountability Report. This was the first time we applied for the award. It was a tribute to our hard-working staff that we earned it on our initial attempt and that we were the first sub-departmental agency to do so. During the third quarter of FY 2003, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) reviewed the USPTO Information Technology Security Program and reported substantial improvement over the previous year. In FY 2002, none of our critical information systems were certified and accredited (C&A). At that time, OIG recommended declaration of material weakness until the C&A had been completed for all mission critical and classified systems. By contrast, in FY 2003 we accomplished rigorous C&A in accordance with Government standards for all mission critical and classified systems. While the OIG reflected the progress made in its annual FISMA review for the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce), the report recommends that USPTO repeat its FISMA material weakness declaration in FY 2003 until all mission critical and classified systems receive full authority to operate. The corrective action plan for addressing this weakness in FY 2004 is discussed in the management controls section of this report. Before I touch on some of the events that shaped this past year, I would like to reaffirm our organizational goals. These goals center on continued support for the enterprise-wide transformation envisioned in our 21st Century Strategic Plan and include continuing our own emphasis on becoming a world-class financial and administrative operation. Our primary goal is to continue serving our customers with high-quality services. We will support our program offices in meeting their 21st Century Strategic Plan performance commitments by providing them with high-performing recruits; we will support our employees with superior services, including quality systems and effective training programs; we will serve our patent and trademark customers with responsive financial services; and we will ensure our vendors receive timely payment and courteous service. Finally, for everyone impacted by our move to the USPTOs new headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, we will ensure an efficient transition with minimal disruption to normal operations. A corollary to the above goal is to continue producing relevant and reliable information for analysis and decision support. This means continuing our successes in accountability reporting and taking every opportunity to participate in day-to-day decision-making in all program and administrative areas. Our 21st Century Strategic Plan reflects the goals of the President's Management Agenda, especially with regard to e-Gov, integrating budget, performance, and cost data, and the strategic management of human capital. It is our intention to provide the direction, advice, and resources to ensure that the Agenda goals are met. This past year significant progress was made on the construction of our state-of-the-art facility in Alexandria. This complex will allow us to meet the logistical, operational, and security requirements included in our 21st Century Strategic Plan. The first phase of occupancy began in December 2003. At the beginning of the year, we implemented a new core financial accounting and reporting system, Momentum Financials. I am pleased to say that all of our financial and procurement systems are certified and accredited in accordance with designated standards. We also made progress in a variety of other areas, including building more flexibility and security into our on-line transaction processing, creating innovative procurement strategies, and ensuring smooth implementation of recent international trademark standards. As noted in so many Chief Financial Officer messages like this government-wide, past achievements and challenging goals can only be accomplished by the truly dedicated efforts of our workforce. I am privileged to be part of this fine community of individuals and to have the honor of leading them in their continuing efforts. I am also pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to the government-wide effort to accomplish the Presidents Management Agenda, and to restore respect and sound stewardship to government financial and administrative operations. Jo-Anne Barnard |
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