Working Capital Fund – February 2022

February 10, 2022

On Thursday, February 10, the National Academy of Public Administration and Grant Thornton hosted a Working Capital Fund Symposium on Implementing a Working Capital Fund and potential barriers to implementation.

​The quarterly WCF Symposium aims to develop discussions between a relatively new operation and one or more established operations. Agency leaders share their insights to implement and sustain Working Capital Funds.

Recurring Moderators and Presenters:

Holden Hoofnagel, (WCF Chairman) serves as Director of the Office of the Secretary Financial Management, Department of Commerce (DOC). He is responsible for the management of the Office of the Secretary budgetary functions including development and oversight of the budget submissions to the Department, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and Congress.​

Tony Scardino, Managing Principal, Grant Thornton, Tony Scardino is a Managing Principal in Grant Thornton’s Public Sector Advisory practice, where he leads a group of Former Government Executives (FGEs) that leverages the experience and expertise of the firm’s cadre of FGEs to help agencies work across the C-suite to improve mission outcomes, provide excellent service, and effectively steward taxpayer dollars.

The Symposium featured a moderated roundtable discussion with guest speakers including:

• Kevin Derycke, Chief WCF Branch, Environmental Protection Agency, Kevin DeRycke is the Branch Chief of the EPA Working Capital Fund in the Office of the Controller tasked with overseeing the financial management operations of the fund. Kevin has 18 years of experience in government financial management, contract oversight, budget planning and budget execution. The EPA Working Capital Fund provides enterprise-wide shared services to all EPA offices as well as relocation services for other federal agencies. Our team is responsible for managing overall financial operations, developing annual budget & rates, policy oversight, and managing an annual audit conducted by an external CPA firm. Our team also works closely with the WCF Board of Directors and provides briefings to the EPA CFO seeking approval for all new WCF initiatives. Kevin has worked to expand the EPA WCF from two lines of business to the twelve that operate in FY 2022.
  
  
• Devta Ohri, Director of Budget Formulation and Analysis Division, Department of Commerce,

  Mr. Ohri serves as the Director of Budget Formulation and Analysis, Office of the Secretary of Financial Management, Department of Commerce (DOC). He leads the formulation, execution, audit, internal controls, and compliance processes for the Office of the Secretary budgets, which includes DOC’s WCF. He is involved in all aspects of managing a WCF, including submitting and defending the budgets to the Department, OMB, and Congress. Mr. Ohri has been with the Federal Government for 17 years. In this time, he has implemented numerous business process improvements, including improving the cost allocation process related to DOC WCF budgets, for which he earned the Bronze Medal Award.

• Thomas Herndon, Director WCF Division, US Department of Housing and Urban Development,

  Thomas Herndon is the Director of HUD’s Working Capital Fund Division and is responsible for the Fund’s management and day to day operations. Thomas joined HUD in 2016 and has been with the Working Capital Fund since its modern inception. In his time at HUD, he has overseen the development and implementation of the WCF’s operations end to end, including the development of HUD’s Cost Accounting System and the addition of new WCF business lines. Prior to joining HUD, Thomas worked for the Department of Justice in the budget office.

In the first part of the discussion, the panelists shared their experiences from the view of each specific agency. The WCFs of the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Commerce, and Housing and Urban Development Agency were presented by each respective panelist. The presentations included each WCFs founding, current status regarding size, financial situation, and services, and governance structure.

In the second part of the event, the panelists discussed the requirements and barriers to establishing a WCF. This included discussion of the following:

• the identification of customers, products, and analysis of benefits to customers,
• the internal coordination, external approvals, customer engagement, and formal change management process,
• the calculation and obtainments of seed finances and the transfer of appropriated funding to the customer base, and
• the accounting system and personnel changes

Following the roundtable discussion, the Q&A session focused on new lines of customers for these WCFs, best practices, audits, and what each panelist would change to address the issues they face in their WCF.