CPTS No. 1 in travel pay accuracy

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Melanie Holochwost
  • 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  The finance department at Luke Air Force Base was No. 1 in the Air Force with a 98 percent travel pay accuracy rating last month after they adopted a new procedure they learned on the flightline.

Maj. Quy Nguyen, 56th Comptroller Squadron commander, said they achieved these great numbers by learning checklist discipline from crew chiefs and pilots.

"If our maintainers and pilots are the best in the world at what they do and they rely heavily on checklist discipline, why wouldn't we go see how they do their day-to-day operations?" he said. "We called the 56th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron and set up a day for our entire office to observe from cradle to grave how the maintainers do business."

According to 2nd Lt. Christopher Bennett, 56th Comptroller Squadron financial services officer, the Air Force Financial Services Center saw a need to improve document processing and established a 95 percent accuracy standard for all documents this year. This new standard required the finance office to come up with a plan.

"There was no clear standard last year and the finance career field was lacking consistency," he said. "We were the first fully functioning base to have exceeded the standard in the Air, Education and Training Command thanks to our outstanding Airmen in Finance and help from the maintenance and operations groups."

The training day finally came and finance technicians were paired up with crew chiefs to follow and observe all day, Major Nguyen said.

"The technicians observed everything including roll call, checking out equipment, checklists, preparing the aircraft for flight and launching," he said. "They not only learned checklist discipline, but they acquired a greater appreciation of the mission."

Major Nguyen said he also took what he learned from a ride on an F-16 and driving around with an expeditor.

"We try to mirror what we do from a support standpoint to what our operations counterparts do as far as briefings," he said. "I also learned the importance of spot checks from the expeditor which provides an extra set of eyes."