Afghan Air Force takes the bank

Mr. Dustin Thompson, NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan engility, and Maj. Lee Mawhinney, NATC-A comptroller advisor, work with their Afghan Air Force counterpart Col. Shukoor, AAF comptroller, at Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan. In a major restructure of the Ministry of Defense financial system, an agreement was reached August 3 for the Afghan Air Force to become their own budgetary unit. Budget allocation is planned to start December of 2013 with the AAF growing in financial responsibility each consecutive year until 2017 when NATC-A fully transitions budget responsibility to the AAF. (U.S. Air Force photo/RCAF Sgt. Robert Mellin)

Afghan Air Force takes the bank

Published Aug. 15, 2013
By Sgt. Bob Mellin
438th Air Expeditionary Wing

KABUL, Afghanistan -- In a major restructure of the Ministry of Defense financial system, an agreement was reached August 3 for the Afghan Air Force to become their own budgetary unit.

"It is a huge success for the AAF, it has been eight years in the making," said Maj. Travis Biggar, NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan senior advisor to the AAF Comptroller.

Budget allocation is planned to start December of 2013 with the AAF growing in financial responsibility each consecutive year until 2017 when NATC-A fully transitions budget responsibility to the AAF. This transition could not have been possible without the key roles from Biggar's team: Maj Lee Mawhinney, Mr. Dustin Thompson and many Afghan civilian and military personnel.

"The current system is a centralized system and this marks the decentralization of responsibility for budget and accounting services," said Mawhinney.

The proposed change, which was agreed to by the Afghan Minister of Defense, the Afghan Minister of Finance and the Afghan Minister of Defense-Finance and the senior advisor to MoD on financial affairs will have long reaching results for the soldiers of the AAF.

"Supplies and routine maintenance on facilities tend to be limited to the AAF unless coalition funds these efforts. This agreement will allow the AAF Commander and Comptroller to make purchasing decisions and greatly reduce the delay between request and receiving these items," said Biggar.

One key benefit for AAF members will be pay and travel allowances. As the system stands, members do not receive advances in travel pay, meaning they travel first using personal funds and file a travel voucher upon their return. This can create a huge challenge as the majority of AAF members are paid less than $800 per month.

"It is a big deal to get travel advances and file travel claims locally vice having to wait for MoD to process these claims," said Mawhinney.

Although there are major hurdles that remain, such as: policy, training, transition plans between now and December, including an exact budget amount for the AAF, the agreement is a huge milestone for the AAF.