By Theron Larkins
Staff Writer
During the two decades since the former Loring Air Force base became the Loring Commerce Centre, there have been many events that exemplify the commercial hub’s growth and expansion as an industrial and aviation park.
Businesses and entities such as Sitel, Job Corps and Maine Military Authority have made their home at Loring, and have thrived and prospered since doing so. MMA was not the only military entity to make its way back to Loring. Defense Finance and Accounting Services (DFAS) made the decision to come to Loring only two years after its inception in 1995, and since then the agency has established itself as the world’s largest finance and accounting operation, and according to Loring Development Authority President and CEO Carl Flora, the Loring DFAS agency has received numerous citations and is considered a center of excellence and the gold standard for government accounting operations across the country.
In 1991, U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney created the Defense Finance and Accounting Service to reduce the cost of Defense Department finance and accounting operations and to strengthen financial management through consolidation of finance and accounting activities across the department.
In 2003, DFAS was selected by the Office of Personnel Management to be one of four governmental entities to provide payroll services for the U.S. government. In 2004, Nielsen Norman Group named the DFAS portal among the 10 best government intranets in the world. Experts at Nielsen reviewed hundreds of intranets before naming the top 10 which shared traits like good usability and organization, performance metrics and incremental improvements
The Limestone facility is located in the former base hospital, which was constructed in 1980. The agency’s main function is to provide finance and accounting services for the civilian and military members of the DoD.
Mary Saunders, who is the caretaker administrative assistant at LDA remembers back to 1995, when DFAS still hadn’t decided whether or not they would be settling permanently at Loring. She explained that they certainly weren’t the easiest sell.
“At first, DFAS wasn’t sure if they were coming, so we had to make sure to provide them with a great deal of information,” said Saunders. “People have to be shown what Loring has to offer them and why they should be here.”
Saunders explained how the process of getting an agency like DFAS to come to Loring could be challenging, but it’s been apparent that DFAS made the correct decision.
“We would hear that places like DFAS were interested in opening a new location, and back then, it was Brian Hamel who was the president and CEO of LDA at the time, called people at DFAS and told them to come visit, so we could show them what we’ve got to offer,” said Saunders. “At first, they said, ‘well, we’re not that interested,’ and Brian said he basically had to drag them kicking and screaming, but once they got here and witnessed what was here, for instance the hospital, which was practically brand new, and basically they changed their mind pretty fast.”
DFAS pays all military and civilian personnel, retirees and annuitants, as well as major DoD contractors and vendors. DFAS also supports customers outside the DoD in support of electronic government initiatives. These customers include the Executive Office of the President, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
The 2005 round of base realignment and closure cuts had DFAS being completely restructured. Many sites were integrated into major centers. During this time, DFAS made the decision to consolidate 26 offices into only five and DFAS Limestone was one of those five consolidation points.
“There have actually been two chapters of DFAS here at Loring,” said Flora. “There’s the chapter that first came here in 1995 and then there was the chapter that stayed here after the 2005 BRAC proposal from the Department of Defense group eliminated our original DFAS center.”
Flora explained what caused the rearrangement and consolidation in 2005, and why he believes Loring was chosen as one of the few consolidation points.
“At first, the plan was that the finance and accounting functions were dispersed amongst bases all over the place. Then, around 1995, when our center was set up, they were in the process of integrating these consolidated centers, ultimately getting the functions out of the base-level and into the finance centers,” said Flora. “That’s when our finance center came into being, so there were about 26 centers all over the country, who did the accounting and finance work. The idea in 2005 was that they would get rid of these 26 centers and consolidate them into three mega centers in the middle of the country.”
“Most of the other centers around the country simply allowed themselves to close, but we fought it,” Flora added. “We said, this doesn’t make any sense at all. The center here at Loring has been the recipient of numerous citations and awards. According to the chairman of the BRAC Commission at that time, the Limestone center really was the gold standard among DFAS centers.”
Flora explained that DFAS was under the impression that by consolidating these centers they would be saving money, but we proved to them by using their own numbers and figures that the more people they put at Loring the more money they would save,” said Flora. “So, we ended up having sort of a center of excellence at Loring, and we actually increased in size from 300 to 600 employees after that consolidation process was complete.”
Since 1995, and after the brief hiccup 10 years later, DFAS is continuing to thrive at Loring, and will hopefully be an economic presence at Loring for the next 20 years, as well as many years beyond that.
For more Loring stories, please turn to page 12A.
