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Finance Office

The primary mission of the GBI Finance Office is to provide sound, solid advice and financial management to the Director's Office, the Administrative Division, the Investigative Division, the Division of Forensic Sciences, and the Georgia Crime Information Center . GBI Finance also administers the funds for the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC), attached to the GBI for administrative purposes. The Finance Office is supervised by the agency's fiscal officer/treasurer and consists of three main units: Budget, Accounting and Purchasing. The office is supported by 21 employees and is responsible for all financial transactions involving the agency.

Budget

The Budget Unit is supervised by a budget administrator and consists of four budget analysts. The unit is responsible for the development and management of the GBI budget. Likewise, this unit is responsible for monitoring all expenditures from work units as well as fund sources for the entire agency. Each member of the Budget Unit works directly with division personnel to provide guidance and approval of expenditures for travel and operating costs, including monitoring of all grants. The unit also is responsible for processing all allotments through the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget to the Office of Treasury and Fiscal Services. All amendments to the Annual Operating Budget are developed and processed by the budget staff.

During FY'04, the budget staff managed an overall Annual Operating Budget of $79,152,663 (GBI only, CJCC not included), while creating and developing the FY'04 Amended, Information Technology, and FY'05 budget requests. The effort resulted in an FY'05 state appropriation of $57,311,970 (GBI only, CJCC not included).

Accounting

The Accounting Unit is responsible for all accounting transactions, including the reconciliations of cash accounts, GA Fund I accounts, subsidiary ledgers and the general ledger. The unit also handles all of the accounting transactions for the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC), attached to the GBI for administrative purposes. CJCC accounts for a large portion of GBI revenue, including several federal grants as well as many cash disbursements and sub-grant payments. The Accounting Unit is a lead contact with the State Department of Audits, supervised by the accounting director, and is broken down into three main sections: Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable and Payroll.

The Accounts Receivable Section (AR) consists of three employees and a supervisor. The section is responsible for all revenue received by the GBI. In FY'04 the unit collected and recorded more than $129 million through 52,000 check deposits, and processed electronic fund transfers from several different fund sources, including state funds, governor's emergency funds, federal grants and forfeitures. In conjunction with the Georgia Crime Information Center (GCIC), the section received and recorded more than $1.4 million in revenue collections for instant gun check, criminal history and fingerprint-licensing programs. The section is responsible for transmitting all revenue collections to the state treasury on a monthly basis.

The Accounts Payable Section (AP) consists of three employees and a supervisor. This section is responsible for processing all payments for the GBI and CJCC. In FY'04, the section disbursed approximately 17,437 checks and made more than 1,541 electronic payments for sub-grant payments, travel reimbursements, and invoice payments. In addition to these day-to-day responsibilities, the section is responsible for all 1099 processing and semi-annual prompt pay reports. AP also assists in travel and per diem expense reconciliations. Likewise, AP administers the American Express card travel program and enters payments for charges on our purchasing cards as well as payments for all rental space.

The Payroll Section supervisor is responsible for all GBI payroll matters and this section processes the semi-monthly payroll for all employees of the GBI and the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. During FY'04, payroll effectively processed approximately 2,247 paychecks and 18,175 direct deposits in a timely manner. In addition to the routine payroll operations, payroll also is responsible for financial entries to create deductions for items such as insurance premiums, contributions to the 401K program, payments to the credit unions, and entries for all salary adjustments.

Purchasing

The Purchasing Section of the Finance Office has three employees. The section is responsible for entering all purchase orders for the GBI and CJCC. Last year, purchasing entered approximately 1,259 purchase orders for various items, such as vehicle purchases, large equipment purchases, repairs and maintenance.

Similarly, Purchasing has the primary responsibility of overseeing the Visa Purchasing Card Program (P-Card) and training employees on the use and reconciliation of the cards.

In FY'04, there were 8,433 transactions on the P-Card from more than 550 cardholders. As a result, approximately $1,637,243 in P-Card activity took place.

The Purchasing Section is responsible for coordinating the entire procurement process by ensuring the Finance Office has all appropriate documentation. Purchasing also acts as the print coordinator for the agency and handles all in-house procurements by coordinating the bid process.