Real property officers train, collaborate at AFCEC-hosted worldwide symposium

  • Published
  • By Charlotte Singleton
  • AFCEC Installations Directorate
SAN ANTONIO --  More than 250 people got 'FIAR'd UP' recently at the Worldwide FIAR Real Estate Symposium, hosted by the Air Force Civil Engineer Center.

During the event, Air Force real property professionals shared best practices and participated in various training sessions, with an emphasis on financial improvement and audit readiness, better known as FIAR.

"Communication and teamwork are critical to our collective success," said Robert Moriarty, director of AFCEC's Installations Directorate. "This symposium offers an environment to share best practices with fellow real estate professionals and provide direction and feedback to ensure this program's continued improvement."

According to Department of Defense guidance, FIAR provides instructions for implementing a consistent, Department of Defense-wide plan for achieving finance and audit readiness objectives.

The symposium provided an opportunity for real property officers from installations across the globe to gather in one place to collaboratively plan for the fiscal 2017 audit.
The event aimed to help the Air Force develop and implement a more standardized business process for recording Air Force real property assets and, in turn, yield responsible and transparent fund-management.

"The week was filled with individualized instruction and exercises to ensure installations achieve Air Force FIAR goals and objectives," said LaKenya Smith, Air Force real property subject matter expert.

Throughout the symposium, real property officers were given the opportunity to further define their roles and responsibilities while simultaneously polishing their skills through question and answer sessions and team-building curriculum.

The FIAR symposium is significant because it helps the Air Force understand how to define and record real property as the service approaches fiscal 2017 audit readiness, said AFCEC Director Randy Brown.

"Understanding what we have is important to explain to the Air Force what we need to operate and maintain our installations," Brown said. "As we move forward to understand more completely and more accurately what the value of our installations are, that will help us begin to say to the corporate structure, 'Here's the kind of resources we need to operate our installations at a level that provides good service to our customers.'"