Audit readiness: USAFE-AFAFRICA builds accountability from books to flightline
The effort reaches far beyond financial spreadsheets. From aircraft and spare engines to facilities and equipment, auditability requires the Air Force to demonstrate that its records accurately reflect what exists across its installations, where those assets are located and who is accountable for them.
“In the simplest terms, think of how a bank evaluates a business before granting a loan,” said Taylor E. Jurado, Air Force Audit Agency auditor and USAFE-AFAFRICA Financial Improvement and Audit Remediation liaison. “If a company claims it is worth $100, composed of $50 in cash and $50 in specialized equipment, the bank will not just take their word for it. They require independent verification to confirm that the cash exists, the equipment is where it belongs, and its value is accurately documented.”
For the Department of the Air Force, that verification happens through independent auditing of financial and operational records. According to Jurado, auditability means those records must be complete, accurate and transparent enough for an independent auditor to verify that assets ranging from aircraft and munitions to real property and equipment are properly accounted for and tracked.
The immediate objective is establishing a validated starting point by the beginning of fiscal year 2027.
“The auditable baseline is our foundational starting point,” Jurado said. “In accounting and auditing, you cannot accurately track changes during the year if you do not know where you stood on day one.”
By Oct. 1, 2026, the Air Force aims to establish that starting balance for assets across the force. From there, additions, transfers, disposals and other changes can be tracked against a verified baseline throughout the fiscal year.
For USAFE-AFAFRICA wings, that means conducting installation-wide physical inventories and reconciling what is recorded in accountable property systems with what actually exists on the ground.
The process is often described as “Book-to-Floor” and “Floor-to-Book.” Book-to-Floor begins with an asset listed in a system and requires the unit to physically locate it. Floor-to-Book starts with an asset found in a facility, warehouse or on a flightline and requires the unit to trace it back to an official record.
At RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom, Airmen recently saw that process firsthand.
In July, independent public auditors visited RAF Mildenhall to test the existence and completeness of assets belonging to the 100th Air Refueling Wing and 352nd Special Operations Wing. The visit focused on assigned aircraft and spare engine inventories.
Airmen pulled current inventory records before accompanying auditors into hangars, warehouses and onto the flightline.
“We moved to the CV-22 hangar and physically counted their spare engines,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Eli A. Armstrong, 100th Comptroller Squadron commander. “We validated that the serial numbers on paper matched the manufacturer plate on the actual engine.”
The teams repeated the process with MC-130 and KC-135 spare engines before comparing aircraft accountability reports against aircraft physically present on the flightline. When aircraft were away from the installation, units documented their location and verified they remained in Department of the Air Force possession.
The visit demonstrated that an audit involves far more than comptrollers.
Financial managers helped coordinate the inspection, but maintainers, logisticians, equipment custodians, commanders and other organizations were responsible for producing and verifying the assets and documentation auditors requested.
“Financial Managers own accounting – commanders own accountability,” Armstrong said, citing Department of the Air Force senior leader guidance. “Comptrollers are the force multipliers that make it happen.”
That shared responsibility becomes increasingly important as wings work through thousands of assets spread across offices, hangars, warehouses, geographically separated units and tenant organizations.
According to Jurado, every squadron and tenant organization has a role in systematically examining its physical footprint. When equipment is discovered, someone must be able to establish who owns it and where it is officially recorded.
“Every asset physically present on the installation must be accounted for on someone’s accountable system of record,” Jurado said.
The work can be particularly challenging at joint and multi-mission installations such as RAF Mildenhall and Ramstein Air Base, where host wings operate alongside tenant organizations, other major commands, sister services and partner nations.
Yet accurate accountability is about more than satisfying an auditor.
For commanders, reliable inventory information provides a clearer picture of the resources available to execute the mission. If a system shows mission-critical parts are available when the warehouse is actually empty, operational decisions are being made using inaccurate information.
“The average Airman should care because auditability directly drives everyday mission capability, safety and combat readiness,” Jurado said.
Accurate records also demonstrate stewardship of taxpayer resources.
“Each asset was bought with taxpayer dollars and holds value,” Armstrong said. “It needs to be accurate to show the American public we take stewardship of their dollar seriously.”
Establishing the baseline requires additional effort now. Squadrons must physically inventory property, reconcile discrepancies and ensure accountable assets are entered into the appropriate systems of record. Armstrong acknowledged that the process creates an additional workload for units already supporting operational missions but said that burden should decrease once the baseline is established.
“If we are accurately and timely recording our assets, their movements, and their condition in our systems of record, the time commitment should be minimal,” Armstrong said.
The goal is not simply to prepare for a single inspection. Once the baseline is established, fiscal year 2027 becomes a year of demonstrating that accountability can be sustained through normal operations.
Jurado described Financial Improvement and Audit Remediation as an “operational lifestyle,” where accurate property accountability and sound internal controls become part of everyday mission execution rather than something units surge to accomplish before auditors arrive.
That culture begins at the unit level.
“The biggest lesson other wings could use is to get involved,” Armstrong said. “Build your team of experts. Get FM and IG at the table to support better processes, communication and increase your effectiveness.”
Airmen should focus on simple, core actions: follow standard procedures, maintain accurate records, track equipment movements, verify assigned assets, and promptly report any control weaknesses or unrecorded property.
“We all have a part to play,” Armstrong said. “The American public is counting on us.”
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