Report highlights DST’s strengths, deficiencies, initiatives
DOVER — State Treasurer Chip Flowers today issued his first Report on the Delaware State Treasury, an eight-page document that outlines the strengths and deficiencies of the office he took over in January as well as accomplishments during his first month in office and plans for the future.
“This report will help residents of the state understand what the Delaware State Treasury does, and how it will change so we better confront not only today’s economic challenges, but also the complexities of the 21st-century global economy,” Flowers said.
“In this new era, the old rules and ways of viewing the role of our state government, in particular the Delaware State Treasury, will paralyze our ability to succeed,” Flowers wrote in the report. “We must not fear new ideas and change; rather, we must embrace these concepts with openness and caution.”
Flowers issued the report at the budget hearing for his office conducted by the General Assembly’s Joint Finance Committee.
In the report, Flowers identified four key strengths of his office, which he refers to as the “People’s Treasury.” Those strengths are: a strong team of 23 employees; engaging in sound financial practices; delivering high-quality customer service to state agencies, vendors and the public; and sponsoring financial education initiatives for state employees and Delaware residents.
Among the deficiencies noted in the report were: reconciliation issues within a new statewide accounting system; insufficient technology and equipment for the office; insufficient personnel due to budget reductions in recent years; insufficient use of financial assets to promote financial growth and a shortage of substantive relationships with Delaware businesses and external financial and economic agencies.
The report pointed out that Flowers has already remedied two deficiencies by redefining the mission of the Treasury and creating a new organizational structure.
The Treasury’s new mission, the report stated, “is to restore economic prosperity to the First State by providing critical financial services for the People of Delaware.” The new organizational structure establishes four distinct offices within the Treasury: Executive, Finance and Treasury Services, Disbursements and Reconciliations and Economic Policy.
Flowers identified 13 initiatives for the Treasury and labeled five of them as completed, including the redefined mission and the new organizational structure.
Other initiatives completed during the first month of his term were: creation of the Office of Economic Policy, creation of the Office of Finance and Treasury Services and implementing the Delaware Economic Index and Delaware Early Warning System. The first Economic Index was issued on Feb. 3; the index will be updated six times a year.
Initiatives Flowers plans to implement include:
• Officially renaming the Office of State Treasurer as the Delaware State Treasury;
• Implementing a small business investment program to spur economic growth and job creation;
• Creating an economic targeted investment program to invest state funds in safe financial instruments that underlie Delaware projects;
• Using technology to modernize Treasury operations;
• Developing a new marketing outreach program focused on savings, investments and entrepreneurship;
• Strengthening efforts to reduce the number of checks issued by the state; and
• Establishing and improving relationships with federal agencies.
The full text of the First Report on the Delaware State Treasury is available on the Delaware State Treasury website at treasurer.delaware.gov.
