Oct 12, 2009: Taking a Closer Look at Accomplishments and Goals Moves STO Forward

My commitment to restoring integrity and trust to the State Treasurer’s Office (STO) is based upon eight principles – communication, collaboration, cooperation, proficiency, efficiency, effectiveness, productivity and transparency. As I have previously shared with you, STO has achieved much in two and a half years. Through a hard-working and dedicated staff, STO has implemented valuable suggestions from the state agencies, local government entities, and citizens of New Mexico that we serve. Although STO has accomplished much, I think there is still more to do as 2010 approaches. The following are a few of the projects we are working on related to the three C’s that are the core of STO’s day-to-day activities.

Communication – To ensure continued compliance with internal checks and balances, STO divisions are reviewing and documenting daily processes and key procedures. This will not only enhance internal communication, but will also improve training and cross-training of STO staff. To better communicate with external customers, we want to improve our website and make it more user-friendly. STO is also planning to convene a general conference for Local Government Investment Pool (LGIP) participants to follow up on the LGIP stakeholder meeting STO convened in July. Additionally, STO will continue to reach out to financial institutions and bankers’ organizations for feedback on the Certificate of Deposit and Linked Deposit programs.

Collaboration – Since 2006, STO’s focus has been on the transition to the SHARE system and its impact on STO’s receipt, accounting, and investment of public funds. Through a strong collaborative relationship with other state agencies, the Department of Finance and Administration and the State Board of Finance, STO has made great strides in this transition. STO will continue these collaborations to finalize and implement a cash management forecasting model. This model will provide a new tool to track state revenue flows more accurately and invest state funds more efficiently to meet the state’s cash needs. STO will also continue to collaborate with investing agencies to develop a new policy and clear procedures for overnight-investment accounting, interest calculations, and interest distributions.

Cooperation – STO’s goal is to continue to have cooperation from internal and external customers in its efforts to implement initiatives such as reducing redundancy, reducing paper and taking advantage of automation whenever possible. Cooperation will provide the resources necessary for the proficient, efficient, effective and transparent operation of state government. I think success in communication and collaboration necessarily leads to success in cooperation.

The drive for proficiency, efficiency, effectiveness and transparency at STO will pay off in these tight financial times. Considerable money has already been saved by streamlining business practices, reducing unnecessary or unused support, and eliminating duplication. STO is implementing and considering several other initiatives to improve banking services and investing with the three C’s as the foundation. We look forward to sharing these projects with you in the coming months. In the meantime, I invite you to contact STO at (505) 955-1120 to provide your feedback and to share your suggestions as STO moves forward.
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