Points of Contact

DFAS Columbus was originally established in 1988 as the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Finance Center, to consolidate payment processing that was taking place at 20 sites throughout DLA. In January 1991, it became part of the new Defense Finance and Accounting Service, which was formed to standardize, consolidate and improve payments, accounting and financial functions throughout the Department of Defense (DoD).

DFAS Columbus is the Center of Excellence for Acquisition Accounting (including Contract Pay), the largest customer mission area within DFAS. Acquisition Accounting focuses on supporting the military Services and large buying commands within DoD, such as the Air Force Materiel Command and the Army Materiel Command, where DFAS Columbus both makes the contract payments and performs the related accounting processes.

Jonathan Witter is the director of DFAS Columbus and a member of the federal government's Senior Executive Service (SES).

DFAS Columbus also hosts the key functions currently performed in the Accounting Operations, Travel Pay and Disbursing mission areas that support the Department of Defense. Accounting Operations is comprised of the Accounts Payable (formerly 'contract pay and vendor pay'); Accounts Receivable; Accounts Maintenance, Control and Departmental Reporting; Customer Call Center; and Systems Operations functional areas. Such a single-organization structure creates management oversight of the entire end-to-end process and the opportunity for significant process efficiencies. Major Defense agencies' accounting and related vendor pay work (e.g., the Defense Logistics Agency and the Defense Commissary Agency) are also located at DFAS Columbus.

DFAS Columbus pays more than 338,000 DoD contracts, working with more than 18,500 contractors.

In FY 08, the Accounts Payable function, headquartered in Columbus, made some 10.7 million invoice payments, totaling disbursements of $266.6 billion.

Travel Pay Operations experienced a decrease in mission due to further proliferation of the Defense Travel System (DTS), but nonetheless still processed more than 53,000 temporary duty (TDY) and permanent duty travel (PDT) claims for Army, Defense Agency, Army Materiel Command and Navy (working capital fund and revolving fund activity) customers in excess of $64 million.

DFAS Columbus employs more than 3,000 people, including DoD civilian employees, military reservists, and contractors. Building 21, the current headquarters building of DFAS Columbus, was completed in the spring of 1999, at a cost of $80.7 M. The structure has seven floors and 592,000 square feet of office space, which includes a Conference Center.

Mailing address:

Director
DFAS Columbus
P.O. Box 182317
Columbus, OH 43218-2317

E-mail DFAS Columbus