CFO Patronis: DFS is Bringing Government to Life Remotely
3/19/2020
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, Florida Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis announced the Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS) is operating remotely.
CFO Jimmy Patronis said, “As health care leaders have continued to promote social distancing as a means of protecting health and saving lives, today the Department of Financial Services is bringing government to life remotely. In an effort to protect the health and safety of our employees, we wanted to be proactive in this effort. Should a case of COVID-19 impact DFS staff, there is the real possibility of a building being shut down or an entire bureau acquiring coronavirus, which would be devastating to our employees and the people of Florida.
“By directing all employees to immediately telework, we have the flexibility of operating limited skeleton crews at facilities for our most critical needs. Moreover, we’re establishing feedback mechanisms from rank-and-file staff so we can improve our teleworking processes. With our major facilities still active, we have better protected staff access to DFS infrastructure and have more options to continue services, through today’s action.
“Through these efforts to protect the health and safety of our workforce we will get through these challenging times together and best position DFS to serve our communities.”
To support telework and maintain critical services, DFS has turned on the autopay function in the state’s accounting system, so there is no delay of payments to state agencies, allowing teleworking employees to tackle other critical needs. Moreover, treasurer operations are fully remote, deferred compensation will continue, and dollars that are invested and managed by DFS will continue via modern web-based technology. The Insurance Complaint Hotline (1-877-693-5236) remains open and operational to protect consumers during this historic period.
DFS has also worked with Bank of America to increase Florida’s credit limit from $56 million to $100 million to ensure state agencies can make necessary purchases as quickly and efficiently as possible.
CFO Jimmy Patronis said, “As health care leaders have continued to promote social distancing as a means of protecting health and saving lives, today the Department of Financial Services is bringing government to life remotely. In an effort to protect the health and safety of our employees, we wanted to be proactive in this effort. Should a case of COVID-19 impact DFS staff, there is the real possibility of a building being shut down or an entire bureau acquiring coronavirus, which would be devastating to our employees and the people of Florida.
“By directing all employees to immediately telework, we have the flexibility of operating limited skeleton crews at facilities for our most critical needs. Moreover, we’re establishing feedback mechanisms from rank-and-file staff so we can improve our teleworking processes. With our major facilities still active, we have better protected staff access to DFS infrastructure and have more options to continue services, through today’s action.
“Through these efforts to protect the health and safety of our workforce we will get through these challenging times together and best position DFS to serve our communities.”
To support telework and maintain critical services, DFS has turned on the autopay function in the state’s accounting system, so there is no delay of payments to state agencies, allowing teleworking employees to tackle other critical needs. Moreover, treasurer operations are fully remote, deferred compensation will continue, and dollars that are invested and managed by DFS will continue via modern web-based technology. The Insurance Complaint Hotline (1-877-693-5236) remains open and operational to protect consumers during this historic period.
DFS has also worked with Bank of America to increase Florida’s credit limit from $56 million to $100 million to ensure state agencies can make necessary purchases as quickly and efficiently as possible.