As the coronavirus continues, Florida Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jimmy Patronis announced the Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS) will operate remotely.
Patronis announced the decision on Thursday.
“As healthcare 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,” Patronis said. “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,” Patronis added.
“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,” he said in conclusion.
In the meantime, DFS has turned on the autopay function in the state’s accounting system to continue payments to state agencies. DFS will also run treasurer operations remotely. The Insurance Complaint Hotline (1-877-693-5236) also remains open.
DFS worked with Bank of America to increase the state’s credit limit from $56 million to $100 million as the state government continues to operate during the current health crisis.
Reach Kevin Derby at kevin.derby@floridadaily.com.
