TITLE:  Request by American embassy cashier for relief of liability
BNUMBER: B-288014
DATE:  May 17, 2002
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Request by American embassy cashier for relief of liability, B-288014, May
17, 2002

B-288014


May 17, 2002

Request by American embassy cashier for relief of liability
Mr. Ronald L. Miller
Chairperson
Committee of Inquiry into Fiscal Irregularities
United States Department of State
1800 N. Kent Street, 5th Floor
Arlington, VA 22209-2163

Dear Mr. Miller:

This letter is in response to your request that we relieve Ms. Sanja
Pavlovic, Class B Cashier, in the American Embassy in Belgrade, Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia, from liability resulting from advances of $30,493.98
she made and for which she has lost accountability.  For the following
reasons, we grant relief.

In March 1997, Ms. Pavlovic was hired as a Class B Cashier at the American
Embassy in Belgrade. A Class B Cashier who is designated to control a
petty-cash or fixed-cash fund in currency, coin or Government check is
personally accountable for the entire amount of the advance.   Funds are
defined to include cash, uncashed government checks, sales slips, invoices
or other receipts for cash payment, unpaid reimbursement vouchers, or
interim receipts for cash entrusted to other individuals for specific
purposes.  Part 4, Chapter 3000, section 3040.80, Treasury Fiscal
Requirements Manual for Guidance of Departments and Agencies, October 1997.

At the time in question, March 1999, Yugoslavia's economy relied largely on
cash to function.  As a result, one of Ms. Pavlovic's responsibilities was
to advance funds to employees who needed to make small purchases.  She
required the recipient of those funds to sign a receipt for the money
received.  Ms. Pavlovic would destroy the receipt once the employees showed
her an invoice documenting that the desired purchase had been made.  All the
advances were entered into the automated cashier system (ACS), which was
installed on a stand-alone computer.  At the end of each day's closing, the
cashier performed a backup routine to copy files to a disk.

According to the record, Ms. Pavlovic maintained the unreconciled receipts
for these advances in a safe at the embassy.  These documents remained in
the locked safe until recipients of advances provided purchase invoices to
Ms. Pavlovic.  When the embassy was ransacked in March 1999, the safe was
broken into and the documents destroyed or removed by unauthorized and
unknown individuals.  After the conflict, Ms. Pavlovic was able to recreate
the list of individuals to whom she made the advances from records she
maintained on diskettes outside the embassy.  The records were the result of
daily account reconciliations she conducted that included the names and
locations of each individual to whom she provided an advance.  Despite her
best efforts, Ms. Pavlovic was only able to successfully clear approximately
50% of the outstanding advances which occurred just before the hostilities
began.  The remaining advances, which amounted to $30,493.98, had been made
to individuals whom she was unable to locate after the military conflict.

Under 31 U.S.C. ï¿½ 3527(a) (1988), the GAO has the statutory authority to
relieve accountable officers from liability when we concur with the agency's
determination that the loss of funds occurred during the discharge of
official duties and was not the result of bad faith or lack of reasonable
care by the officer.  B-243685, July 1, 1991.
Any time a physical loss of funds occurs there arises a rebuttable
presumption of negligence on the part of an accountable officer.  B-241820,
Jan. 2, 1991.

In this instance, Department of State officials are confident that most or
all of the advances were used for the purposes for which they were given,
but hostilities prevented Ms. Pavlovic from actually accounting for many of
them through her usual reconciliation procedures.  In this case, the loss
was not of cash, but of cash equivalent as defined by Treasury rules, such
as an interim receipt for cash entrusted to another individual.   The
Department of State has made the requisite administrative determination that
the loss of these cash equivalent records occurred through no fault or
negligence on the part of Ms. Pavlovic.  Evidence in the record shows that
Ms. Pavlovic followed all reasonable requirements to maintain accountability
for the advances and to clear them from her records. Ms. Pavlovic was not
responsible for the destruction of the records, nor was she negligent in
leaving them in the locked safe prior to the ransacking of the embassy.  She
took every reasonable step to clear the advances after the hostilities
subsided.  We agree with your administrative conclusion that the loss was
not attributable to Ms. Pavlovic.

In cases where premises were burglarized and funds stolen through no fault
of the cashier, we have granted relief.  B-241820, Jan. 2 1991; B-244723,
Oct. 29, 1991.  Accordingly, we grant relief to Ms. Pavlovic in the amount
of $30,493.98.  The loss may be charged to the proper appropriation in
accordance with 31 U.S.C. ï¿½ 3527.

Mr. Thomas Armstrong, who has been assigned to work on this case, would be
happy to answer any questions and can be reached at 202-512-8257.


Sincerely yours,



Susan A. Poling
Managing Associate General Counsel