[Letter]

B-271608 Jun 21, 1996 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights We have no basis to question the department's findings concerning the officer's good faith and exercise of reasonable care. Government agencies are authorized to charge current operating appropriations with amounts necessary to restore deficiencies in accounts resulting from the fault or negligence of accountable officers when the head of the agency determines that the loss cannot be recovered from the accountable officer or any other party liable for the loss. 883.21 resulting from improper payments that appear to have been made between August 1993 and May 1994 at the U.S. Sessions was the disbursing officer accountable for these funds when the improper payments were made. Milano is the disbursing officer currently responsible for this account. View Decision B-271608 June 21, 1996 Where a military department fully investigates the facts surrounding an improper payment and court-martials the disbursing officer for the actions related to the improper payments, we have no basis to question the department's findings concerning the officer's good faith and exercise of reasonable care. Under 31 U.S.C. Sec. 3530, government agencies are authorized to charge current operating appropriations with amounts necessary to restore deficiencies in accounts resulting from the fault or negligence of accountable officers when the head of the agency determines that the loss cannot be recovered from the accountable officer or any other party liable for the loss. David J. Bechtol Director for Field Support Defense Finance and Accounting Service Cleveland Center 1240 East Ninth Street Cleveland, Ohio 44199-2056 Dear Mr. Bechtol: This responds to your letter of March 20, 1996, concerning liability for $214,883.21 resulting from improper payments that appear to have been made between August 1993 and May 1994 at the U.S. Navy Personnel Support Activity Detachment (Detachment), Sigonella, Italy. Your letter characterizes the improper payments as (1) seventeen cases of dishonored checks, totalling $3,251.45, cashed by former Navy personnel, and (2) dishonored Italian lire checks, totalling $211,631.76, cashed by foreign nationals. Former Lt. Paul E. Sessions was the disbursing officer accountable for these funds when the improper payments were made. LTJG V.F. Milano is the disbursing officer currently responsible for this account; the amount of these improper payments is currently recorded as a deficiency in the account. You request that we deny relief from liability to former Lieutenant Sessions, grant relief to LTJG Milano, and remove the $214,883.21 deficiency from the account. As explained below, we fully agree with your characterizations of the loss and of former Lieutenant Sessions' actions, and accordingly, deny relief to him. LTJG Milano is not an accountable officer with respect to the improper payments, and relief is therefore unnecessary. Moreover, under these circumstances, the Secretary of Defense is authorized under 31 U.S.C. Sec. 3530 to make the necessary adjustments to this account to remove the deficiency. We first address former Lieutenant Sessions' liability. At the time the dishonored checks were cashed by the Detachment's disbursing office, Lieutenant Sessions was the disbursing officer authorized to make payments from the Detachment's account, and in whose name the account was held. In response to questions raised about disbursing management at the Detachment, an Inventory Board was set up by the Personnel Support Activity, Europe, to perform a cash count during an unannounced audit of all items in the possession of Lieutenant Sessions. The Inventory Board issued a cash verification report finding an indefinite number of dishonored checks. [1] You state in your letter that "[a]s a result of [the dishonored checks] and other major discrepancies in his accountability, Lieutenant Sessions was relieved for cause on June 3, 1994." On January 12, 1995, he was found guilty at a General Court Martial of four specifications of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Article 92, three specifications of dereliction of duty, and one specification of an orders violation. As the account's cognizant disbursing officer at the time the dishonored checks were cashed, Lieutenant Sessions is personally liable for the dishonored checks as improper payments from his account. B-261312, Feb. 5, 1995; B-161457, Oct. 30, 1969. This Office has authority under 31 U.S.C. Sec. 3527 to relieve a disbursing officer from liability for improper payments if we determine that the payments were not the result of bad faith or a lack of reasonable care. B-261312, Feb. 2, 1995; B-246418, Feb. 3, 1992.