�Request for Relief from Financial Liability for Mick Barrus, B-288166, March 11, 2003

B-288166 Mar 11, 2003 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights He was responsible for collecting fees from campground users. The envelope was neither received by the Lockbox staff nor returned to Mr. The personal checks he had enclosed in the envelope and so the Forest Service is unable to reconstruct the collection of personal checks. Our Office is authorized to relieve accountable officers of responsibility for a physical loss of government funds if we concur in the determination by the head of an agency that: (a) the loss occurred while the officer or agent was acting in the discharge of his or her official duties and (b) that there was no fault or negligence on the part of the officer or agent which contributed to the loss. The standard we have applied for determining negligence is what the reasonably prudent and careful person would have done to take care of his or her own property of like description under like circumstances. 54 Comp. View Decision Request for Relief from Financial Liability for Mick Barrus, B-288166, March 11, 2003 Mr. Dale Bosworth Chief, Forest Service U.S. Department of Agriculture Sidney R. Yates Federal Building 201 14th Street, SW Washington, DC 20250 Dear Mr. Bosworth: This responds to a letter from the Director of Financial Policy and Analysis for the Forest Service seeking relief from this Office, pursuant to 31 U.S.C. Sec. 3527(a), for Mr. Mick Barrus, a Forest Service Collection Officer. As explained below, we grant relief in this case. Mr. Barrus works in the Shoshone National Forest in Cody, Wyoming. In July 1999, he was responsible for collecting fees from campground users. On July 21, 1999, Mr. Barrus placed a "Bill for Collection" and some fees that he had collected in a Forest Service business envelope that he sent to Bank of America, the Forest Service's Lockbox, using the U.S. Postal Service. The collections included numerous personal checks written to the Forest Service that amounted to $6,433.00, and a cashier's check for an additional $7,919.58. He included the cashier's check in place of cash collections that he had received. The envelope was neither received by the Lockbox staff nor returned to Mr. Barrus by the Postal Service as undeliverable. In mid-August, when it became clear that the Lockbox staff had not received the collection, the Forest Service placed a tracer on the missing remittance through the U.S. Postal Service. Efforts to trace and recover the envelope and its contents proved fruitless. Mr. Barrus contacted the issuing bank to stop payment on the original cashier's check and replaced it with a new cashier's check. However, he had not kept photocopies of, or otherwise recorded specific information about, the personal checks he had enclosed in the envelope and so the Forest Service is unable to reconstruct the collection of personal checks. Under 31 U.S.C. Sec. 3527(a), our Office is authorized to relieve accountable officers of responsibility for a physical loss of government funds if we concur in the determination by the head of an agency that: (a) the loss occurred while the officer or agent was acting in the discharge of his or her official duties and (b) that there was no fault or negligence on the part of the officer or agent which contributed to the loss. B-241820, Jan. 2, 1991; B-230796, April 8, 1988. Generally, the standard we have applied for determining negligence is what the reasonably prudent and careful person would have done to take care of his or her own property of like description under like circumstances. 54 Comp. Gen. 112, 115-116 (1974). The Forest Service recommends that we relieve Mr. Barrus of his liability for the amount of the personal checks ($6,433.00) since all indications show that the loss of the checks was a result of the deposit envelope being lost in the U.S. mail and the procedures followed by Mr. Barrus at the time were acceptable under Forest Service policy. Letter from Christopher S. Osborne, Director, Financial Reports and Analysis, Forest Service, to Office of the General Counsel, GAO, May 22, 2001. At that time, Forest Service had no requirement that such collections be sent to the Lockbox by certified or registered mail nor did it require that collection officers photocopy or otherwise record information concerning the personal checks included in a remittance. /1/ Accountable officers are required to acquaint themselves and comply with Treasury rules and regulations concerning the proper procedures for handling funds in their custody, as well as the applicable rules and regulations of their own agency. See, e.g., B-229207, July 11, 1988; B-193380, Sept. 25, 1979. In this regard, we note that the Treasury Department's Treasury Financial Manual (T.F.M.) applicable at the time of this loss required that records of deposited checks be kept in sufficient detail to process a stop payment and obtain a duplicate check in the event the check is lost or destroyed.