�Relief of Accountable Officer Sally V. Slocum - American Embassy,�� Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, B-288284.2, March 7, 2003

B-288284.2 Mar 07, 2003 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Were evacuated to the Embassy in Brazzaville. Was approached by or on behalf of Kinshasa Embassy personnel concerning the possibility of evacuating their household pets to safer locations. She replied that the evacuation of pets was a personal expense and that government resources could not be used. At some point the pets were evacuated to various locations by Agence Air Afrique ("Air Afrique"). Although the record does not reveal who ultimately authorized or arranged for the pet evacuation or how the pet evacuation was intended to be funded. Slocum stated that she learned nothing further about the pet evacuation until seeing subsequent cable communications indicating that various Embassy employees were being billed for the air evacuation of their pets. View Decision Relief of Accountable Officer Sally V. Slocum - American Embassy, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, B-288284.2, March 7, 2003 John P. Markey, Jr. Acting Chairperson Committee of Inquiry into Fiscal Irregularities United States Department of State 1800 N. Kent Street, 5th Floor Arlington, VA 22209-2163 Dear Mr. Markey: This responds to your letter of December 13, 2002, which provides additional information in support of the State Department's June 20, 2001 request that we relieve Ms. Sally V. Slocum, formerly of the American Embassy in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, from liability in the amount of $5,701.43 resulting from her certification of an improper payment. Upon careful consideration of the matter in light of the information set forth in your recent letter, we grant the requested relief. BACKGROUND In the fall of 1991, due to widespread violence resulting from a military mutiny, most staff of the American Embassy in Kinshasa, Republic of the Congo, were evacuated to the Embassy in Brazzaville. At this time, Ms. Slocum, the Administrative Officer for the Brazzaville Embassy, was approached by or on behalf of Kinshasa Embassy personnel concerning the possibility of evacuating their household pets to safer locations. According to Ms. Slocum's account, she replied that the evacuation of pets was a personal expense and that government resources could not be used. Nevertheless, at some point the pets were evacuated to various locations by Agence Air Afrique ("Air Afrique"), although the record does not reveal who ultimately authorized or arranged for the pet evacuation or how the pet evacuation was intended to be funded. Ms. Slocum stated that she learned nothing further about the pet evacuation until seeing subsequent cable communications indicating that various Embassy employees were being billed for the air evacuation of their pets. In June 1993, violence again erupted in the Republic of the Congo, this time requiring the evacuation of Brazzaville Embassy personnel. During this crisis, Air Afrique apparently threatened to cut off its transportation services to the evacuating Brazzaville Embassy personnel unless a payment was made in the amount of $27,634.07 for its services provided in the 1991 Kinshasa Embassy pet evacuation. Ms. Slocum sought advice from the Kinshasa Embassy staff as to how to proceed. On June 9, 1993, Ms. Slocum certified payment of this amount to Air Afrique, relying on the fiscal data provided over the telephone by Kinshasa staff and that Embassy's instructions to proceed with the payment and charge it to Kinshasa's Suspense Deposit Abroad (SDA) account. According to State's June 20 letter, the SDA account is a fund maintained at overseas posts from which payments for personal expenses can be made on behalf of and as directed by the depositors, which include Embassy employees and other authorized individuals and entities. Embassy employees typically deposit money into the fund in order to make payments for telephone, gasoline, or utility bills. However, at the time Ms. Slocum certified the $27,634.07 payment to Air Afrique out of the SDA account, no monies had been deposited into the SDA account for that purpose. /1/ Letter from Michael Rafalko, Acting Chairperson, Committee of Inquiry into Fiscal Irregularities, Department of State, to Gary Kepplinger, Managing Associate General Counsel, GAO, June 20, 2001. In our prior letter to you concerning this matter, we explained that we were unable to either grant or deny relief from liability, as the record submitted with State's initial letter of June 20 was insufficient to support any determination. Letter from Susan A. Poling, Managing Associate General Counsel, GAO, to Ronald L. Miller, Chairperson, Committee of Inquiry into Fiscal Irregularities, Department of State, B-288284, May 29, 2002. The record was unclear as to the nature of the government's responsibility for the SDA funds and what funds were actually used to pay the Air Afrique bill. We could not make a determination regarding Ms.