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B-302789 1 (2005-07-06)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptaraf0001 and id is 1 raw text is: A G A O Comptroller General . Accountability * Integrity * Reliability of the United States United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 Decision Matter of: Coast Guard-Electronic Certification Procedures File: B-302789 Date: July 6, 2005 DIGEST 1. Under the Coast Guard Finance Center's electronic certification system, the same certifying officer who approves the transmission of schedules of vouchers to Treasury for disbursement may also have certified individual vouchers included in the schedule. The government's risk of loss due to error, waste, or wrongful act is not jeopardized by a certifying officer's confirmation of totals on the schedule of vouchers that may include vouchers he or she individually certified. 2. A certifying officer who approves a schedule of payments transmitted to Treasury for disbursement is responsible only for errors made in the processing of the voucher schedule. DECISION The Commanding Officer of the U.S. Coast Guard Finance Center (Center) has requested our decision regarding appropriate separation of duties for the electronic certification procedures used by the Center for certifying and transmitting vouchers to the Department of the Treasury for payment. Letter from Captain Loren P. Tschohl, Commanding Officer, U.S. Coast Guard, Finance Center, to Tom Armstrong, U.S. Government Accountability Office, March 16, 2004 (Tschohl Letter). Currently, the Center transmits a schedule of vouchers to Treasury for payment, and a Center certifying officer confirms the total number of vouchers, and the total amount of these vouchers, listed on the schedule. Occasionally, that certifying officer may also have certified individual vouchers listed in the schedule. We conclude that the Center is not required to separate the function of certifying individual vouchers from the function of confirming the total number of vouchers. As explained below, the former function is a certification function to which pecuniary liability attaches. The latter is simply a check permitting Treasury disbursing officers to disburse without having to examine each voucher-it is evidence that the disbursement amounts