U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Https

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock () or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Report Fraud, Waste, Abuse 

Review of Remote Voucher Processing

ISP-I-14-21
Report Contents
Unclassified
Report File
Category
Inspection
Locations
Domestic
Bureaus/Offices
African Affairs (AF)
Management Policy, Rightsizing, and Innovation, Office of (M/PRI)
Themes/Topics
Human Resources
Recommendation Number
1
Closed Implemented $4,300,000

The Under Secretary for Management should mandate that the 20 embassies with the highest potential cost savings through Post Support Unit use increase the percentage of vouchers they process remotely to 50 percent by the end of 2016 to allow for $4.3 million in savings annually.

Recommendation Number
2
Closed Acceptable Alternative

The Under Secretary for Management, in coordination with the Bureau of African Affairs, the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, and the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, should track and enforce a prohibition on voucher examiner hiring at the 20 embassies with the highest potential cost savings until Post Support Unit use reaches at least 50 percent.

Recommendation Number
3
Closed Acceptable Alternative

The Under Secretary for Management, in coordination with the Bureau of African Affairs, the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, and the Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services, should develop a transition plan for transferring voucher processing at embassies with the highest potential cost savings to the Post Support Unit by 2015 and eliminating voucher examiner positions at the high-cost embassies.

Recommendation Number
4
Closed Acceptable Alternative

The Under Secretary for Management, in coordination with the Bureau of African Affairs, the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, and the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, should require every embassy to submit a financial management section workforce planning document by December 2014, detailing the person hours currently spent on voucher examining and how remote voucher processing would affect the number of voucher examiner positions.

Recommendation Number
5
Closed Implemented

The Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services should determine whether the hard-copy purchase order and invoice requirement is still valid and update relevant sections of the Foreign Affairs Manual and Foreign Affairs Handbook.

Recommendation Number
6
Closed Implemented

The Under Secretary for Management should continue tracking embassies’ voucher processing costs to identify cost-saving opportunities.

Return to top