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Report | July 10, 2015

Followup Audit: AdditionalActions Needed to EffectivelyProvide Complete Audit Trailsfor Air Force Journal Vouchers

DODIG-2015-145

Objective

Our objective was to determine whether Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) Columbus officials modified the journal vouchers (JV) for the Air Force General Fund Statement of Budgetary Resources as agreed to in Recommendation B.1 of DoD IG Report No. DODIG-2012-027, “Deficiencies in Journal Vouchers That Affected the FY 2009 Air Force General Fund Statement of Budgetary Resources,” December 1, 2011 and whether these actions corrected the identified deficiencies.

Finding

DFAS Columbus officials did not fully implement Recommendation B.1 as agreed in DoD OIG Report No. DODIG-2012-027. Although DFAS Columbus accountants improved the Air Force JV audit trails with a clear description, methodology, and explanation of correcting JVs, they still did not have an adequate JV audit trail. DFAS Columbus accountants did not include the underlying detail, transaction-level supporting documentation or summarize the content and its location for 38 of 50 JVs nonstatistically sampled from Defense Departmental Reporting System, worth $90.2 of $139.6 billion.

This occurred because the DFAS Columbus Standard Operating Procedures, “JV Process,” April 25, 2014, did not require accountants to include transaction-level supporting documentation. As a result, DFAS Columbus accountants continued to issue Air Force JVs that did not comply with the DoD Financial Management Regulation and DoD Financial Reporting Guidance. This increases the risk that the Air Force will not be audit ready by the end of 2017.

Recommendations

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service Columbus officials should:
  • update local guidance to require that accountants include all of the underlying detail, transaction‑level documentation with the JV or summarize the content and provide the location of the supporting documentation in the JV as required by the DoD Financial Management Regulation and DoD Financial Reporting Guidance.
  • continue to coordinate with Air Force officials to obtain all supporting documentation for their JVs in accordance with the DoD Financial Management Regulation and DoD Financial Reporting Guidance.

Management Comments and Our Response

Comments from DFAS Columbus addressed all specifics of the recommendations, and no further comments are required.