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B-194416 1 (1979-09-14)

handle is hein.gao/gaobactzf0001 and id is 1 raw text is: UNITED STATES GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D.C. 20548 OFFICE OF GENERAL COUNSEL L' -194416 S~ 1 1979 N\\s. I Tita E.. Santini -,/o Department of Agriculture Forest Service 10 illamette National Forest ( Eugene, Oregon 97440 D:ear 7%Js. Santini: this is in response to your letter to our Office appealing a decision rendered by the Director of Fiscal Management for the Pacific North- west Region of the Forest Service. This decision held that you and S. Gayle A. Klever, as accountable officers, were individually liable for the loss of funds resulting from theft from a locked cabinet in the offic the two of you share. It is your contention that the lose was the direct result of management' failure to provide you with the proper training, upervision and equipment necessary to prevent a loss such as; this. Cur O.ffice is not authorized to grant relief to an accountable officer unless the agency concerned requests it and determines that the accorit- able officer was acting in tie scope of his or her employment and that t loss occurred without fault or aegligence on the part of the accountable officer. 31 U.S.C. S 82a-1 (1976). In your particular situation, the Forest Service ha not requested that we grant relief. We therefore are unable to substantively review the Forest ServiceIs determination that you and Am. Klever were liable for the loss of the funds. % e generally hold, however, that an accountable officer is presumed to be negligent where there is an unexplained physical loss of funds, because the accountable officer is considered to be an insurer of the funds. 54 Com p. en. 112 (1974). There are a number to exceptions to this rule, however. For example, if the loss resul-tJed frol<: the agency's failure to provide adequate security, we usually relieve the accountable officer from liability because in such a case, the negligence of the accountable officer, if any, was not the proximate cause of the los ee E-189658, September 2C, 1977 (copy enclosed), in which wxe relieved ar. accountable officer fron Hability for the loss of funds by theft because, lthoug~h there was no evidence of forced entry into bafe which contained, the money, the safe had not been rated for burglary protection and could have been easily opened by manipulating the combination.

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