REQUEST FOR FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT TRAINING TEAM

UNCLAS NDJAMENA 000056 DEPT FOR AF/EX (Sylvia Martinez) and AF/C SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AFIN AMGT SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT TRAINING TEAM ¶1. SUMMARY: Embassy N'Djamena requests a Training Team (FSN Corps) to assist employees of the Financial Management Office (FMO) to become familiar with the current Department approved methods and standards for accounting, vouchering, and cash management. Embassy estimates the time required for the essential in-country training will be 3-4 weeks, and the number of trainers will number 4-5. During the course of staff training, Post requests that the Team assess the strengths and weaknesses of N'Djamena's financial operations, and that the Team's final report provide specific and concrete remedial recommendations. END SUMMARY. ¶2. Embassy N'Djamena, following recommendations contained in the 2008 OIG report, requests that the Department facilitate the dispatch of a Financial Management Team to assist it in regularizing the operations of the Financial Management Office and to train the personnel currently engaged in those operations. ¶3. The requested Training Team should be prepared to offer the following training modules: Voucher Examining II Advanced Cashier Training ¶4. The Embassy envisions two components of the training program. One will involve formal classroom instruction. The other entails one-on-one work desk audit work with individual employees. Embassy management believes to be effective and comprehensive the training offered by the Team will require at least three full weeks, and more realistically should be predicated on the basis of four full workweeks. The total number of LES personnel to be trained is five (5). Ideally several members of the Training Team will remain in N'Djamena for a more extended period to assist newly trained employees to implement the newly acquired knowledge and put into place the suggested systems of operation. Also ideally, some members of the team should be fluent not only in English but also in French. ¶5. N'Djamena welcomes Washington's willingness to assist it in upgrading and regularizing its financial management operations and looks forward to the early arrival of a Training Team. Post also looks forward to the Team's assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current operations and to its concrete and specific suggestions for improvement. Post believes that in-depth training of its FMO personnel is the single most important element in achieving the goal of full transparency and accountability. ¶6. FYI: The US Director Hire FMO is currently on R&R. He returns to Post March 4. Post has discussed the Training Team with him nd he fully supports its dispatch. Post suggeststhat while the Training Team could begin its wor prior to his return, a substantial portion of te Team's in-country presence should be while theFMO is also in-country. It would be unfortunate fr a Training Team to arrive in country during The FMO's absence and depart before his return. END FYI. NIGRO