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