MOTOR VECHICLE INVENTORIES

UNCLAS STATE 061456 SIPDIS FOR COMS AND DCMS FROM UNDER SECRETARY FOR M PAT KENNEDY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ATRN AMGT AFIN KSEP SUBJECT: MOTOR VECHICLE INVENTORIES REF: A) 2008 STATE 118457 ¶1. SUMMARY. This is an action telegram. As part of your preparations for your August 2009 annual Chief of Mission Statement of Assurance regarding management controls at your post, Chiefs of Mission and senior post management officers are asked to review motor vehicle inventories for accuracy, and to take steps to ensure that such inventories are updated within three working days of any inventory-related event in order to maintain them current. END SUMMARY. ¶2. Last November, I wrote to you about the need to update your motor vehicle inventory records and to ensure that all vehicles physically present at your post are accurately recorded in the ILMS inventory of motor vehicles. I am pleased to recognize that nearly all posts certified their inventories this year by the March 15th deadline, and that within weeks after the deadline, all posts worldwide had complied with this requirement. I know that many posts expended considerable effort to ensure that their inventories were accurate. ¶3. I am writing today to urge you to continue to accord high priority to ensuring that those inventories remain accurate going into the future. The ILMS inventories are audited quarterly, and the status of vehicle entries is monitored by both RM and MV. The accuracy of vehicle inventories is also a consideration in your annual Chief of Mission Statement of Assurance regarding management controls at your post, submitted in support of the Secretary?s own statement in compliance with the Federal Managers Financial Integrity Act. The accuracy of those statements is of special interest to me, the OIG, and our external auditor. ¶4. Maintaining accurate motor vehicle inventories requires entering all events affecting those inventories (procurement, receipt, putting into service and disposal) within three working days of the time they occur. It also requires ensuring that all, repeat all, State-managed motor vehicles at post, regardless of origin, be entered into inventory. At this point, there should be no ?ghost? or ?grey? vehicles in your fleets. I ask you to again review your fleet inventory records to make sure that any vehicles not previously entered are entered into inventory now. ¶5. As part of monitoring the inventory, RM regularly flags records of vehicles entered into the inventory late. Late recording of vehicles will impact the accuracy of the Department?s inventory of capitalized assets which in turn affects the accuracy of our financial statements. I was concerned to note that during the first and second quarters of this fiscal year, the number of such records flagged by RM increased over the previous year. The best possible explanation, which I hope is correct, is that the increase reflects post efforts to enter into inventory vehicles which had been left out, and that the next quarter - being the first quarter after all posts certified their inventories ? will show a decrease in such records. ¶6. In my last ALDAC on this issue I noted that failure to comply with these requirements carried consequences, including delayed vehicle replacements, declined offshore procurement authorization requests and withholding of Regional Bureau annual program equipment allocations in amounts equal to the value of the vehicles involved. I hope you share my desire to create a management environment in which such consequences will not be necessary. ¶7. Any questions regarding your inventory requirements should be directed to A/LM/OPS/SL/MV, by email to motorvehicleprogram@state.gov. This email address can be used to contact all MV staff. MV Branch Chief Daniel M. Hirsch can be reached by phone at 703-875-6108 (cell phone - 1-571-214- 0307)or by email at Hirschdm@state.gov. ¶8. Minimized considered. CLINTON