RAFINO

RAFINO Report
ISSUE 20 - Spring 1998
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EXPERIENCES AS A D.O.
By Ron Carlson

(Part 2 of 2)

(Ed: This picks up from page 15 of the previous issue.) ….." In early 1967, the entire 9th Inf. Div. had completed its deployment from Ft. Riley, KS, and the Division Rear was located in an encampment in the vicinity of Long Thang, about 15-20 kilometers east of Long Binh-roughly an hour plus drive north of Saigon.  Initially, monthly money runs were made to Central Finance, temporarily located in Long Binh.  By April, Central Finance was relocated to Cholon, adjacent to Saigon.  As the Division D.O., I was responsible for taking four soldiers plus a driver to Saigon/Cholon once each month to pick up the $3M MPC payroll and operating cash and the Vietnamese Piaster needs for the following month.  MAJ Shugart required that the vault (two of four sandbagged CONEX containers filled with 24 to 30 field safes) be balanced out prior to departing on these money runs, and that all $10 and $5 MPC notes be hand counted prior to returning from Central Finance.  This was done religiously each and every month.  One month, after returning from the typical money run, I put the division's cash payrolls together (106 paper bags) with the assistance of three Disbursing soldiers to serve as hecker/double-checker/bagger, and secured the payrolls.  After completing the distribution of payrolls to the Class A Agent Officers early the next morning, I proceeded as normal to balance my vault.  Much to my astonishment, I found I had a $1,000 overage!  Immediately I went through the vault balancing procedures two more times, ending with the same result.  I reported the situatioin to MAJ Shugart, and suggested that we wait until the Agents completed their turn-ins, or report having found a shortage of $1,000 in the payroll.  He agreed, but only after he personally audited the vault in my presence and arrived at the same conclusion.  Lo and behold, no class A Agent reported any shortage, and all turned-back payrolls were balanced out against the SF 1081s.  To me, the cause for the overage was quite simple; while each $10 and $5 note in each pack was counted and verified to contain 100 bills, someone had overlooked making sure there were ten and only ten packs per bundle.  Ergo, one bundle must have inadvertently contained 11 packs!  I called down to Central Finance to explain the situation and asked the DO if he had found a $1,000 shortage.  His reply was, "We have so many overages and shortages he would have no way of knowing."  In addition, he refused to take the money back.  My DO was very upset to learn he had a discrepancy in his account, and directed MAJ Shugart and our SGM to audit the vault again.  Being informed their results showed the same $1,000 overage, he asked the Division IG to do a cash count/audit-followed again this time by an audit of his own.  Again the same result.  My DO kept the pack of $10 MPC notes in his designated safe within one of the CONEX boxes, after I convinced him that I could not keep it with my other vault cash as long as he insisted on not officially picking the shortage up in the Cash Blotter.  It was not until several months later that the overage was finally reported."