Transfer of Funds from Treasury Account for Uncurrent Depositary Checks to Disbursing Officers' Accounts

Questions were raised regarding whether it was proper in six cases for the Department of the Treasury to make administrative adjustments to a special Treasury account for the proceeds of cancelled uncurrent checks without a GAO settlement. It was determined that: (1) the transfer of funds constituted claims for the proceeds of stale checks which required settlement by GAO; (2) in one instance, the transfer involved a bookkeeping adjustment to remove the overdraft from the disbursing officer's account, since the check in question was not stale when the entitled payee negotiated it and the bank delayed posting the transaction to the disbursing officer's account; and (3) in the remaining five cases, the transfers involved claims for the proceeds of improperly paid stale checks and, by law, GAO had to determine the payees' entitlement to the proceeds before Treasury could reimburse the disbursing officers for the checks.