[Claim for Loss of Mutilated Currency]

The Financial Management Service (FMS) requested an advance decision regarding a bank's claim for the payment of the value of lost mutilated currency it mailed to FMS. GAO held that the covering of a loss of private funds entrusted to the government is a necessary expense of operating the FMS mailroom, and the mailroom's loss of the mutilated currency should be charged to its appropriation account. Accordingly, the claim was allowed.