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Payment Processing: Validation of Receipt and Acceptance

AIMD-99-111R Published: Apr 14, 1999. Publicly Released: Apr 14, 1999.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided an interpretation of certain parts of Title 7 of its Policy and Procedures Manual for Guidance of Federal Agencies, focusing on whether it is acceptable: (1) for disbursing officers to authorize payment without reviewing evidence transmitted directly by an authorized employee attesting to the receipt and acceptance of goods and services; (2) for disbursing officers to authorize payment after reviewing the vendor's invoice and vendor maintained delivery data without first reviewing evidence of receipt and acceptance by a government official; and (3) to verify receipt and acceptance after payment authorization based on review of a statistically selected sample of invoices in lieu of conducting prepayment verification. GAO noted that the Department of Defense's (DOD) Inspector General (IG) requested clarification of GAO's guidance because it was reviewing the propriety of the process used to authorize payments for certain fuel purchases.

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Accounting proceduresContractor paymentsFederal agency accounting systemsFuel salesGovernment publicationsInternal controlsSmall purchasesStatistical methodsInspectors generalPayment processing