[Comments on Loss Due to Foreign Exchange Transactions and Currency Devaluation]

This decision responded to a State Department request, dated September 11, 1991, regarding an apparent loss of 7,073,871 Laotian Royal Kip (U.S.E. $5,892.52) which has been carried on the accounts of the United States Disbursing Officer in the Regional Administrative Management Center in Bangkok for over ten years. The State Department suggested that the loss probably occurred when the Government of Laos issued a new currency, the Lao Kip, replacing the Royal Kip as the country's official currency. The federal official asked that GAO, under authority of 31 U.S.C. 3527, permit the State Department to write off this loss.