Exam CLG 001_ Fiscal Law Exam 2023/2024 version 2_ updated and answered GRADED A LATEST VERSION

1. Which of the following is a correct statement of Fiscal Law Philosophy: If the law is silent as to whether a purchase can be made, it is probably safe to spend appropriated funds. Expenditure of appropriated funds is proper only when authorized by Congress. If the commander says buy it, don’t worry about Fiscal Law Regulations. Absent a specific prohibition, expending appropriated funds is permitted. QUESTION 2 20 points 1. It is July 2010. The contracting officer at Fort Mason is about to award a contract for a computer system that the Post Engineer will use to track work orders and inventory. This $15,000 computer system is readily available within a few days from any of several local vendors. The Post Engineer intends to place the system in a warehouse for which construction will begin in December 2010. The contract cites FY 2010, Operations and Maintenance, Army (OMA) funds. What should you advise the contracting officer? The contracting officer may award the contract citing FY 2010 OMA funds. Obligating funds in July 2010 will not violate the Antideficiency Act. The Post Engineer, however, may not pay for the system until the warehouse is completed. Because the Post Engineer will use the system to perform installation operations, and because the "lead time" exception clearly permits use of FY 2010 funds for the system, the contract award is proper. The contracting officer should not award this contract. To do so would violate the bona fide needs rule. Award now is proper if the installation later obtains Procurement funds to replace the funds obligated for the computer system. None of the above. QUESTION 3 20 points 1. If a particular expenditure is not provided for by Congress, in order to meet the requirements of the Purpose Statute, 31 U.S.C. § 1301, the expenditure must be necessary and incident to the proper execution of the general purpose of the appropriation. The GAO has created a three- part test to determine whether an expenditure is a “necessary expense” of an appropriation. Which of the following IS NOT part of the three-part purpose test? The expenditure must be necessary and incident to the purposes of the appropriation. The expenditure must not be prohibited by law. The comptroller must certify the funds. The expenditure must not be otherwise provided for. QUESTION 4 20 points 1. It is 14 September 2010 and Fort TJAGLCS still has $4000 in FY 2010 Operations and Maintenance, Army appropriations that it "needs" to spend. MAJ I.M. Themann, the Supply Officer at TJAGLCS, has a brilliant idea. At a recent union meeting, several employees complained about the taste of the cold brown water coming out of several water fountains. The cold brown water, however, is not unhealthy, unsafe, unpotable, or unwholesome. MAJ Themann decides Fort TJAGLCS should get water coolers to use as substitutes for the water fountains. By calling local vendors, he determines $3600 is enough money to pay for one year of water delivery service (five water coolers and ten 5- gallon containers of water for each of those water coolers each month). MAJ Themann has stopped by your office to determine how to execute this brilliant idea and whether he has the right money to use. He wants the bottled water delivery services to commence tomorrow, 15 September 2010, and to last through 14 September 2011. What do you tell him? Use of FY 2010 Operations and Maintenance, Army appropriations is proper, under 10 U.S.C. §2410a, to buy this bottled water delivery service. Use of the FY 2010 Operations and Maintenance, Army appropriations is only proper to cover the time period running 15 September 2010 to 30 September 2010. Fort TJAGLCS must fund the period running from 1 October 2010 to 14 September 2011 with FY 2011 Operations and Maintenance, Army Appropriations. Since most of the contract period is FY 2011, this is clearly a bona fide need of FY 2011, so Fort TJAGLCS must use FY 2011 Operations and Maintenance, Army Appropriations to fund the entire contractual period. Fort TJAGLCS may not use appropriated funds of any kind to fund the purchase of the water or the coolers, under these facts. 20 points QUESTION 5 1. The fiscal year for the U.S. Government is a 12-month period from: 1 July through 30 June. 1 October through 30 September. 1 September through 30 August. 1 January through 31 December QUESTION 1 1. The Director of Research and Development (DRD) at the Orange Sands Missile Range comes to your office late on a Friday afternoon. He just learned that his office used an RDT&E appropriation to fund the purchase of a Lifterrator, a hydraulic lift system capable of lifting extremely heavy objects. Since the Lifterrator is a capital item costing more than the investment/expense threshold, however, its purchase should have been funded with a Procurement appropriation. The DRD wants to know what is necessary to avoid an Antideficiency Act violation for violating 31 U.S.C. § 1301(a) (the Purpose Statute). Please select the best answer. Proper funds must have been available at the time of the erroneous obligation. Proper funds must have been available when the agency discovered, and corrected the erroneous obligation. Proper funds must have been available continuously between the time of the erroneous obligation and correction of the purpose violation. The agency must show that (A) & (B). None of the above. You can never correct a purpose violation. 20 points QUESTION 2 1. Assume that on 15 September 2010, there is a national emergency requiring the assistance of DOD. As a result, the Secretary of Defense deems it necessary to obligate FY 2010 funds in excess of their availability. Under these circumstances, which of the following is true? If Congress passes the FY 2011 Authorization Act in FY 2010, the Army could obligate and expend FY 2010 Operation and Maintenance, Army funds for ammunition and other operational needs. The Antideficiency Act only prohibits the Army from incurring obligations "in excess of" an appropriation. For certain subsistence items in emergency circumstances, the Feed and Forage Act (41 U.S.C. § 11) provides a limited exception to the prohibition against obligating "in excess of" the amount available in an appropriation. The Army could accept any/all voluntary services before the FY 2011 appropriation was enacted because the government doesn't pay for such services. QUESTION 3 20 points 1. On 30 September 2012 the maintenance service contract with Keepin' It Clean at Fort Meade Garrison is scheduled to expire with no more options to extend. The contracting officer at Fort Meade would like to award a new contract on the day the current contract ends, but is not sure if he will have the FY 2013 appropriations in time. Can the contracting officer award Keepin' It Clean a new contract on 1 October 2012? No, the contracting officer may not award a contract in excess of an appropriation and there is no money available in the current appropriation. Yes, the contracting officer may seek an exception under the Feed and Forage Act to contract in excess of an appropriation. Yes, the contracting officer may seek an exception under Multiple Award Contracting because multi-year contract authority permits an agency to award contracts for terms in excess of one year obligating one-year funds. Yes, the contracting officer may award the contract "subject to the availability of funds," but the government may not accept supplies or services until the contracting officer has given written notice to the contractor that funds are available. QUESTION 4 20 points 1. On 30 September 2010, $275,000 remains in the Operations and Maintenance, Army (OMA) allowance at the XVIII Airborne Corps. On that day, the contracting officer is about to award a supply contract, obligating $300,000 OMA. Award of the supply contract: Will cause an Antideficiency Act (ADA) violation because the contract price exceeds the amount of OMA available at the XVIII Airborne Corps. Will cause an ADA violation unless the contracting officer shows that she neither knew nor should have known that the XVIII Airborne Corps had only $275,000 in the OMA account. Will cause an ADA violation if the XVIII Airborne Corps’s major command, FORSCOM, lacks sufficient OMA funds in its formal subdivision to cover the overobligation. Will not cause an ADA violation if Congress enacts either a Continuing Resolution Authority (CRA) or a permanent appropriation before the vendor seeks payment for the supplies. Will not cause an ADA violation because the OMA account at the XVIII Airborne Corps was a target/allowance and an obligation in excess of a target/allowance can never result in an ADA violation. 20 points QUESTION 5 1. It is appropriate for the Army to acquire lawn cutting services through the Project Order Statute. True False 1. On 1 September 2011 the command at New Sands Missile Range purchases an x-ray machine for the installation hospital, which arrives and is accepted on 15 September 2011. The x-ray machine is not needed until August of 2012, when an increased number of Soldiers arrive due to BRAC. Assuming there is no applicable delivery or production lead time exception (as this is a commercial item and readily available off the shelf), has an ADA violation been committed and is it correctable? No ADA violation has been committed. As the bona fide need is in 2012, an ADA violation has been committed but it is correctable. As the bona fide need is in 2012, an ADA violation has been committed, and is not correctable since proper funds, FY 2012 O&M (or procurement, depending on the value) were not available at the time of obligation. Although the bona fide need is in 2012, there is no ADA violation because the command was engaged in advanced planning, and was smartly purchasing an item ahead of the expected need and perhaps even getting a better price. QUESTION 3 20 points 20 points 1. Which is the most likely example of a project that would be proper using humanitarian and civic assistance (HCA) authority (10 U.S.C. § 401)? Building of a state-of-the-art two story health clinic in Kandahar, Afghanistan, by an infantry platoon. An Army doctor training local civilian doctors to stitch and bandage a local boy's injured leg in Lagos, Nigeria, while on a COCOM approved combined training exercise with the Nigerian Army. Grading and paving of a 5-mile road from Ba'quabah and Al Khalis, Iraq, by an engineering company. Purchase of 1,000 math, science, and history books, 300 student desks, a year's supply of paper and pencils for a school in Herat, Afghanistan. QUESTION 5 20 points 1. Under an acquisition and cross-servicing agreement (ACSA), a country can "pay" for goods or services this way: Payment in Kind (PIK) (cash). Equal Value Exchange (EVE). Replacement in Kind (RIK). All of th