Financial Liability Investigation of Property Loss (FLIPL)

One would be amazed at just how many hats an Adjutant wears in the course of any given day. One such hat I wore on several occasions was that of an Investigator. I would investigate all sorts of interesting things that included the investigations of solders accused of disrespecting a Non Commission Officer (NCO), another case involved the cause of death of a service member which required me to make a recommendation as to rather or not his death was in the “line of duty”. However, the most tedious types of investigations I have been appointed to investigation dealt with the loss of government property by service personnel.

It is mind boggling to know that every year tens of thousands if not millions of dollars worth of property go unaccounted for in military inventories. I have found that the typical situation involves poor accountability of government property and rarely does it involved theft of government property. However someone will have to pay for the lost, misplaced or damaged property and typically it is the person who signed for the property.

I would advice any service member, be they a Commander or Private, to ensure they accurately keep accountability of all property they are signed for. And while it may be time consuming and tedious, ensure that if you loan out property that you are signed for, ensure that the person who takes the property from you signs for the property. You want to always ensure the property is signed for down to the user level. NO EXCEPTIONS!

If you find yourself the target of a Financial Liability Investigation of Property Loss or “FLIPL” remember some important basic points. First, if you have properly kept accurate records of all property you are responsible for, you will have little to worry about. This includes ensuring your hand receipts are up to date and all property is sub-hand receipted down to the user level. NO EXCEPTIONS!

You will generally have 30 days to contest the findings of the FLIPL investigator and even given the opportunity to speak with an attorney. After the 35th day has passed, the recommendation of the findings and recommendations of the FLIPL Investigator will go to the approving authority for action which may include recoupment of all or a portion of the value of what has been lost.

When taking the loss value of the property into consideration, the FLIPL Investigating Officer can reduce the amount of loss via the concept known as deprecation. There are formulas use to do this, however, one such formula will allow for the reduction of lost property value due to depreciation by up to 25%.

One final point to remember is that in most cases, the actual amount of loss to be recovered from the “Respondent” is limited by their base pay. So for example, if “Respondent” losses 2 million dollars worth of property, the most they would have to pay would be up to one month of their base pay and for the average service member that would be less then $4,500.00 per month.

For more information on the role of the FLIPL Investigator and what to expect if you are a “target” of an investigation check out the Department of the Army Pamphlet 735-5, "Financial Liability Officer’s Guide" at: http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/p735_5.pdf