7/12/2012 - JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
Military pay transactions for Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph members are again being handled locally.
The transition back to base-level finance began last year as part of Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's efficiencies agenda, and the process returned to Randolph in late May. Military pay transactions, which had been processed at the Air Force Financial Service Center at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., are being managed at the 902nd Comptroller Squadron financial services office on the second floor of Pitsenbarger Hall, Bldg. 399.
"The AFFSC at Ellsworth AFB had been the centralized location for military and travel pay since the summer of 2007," Tech. Sgt. Sheila Arguelles, 902nd CPTS financial services NCO in charge, said. "But military pay has been pushed back to base-level finance offices to allow for better support of members' military pay issues. The AFFSC is still handling travel pay."
The AFFSC was created five years ago as a central hub for all financial transactions, including military pay and travel, but it was later determined that the consolidated operation delayed processing time for updating military pay entitlements.
Arguelles said the delays often resulted in debts or underpayments. The delays especially affected personnel returning stateside from overseas installations.
"Now that it's back at the local level, there won't be as many people having debts as a result of overpayments," she said. "Our customers can come in here to do updates. If they put in a transaction today, it will be updated the next day. Before, it could take five to 10 days."
A review of AFFSC operations also showed military pay transactions processed at the center had a higher rejection rate and often required corrections.
Airman 1st Class Kevin Failla, 902nd CPTS financial management technician, said the access of military pay and the processing of permanent-change-of-station vouchers "could possibly be one of the greatest strengths of our office."
"If a hot voucher needs to be processed because the member came into finance after five business days, I'm putting the station gain into the Defense Milpay Office as soon as possible," he said. "Another plus is having the benefit of not having to wait for the station gain because something is wrong with the travel side. Debts due to basic allowance for housing are very big with in-processing, and lowering the frequency of the station gain debts will increase customer satisfaction."
Arguelles said another change is that the JBSA installations - Randolph, JBSA-Lackland and JBSA-Fort Sam Houston - now have a combined financial services operation, but separate offices, so personnel can be serviced from any of the three locations for assistance.