Fort Bliss Monitor

Troop Talk

The following questions are a continuation of last week’s Troop Talk. I will continue to look personally into both pay and inprocessing to see if we can do a better job of providing these much needed services in a timely and informative manner for Soldiers and families.

Why does it take so long for soldiers to receive travel pay when changing locations. Several Soldiers complained of this. Why does it take seven weeks for my husband to get paid for travel expenses (TLA, DLA, same problem)?

I spoke to Frank Serna at FB Finance regarding this particular situation and he told me that the average turnaround time for processing a travel voucher is approximately 10 working days. However, this particular claim was received at DFAS-Indiana June 6 and the Soldier had still not received his payment as of June 24. In this particular case, the process took about three weeks. We do have a seasonal increase in turnaround time and with it there is also a concern of Soldier readiness and quality of life. When a travel claim is received, the claim is date stamped and goes through a preliminary review. Finace then forwards the claim to DFAS-Indianapolis. It normally takes my office one to three workdays to send (scan) the travel claim to DFAS-Indianapolis. Normally, it takes DFAS-IN five to 10 working days to compute and process the claim for payment. The payment information is then forwarded to Centralized Disbursing then through the Federal Reserve and then to the bank account (approximately another two to three working days). When you add all of the time required to process a claim, you are looking at two to three weeks for a payment to be completed. It appears locally the office here is sending out the claims in a timely manner. However, once the documents reach the next level the process seems to take much longer. I intend to make a personal inquiry to the DFAS-IN as to why payment to Soldiers takes so long. Soldier and families depend on receiving travel pay and other payments due them in a timely manner. I will continue to address this problem until resolved.

My inprocessing experience was very frustrating. There did not seem to be an organized plan or process for inprocessing Fort Bliss. The Welcome Center did not have any welcome packets, nor did the Fort Bliss Inn, and there was no one at the Welcome Center who could answer any of my questions regarding inprocessing. Is there a way that inprocessing can be streamlined so that a Soldier or spouse would know what had to be done, to include building number and phone number for all key tasks? The student officer reported to the Welcome Center and should have been directed to report to E Btry., 1-56 ADA. They sign in and inprocess all officer students. His questions would have been answered at 1-56. We regret that Welcome Center personnel did not have this information at the time. They have been informed to direct OBC and CCC officers to report to 1-56. At the time, the Welcome Center did not issue Welcome Packets. They were issued as a part of the Army Community Services Inprocessing Briefings. According to Joe Limon, HRC, significant changes have been made to inprocessing at the Welcome Center to accomodate the in processing surge we are facing this summer and we will continue to change the process as we get feedback from our customers. We have a revised schedule that went into effect June 1 after a trial run that included all post agencies involved with inprocessing. Soldiers receive a copy of their inprocessing schedules at the time they sign in along with instructions for in processing. Thanks to this feedback, we have changed our process and welcome packets are now being provided to Soldiers arriving at the Welcome Center, including student officers. In addition to the welcome packet, student officers now receive instructions on reporting to Bldg. 1001, E Btry., 1-56 ADA where their in processing checklist will be issued. The Welcome Center staff now has points of contact and telephone numbers for E Btry. to preclude a recurrence of this problem.

Brig. Gen. Robert P. Lennox
Fort Bliss Commanding General



www.bliss.army.mil	Published for the Fort Bliss/El Paso, Texas Community	June 7, 2005

	Troop Talk The following questions are a continuation of last week’s Troop Talk. I will continue to look personally into both pay and inprocessing to see if we can do a better job of providing these much needed services in a timely and informative manner for Soldiers and families. Why does it take so long for soldiers to receive travel pay when changing locations. Several Soldiers complained of this. Why does it take seven weeks for my husband to get paid for travel expenses (TLA, DLA, same problem)? I spoke to Frank Serna at FB Finance regarding this particular situation and he told me that the average turnaround time for processing a travel voucher is approximately 10 working days. However, this particular claim was received at DFAS-Indiana June 6 and the Soldier had still not received his payment as of June 24. In this particular case, the process took about three weeks. We do have a seasonal increase in turnaround time and with it there is also a concern of Soldier readiness and quality of life. When a travel claim is received, the claim is date stamped and goes through a preliminary review. Finace then forwards the claim to DFAS-Indianapolis. It normally takes my office one to three workdays to send (scan) the travel claim to DFAS-Indianapolis. Normally, it takes DFAS-IN five to 10 working days to compute and process the claim for payment. The payment information is then forwarded to Centralized Disbursing then through the Federal Reserve and then to the bank account (approximately another two to three working days). When you add all of the time required to process a claim, you are looking at two to three weeks for a payment to be completed. It appears locally the office here is sending out the claims in a timely manner. However, once the documents reach the next level the process seems to take much longer. I intend to make a personal inquiry to the DFAS-IN as to why payment to Soldiers takes so long. Soldier and families depend on receiving travel pay and other payments due them in a timely manner. I will continue to address this problem until resolved. My inprocessing experience was very frustrating. There did not seem to be an organized plan or process for inprocessing Fort Bliss. The Welcome Center did not have any welcome packets, nor did the Fort Bliss Inn, and there was no one at the Welcome Center who could answer any of my questions regarding inprocessing. Is there a way that inprocessing can be streamlined so that a Soldier or spouse would know what had to be done, to include building number and phone number for all key tasks? The student officer reported to the Welcome Center and should have been directed to report to E Btry., 1-56 ADA. They sign in and inprocess all officer students. His questions would have been answered at 1-56. We regret that Welcome Center personnel did not have this information at the time. They have been informed to direct OBC and CCC officers to report to 1-56. At the time, the Welcome Center did not issue Welcome Packets. They were issued as a part of the Army Community Services Inprocessing Briefings. According to Joe Limon, HRC, significant changes have been made to inprocessing at the Welcome Center to accomodate the in processing surge we are facing this summer and we will continue to change the process as we get feedback from our customers. We have a revised schedule that went into effect June 1 after a trial run that included all post agencies involved with inprocessing. Soldiers receive a copy of their inprocessing schedules at the time they sign in along with instructions for in processing. Thanks to this feedback, we have changed our process and welcome packets are now being provided to Soldiers arriving at the Welcome Center, including student officers. In addition to the welcome packet, student officers now receive instructions on reporting to Bldg. 1001, E Btry., 1-56 ADA where their in processing checklist will be issued. The Welcome Center staff now has points of contact and telephone numbers for E Btry. to preclude a recurrence of this problem. Brig. Gen. Robert P. Lennox Fort Bliss Commanding General