Paid Voucher Audits

Most Government contractors with cost-type contracts have been subjected to “paid voucher” reviews. These are reviews where contract auditors (usually DCAA or Defense Contract Audit Agency) will take a voucher that has previously been paid in the last year and trace the amounts claimed, billed, and paid to source documents. This is a fairly recent program coming out of DCAA with dubious benefits. One former auditor speculated that after DCAA transitioned most of its important work to DCMA (Defense Contract Management Agency), it has been scrounging around looking for purposeful work. Whether paid voucher reviews provide a benefit to the Government or not, most of the testing steps do not require the skills of professional auditors (Certified Public Accountants). Many “testing” steps are those that anyone, with minimal training, could perform – e.g. did the contractor pay the vendor in 30 days?

Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Paid Voucher Audits