Action Line #91204 - Finance Cage Published Dec. 29, 2009 By 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey -- Complaint: Recently I went to the financial cage to cash a check only to find them closed during their posted business hours due to system problems. They were closed for 2 days, on the third day I called the cashier's cage at 0820 to see if they were open before going there. They told me they were open. I arrived at 0830 only to find a line of customers and the cage closed. I inquired as to what was going on as I had just been told they were open. I was told that the electricity had gone off and they had to reboot their system. I was then told that they had to reenter all the data from the morning because it had been lost and it would take 10 minutes. 20 minutes later they were not open. Does the finance department not have a system that automatically saves data as it is entered or a backup system where the data is automatically saved in a secure place for future retrieval? This seems like a disaster waiting to happen, especially when you are dealing with the amount of funds that go through the cage since we do not have a bank on base, which leads to my second question. Why do we not have a bank on base instead of having to rely on the cashier's cage whose hours do not always fit work schedules? Response: I would like to address your last issue first. While there is a non-cash bank branch operating on Incirlik (Pentagon Federal Credit Union), a full branch is not allowed at this time because Turkish law states that only Turkish banks may operate in Turkey. Unfortunately, Turkish banks are not good alternatives for the banking needs of our community. There are, however, are other alternatives to the cashier's cage. These include the commissary, BX and shoppette, where you can obtain funds over the purchase amount; Garanti Bank (will exchange for Turkish Lira); the Cashier's Cage at the Consolidated Club and various ATMs around base. Now, to your specific issue... our disbursing operation, the casher's cage, strives to provide Incirlik members with the best customer service possible. In almost every case, if we are to close during normal business hours, the closure is announced beforehand via the Commanders Access Channel (CAC), squadron commanders and first sergeants. Unfortunately in this case, an accountability system error led our office to close unexpectedly in the middle of the day and remain closed for the next day as well. While we did post a slide to the CAC and sent a message out to wing leadership, there wasn't enough time to publicize the closure to the wing at large. On the third day, when the doors reopened, the power in building 833 failed. This activated the alarm in the casher's cage which forces a response by security forces, and caused the cage to once again close until security forces could take control of the situation and rectify the problem. In addition to the alarm, the uninterrupted power supply attached to the cashier's computer failed. This caused the computer to turn off and some data to be lost. The cashier is able to re-input the data because they have all the documentation needed to recreate the files. However, this took longer than initially projected, but they were able to re-open the cage and continue with business once completed. The power supply for this computer has since been replaced and should not be a problem in the future. I can assure you, the personnel working in the cashier's cage are fully aware of the amount of funds they are personally responsible for and work tirelessly to provide customers with efficient service while maintaining 100 percent accountability of these funds. I apologize for the inconveniences you experienced. Know that we will continue to strive for the best service possible.