This position serves in the Travel Section of the Office of Finance at the VA Maine Healthcare System (VAMHCS) and is responsible for providing planning and coordinating travel services to all staff and serving. This position is a full-time at 40 hours per week.

Duties

The position focuses primarily on coordinating travel arrangements and ensuring accurate documentation for those staff with approved travel orders and uses designated travel software and/or other prescribed tools to ensure travel arrangements for staff are completed timely, accurately, and within prescribed federal government and Department of Veterans Affairs guidelines. Major duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to: Coordinates the arrangements required for travel to conferences, summits, clinical trials, and various other events approved for Department of Veterans Affairs employees. Each project is complex and requires a different interpretation of regulations and policies based on the unique set of requirements. Works with outside vendors, facilities, Contractors, and VISN staff to coordinate the movement of personnel related to travel services. Identifies the funding source and requirements of the program associated with the employee travel and facilitates the booking process in the government contracted electronic travel system. Receives, reviews and processes a variety of programs required and related documents; ensures all documentation is accurate and complete; responsible for random system auditing to ensure compiled data is accurate and complete; Reviews program information to ensure transactions agree with and are supported by required documentation and regulations, and that transactions are processed according to established procedures and policies; Serves as the subject matter expert to staff, management, and other key staff, consults and advises management on program matters and issues; provides customer service to knowledgably respond to program related inquiries from staff and assist staff with resolving rejected documents and costing errors associated with the program; Prepares, reviews, and submits reconciliation reports to the internal auditor and Chief of Finance Service; Uses prescribed and available software and other tools to provide designated services under the auspices of the Travel section; Uses cost estimations and cost benefit analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of program processes and policies to ensure the most efficient and cost-effective execution of the program mission, goals and objectives as possible; responsible for continual process improvement; Performs work consisting of the examination for accuracy, adequacy of documentation, compliance with regulations, verification and justification of documentation and other requests; Secures missing facts, forms, receipts, or signatures and performs administrative tasks such as filing, coding or determining format; Performs a variety of budgetary and administrative functions to include analyzing various types of documents to determine propriety, validity, budget, expenditure limitation and correctness of account data in implementing the organization's travel program, policies, and procedures; Maintains and archives all pertinent documents and records for efficient retrieval, review and reporting; Researches, gathers, and/or compiles information to provide required reports to Office of Finance and Medical Center leadership; Conducts studies, monitors, reports and analyzes workload data to determine the amount of travel by appropriation, service line and reimbursable from other stations and the VISN; Performs a variety of clerical, administrative and technical duties/responsibilities in support of program goals and objectives in a complex health care delivery system to include monitoring and making inputs to vendor files, preparing memos and debt letters, developing estimates and preparing the necessary documents for transfers of funds. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 7:00 am-3:30 pm Telework: Yes; 1-2 days per pay period. This position is authorized for telework but has not been authorized as virtual or remote (i.e., must be able to work at the location the position is being announced for). VA supports the use of telework to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. Telework eligibility may be discussed during the interview process. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Transportation Assistant (Teller)/PD003500 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: May be Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required Notifications: This position is a AFGE Bargaining Unit position. Veterans' preference does not apply for internal or other current permanent Federal agency employees. Notifications continued below in Requirements section.

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/25/2024. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-06 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. You may qualify based on your experience as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-05 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: coordinating connections/scheduling, documenting travel information; collecting, compiling, and tracking data on a daily basis; Performs a basic analysis of data and generates a variety of reports; entering data into automated tracking data bases; and planning and directing a program that provides support services. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Administration and ManagementAuditingCustomer Service Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: Incumbent will be exposed to stressful working situations that require a professional attitude and collective reasoning. The incumbent is subject to a high volume of work, the need for accuracy, frequency of interruptions and ever-changing demands due to program changes For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Education

There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

Contacts

• Address Togus VA Medical Center 1 VA Center Augusta, ME 04330 US
• Name: Krista Beacham
• Phone: (210) 975-7087
• Email: [email protected]