Cash on delivery
Volume 11, No. 54, October 19, 2006

ASK any warrant officer what has the potential to damage his soldiers’ morale and the answer is invariably “pay and leave” – get that right and soldiers will follow the colours anywhere.

To look after the pay for members of JTF 631 in Timor-Leste, the troops from 8 Personnel Services Coy (formerly Deployed Forces Cash Office) arrived in Dili in the early stages of the force insertion and quickly set up business.

Initially working out of an echelon bag anywhere they could find a work space, they quickly went about providing cash for the troops, raising contracts and paying for the myriad of things a force needs when they are deployed. Now 8PSC has permanent digs collocated with HQ JTF 631.

The cash office has managed about 30,000 transactions, paying the troops and locally employed civilians. In the early stages of the deployment it was responsible for about $1 million worth of Service contracts.