ANNOUNCEMENTS

Foreign Affairs Day – May 3, 2024

This year’s Foreign Affairs Day will be a hybrid event and will take place on Friday, May 3, 2024. As you know, this is our homecoming, and it provides a chance to celebrate our global workforce, spend time with former colleagues, and honor those who gave their lives in service of American Diplomacy. Along with partner organizations we are planning to host a very special Foreign Affairs Day, a co-branded program that will also highlight the Foreign Service centennial. If you wish to receive an invitation, please contact ForeignAffairsDay@state.gov

Retirement Ceremony – October 4, 2024

Plans are underway to reinitiate the annual Retirement Ceremony on October 4 to celebrate this important milestone for the Department’s retiring employees.  Invitations to the October 4 ceremony will be sent to those who retired between January 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024 and who have provided a personal e-mail address to receive the invitation. If you wish to receive an invitation, please contact RetirementCeremony@state.gov

IMPORTANT SECURITY NOTICE FROM CGFS

As part of our continuous efforts to protect your privacy and financial security, the Department of State Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services (CGFS) would like to update you on a recent Employee Express security alert and Office of Personnel Management initiated verification change. Additionally, we would like to clarify our communications protocols to ensure your information remains secure.

1. Employee Express Security Alert – Fraudulent Contact Number for Employee Express

The Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services wants you to know fraudsters and bad actors are using a fraudulent telephone number previously associated with the Employee Express website to deceive users such as Annuitants.

Employee Express does not have a customer service telephone number for inquiries or communications with any government agencies which they service.

For annuitants without access to a PIV Smartcard; please access Employee Express using your Login.gov. credentials at the designated and secure online platform for Annuitants Employee Express (AEEX) https://www.employeeexpress.gov/.

If you require technical assistance for Employee Express, please use the Submit Help Request link in the upper right corner of the Employee Express login page.

If you have contacted a phone number that you believe to be Employee Express customer service and provided personal information to a fraudster or bad actor, visit identitytheft.gov for instructions on protecting your identity. You should alert all financial institutions on record within Employee Express to assist in protecting your accounts.

ReportFraud.ftc.gov is the Federal Government’s website where you can report cases of fraud, scams, and unethical business practices. Please remember that legitimate Government representatives will never ask you to provide sensitive personal information such as login credentials, PINs, passwords. Financial details like bank account numbers or other financial account information would only be requested for verification purposes after a customer-initiated contact to our official email or phone number.

2. Employee Express Direct Deposit and Financial allotment change – Account Verification Update

The Department of State utilizes the U. S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Employee Express (EEX) automated system to allow employees to initiate personnel payroll transactions electronically. The Department’s Comptroller and Global Financial Services (CGFS) Global Compensation (GC) Directorate has been informed that effective March 01, 2024, a new Employee Express Account Validation Enhancement was deployed. This enhancement aims to reduce the risk of fraudulent activity and impacts all government agencies’ whose employees or annuitants are serviced by EEX. Department of State employees or annuitants who have direct deposits or allotments established within EEX will be impacted only if they require a change to their direct deposits or allotments.

The Employee Express March 1, 2024, Software Release added a new validation page to the direct deposit and the financial allotment modules. This change requires the user to enter the full bank account number for the current direct deposit enrollment. Once the direct deposit account number is entered correctly, the system will display the page that allows the user to enter their new banking information. If the user enters an incorrect account number, the system will display an error message and instruct the user to enter the correct account number. If the user enters an incorrect account number three times, the Employee Express system will end the user’s session and require the user to login again.

3. Department of State Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services (CGFS) communications protocols:

In our communications, we will not solicit you to click on links within an email to provide personally identifiable information.

You should:

• Always verify the sender’s email address (emails from the Department of State will always end in “@state.gov”).
• Be cautious of emails that pressure you to act quickly or offer unsolicited financial advice.
• Update your security software and passwords regularly to protect against online threats.

Your trust and security are our highest priority. If you have any concerns or require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us at AnnuityPaySupport@state.gov or by phone at 1-800-521-2553 or 1-877-865-0760 (Monday through Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm). Thank you for your attention to this matter and your continued trust in us.

Sincerely,

The Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services Global Compensation (CGFS/GC) Communications Team