FY 1997 Bankcard Program

Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 11:53:03 -0400
To: "AO - All Administrative Officers"<distribution
From: "Alice A. Sabatini, Division Administrative Officer" <aasabati
Subject: FY 1997 Bankcard Program
Cc: "Catherine L Hill, ACH/Operations, Reston, VA" <clhill


Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 10:09:34 -0400
To: " Division Ao'S,  , " <division_aos@igsrsparc4.er.usgs.GOV,
        "Timothy E Calkins Reston, VA" <tcalkins,
        "William F Gossman Jr. Reston, VA" <wgossman
From: John Peterson <jpeterso
Subject: FY 1997 Bankcard Program
Cc: "Margaret J Seaboy Reston, VA" <mseaboy,
        "Susan E McCullough Reston, VA" <smccullo,
        "Donald A Palmquist Reston, VA" <dpalmqui,
        "Barbara J Ryan Reston, VA" <bjryan@igsrsparc4.er.usgs.GOV,
        "Lloyd M VanDyke Denver, CO" <lvandyke,
        "Melanie Gilbert Menlo Park, CA" <mgilbert@wr.usgs.gov,
        "Lisa E Zukowski Reston, VA" <lzukows

Information on the USGS FY 1997 utilization of bankcards for end-user
purchasing has been compiled and I wanted to share it with you.  

Bankcard purchasing continued its explosive growth in FY 1997 at USGS.  In
the 12 months ending with our billing cycle date of September 13th, USGS
cardholders made in excess of 141,000 purchases totalling $36,400,000.  By
comparison, USGS cardholders in FY 1994 made 29,000 purchases for
$3,700,000.  We've had nearly a ten-fold increase in dollars expended under
the program in just 3 years and FY 94's dollar amount for the full year was
eclipsed by September 1997's purchases valued at more than $5,000,000.

Reports from field warranted contracting officers locations on purchasing
other than that covered by the bankcard (quarterly SF-281 reports) are
being compiled at this time.  Once that effort is completed we will have a
better picture of what percentage of all of USGS's small purchases
transactions and dollars were handled under the bankcard program.  Last
year (FY 96), approximately 72% of our small purchases transactions were
conducted via the bankcard when approx. 97,000 purchases were made with the
card (USGS & NBS combined statistics).  I am expecting the percentage to be
closer to 85% for FY 97.

A final bankcard program note.   We recently offered "per/transaction"
limits to warranted cardholders at amounts in excess of the $2,500 micro
purchase threshold to those that desired the increase.  Bankcard purchases
at this level are subject to all the rules for actions in excess of the
micro purchase threshold (clauses, small business set-asides, competition,
and etc).  Up until this point in time bankcard purchases were not
reportable on SF-281.  We have just been advised by DOI that OMB/GSA have
decided that bankcard purchases in excess of the micro purchase threshold
ARE required to be included in the SF-281 reports beginning with the first
quarter of FY 1998.  More information will be provided on this to field
warranted contracting officers shortly. 



******************************************************************
* Alice A. Sabatini, Division Administrative Officer            *
* Water Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey        *
* 442 National Center, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive           *
* Reston, VA  20192  703-648-5027; fax 703-648-5295  *
******************************************************************