Referral of Debts under the Debt Collection Improvement Act IMMEDIATE ATTENTION REQUIRED Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 16:19:29 -0400 To: "DC - All District Chiefs", "B - Branch Chiefs and Offices" From: "Alice A. Sabatini" Subject: Referral of Debts under the Debt Collection Improvement Act IMMEDIATE ATTENTION REQUIRED Cc: "AO - All Administrative Officers", "A - Division Chief and Staff", "Kelly L Bradley, Chief, FORS, Reston, VA ", "Tammy C D'Elia, Budget & Financial Specialist, Reston, VA " REPLY REQUIRED BY JUNE 10, 1998 The Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 (DCIA), requires that federal agencies refer all bills more than 180 days past due to the Department of the Treasury for collection. At present, the USGS has referred only 15% of the eligible delinquent debt; the Water Resources Division (WRD) has referred 40% of our eligible delinquent debt. To adhere to this law, we must refer 100% of our eligible delinquent debt. WRD requested a waiver to this law for delinquent debt under the Federal-State Cooperative Program stating that we believed that referral would have a negative effect on continuing relationships with our cooperators. We also indicated that referral could result in political ramifications. Unfortunately, our waiver request was denied. The Department of the Interior and our Associate Director for Operations are now insisting that we comply with this law by taking immediate action to refer all eligible delinquent debt no later than the end of June, 1998. We have been waiting for a district or branch to request referral before submitting the bill to Treasury. In order to comply with the June deadline, the Office of Financial Management has informed us that they will automatically refer all eligible debt to Treasury unless the division has taken some positive action to make the debt ineligible for referral. A debt is ineligible for referral to Treasury under DCIA if: 1) the debt is less than $25; 2) the debt is owed by a foreign entity (foreign debts will be referred to the Department of Justice for litigation); 3) the debt has already been referred to the Solicitor or the Department of Justice for action; 4) there is an approved repayment plan in place and the customer is making timely payments; or 5) the customer has disputed the validity of the bill in writing. To avoid referral and the associated negative impact on continuing program, we are asking each district or branch chief to contact their customers to obtain payment or negotiate a repayment plan. Checks and repayment plans must be forwarded to our office by June 10, 1998. If the debt is referred, Treasury will add an 18% collection fee to the total amount. If the fee cannot be recovered from the customer, it will be charged to the cost center's overhead account, probably in the current fiscal year. This email message is being followed by a faxed memorandum (from Kelly Bradley, Chief, Financial Operations and Reporting Section, WRD) to all district and branch chiefs that currently have customers with an eligible debt for referral. The memorandum will include a report that lists the bill number, the amount of the bill, accrued penalties and interest, and the Treasury collection fee. Please acknowledge the receipt of the memorandum (via email to Kelly Bradley (kbradley). If you do not receive a memorandum, you do not have a delinquent debt eligible for referral. If you believe that any listed bill has been paid or that some other administrative error has occurred, please have your administrative officer contact Tammy D'Elia by telephone 703-648-5252 or email (tdelia). We appreciate your attention and cooperation as we work together to ensure that only valid debts are referred and that we comply with the requirements of the law.