Final Employee Salary Checks Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 09:22:20 -0400 To: "Alice A Sabatini, Administrative Officer, Reston, VA" , "Carole Carter-Pfisterer Reston, VA" , "Gayle A Sisler Reston, VA" , "Isabelle Halley des Fontaines, Chief, Br. Admin. Mgmt. Sys., Reston, VA" , "John R Caracciolo, Management Initiatives Officer, Reston, VA" , "Joseph S Pillera Reston, VA" , "MaryLou D Pectol Reston, VA" From: "John T. Luchik" Subject: Final Employee Salary Checks Cc: hro_personnel_officers@mailrvao1.er.usgs.GOV This is to advise you that effective with this pay period, final checks for separating employees will be sent to the last payment address provided by the separating employee, usually their financial institution. This means that final paychecks, payments for unused annual leave, or other payments due to separating employees will be sent to them and not held by the USGS. We have already taken steps to advise timekeepers to omit codes that would require the Federal Personnel Payroll System (FPPS) to send the final check to the USGS designated agent. However, we would appreciate your advising the various administrative levels of your organization, so that everyone is aware of this change in procedure. Previously, new employee's checks were commonly sent to the bureau's designated agent because there was no address yet available in the system, and separating employees had their checks diverted to allow debt recovery. The change came about for a number of reasons. First, we are no longer receiving checks for new employees, because the FPPS requires a ‘check address' prior to an accession action being allowed to update the system. This requirement effectively eliminates the possibility of an initial check being sent to a designated agent for forwarding to the employee. Secondly, with various electronic accounting systems, fewer and fewer employees are separating with known liabilities to the Government. Therefore, after consultation with the Office of Financial Management staff, who deal with debts, we have determined that there is no longer a benefit to be gained from diverting final checks. According to the OFM debt management staff, there are established methods for collection of debts to the United States Government. These methods are ultimately surer methods for obtaining monies owed, than canceling a final check that may only provide a partial repayment. Further, the amount of resources expended in tracking, accounting for and processing diverted checks is far greater than the benefit obtained for the minimal debts satisfied with that procedure.