EFT IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVES

1
EFT IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVES

• Presented byKirt H. Ulfers / Darrell R. Kennedy

2
Why All The Fuss?

• Presidents Management Agenda requires 96 EFT
  Payment Rate for a Green Grade.
  
• EFT saves money, is faster, and improves cash
  management.
  
• Treasury advised us that EFT costs .10 check
  costs .73
  
• USDA January 2004 EFT Rate was 35.
• That was Red and Last on the Government-Wide
  Metric Tracking System.
  
• EFT Rates are currently self-reported by
  Departments.
  

3
Actions to Improve EFT

• EFT or Waiver Required on New VEND Requests
• Controller Operations Division (COD) implemented
  March, 2004 policy that all VEND requests must
  have DUNS number, EFT data, or statement giving
  vendor a waiver allowable under DCIA.
• DUNS allows COD to find EFT on Central Contractor
  Registration if
  
• vendor is registered. If not registered, EFT
  data or waiver must be supplied by the requesting
  agency. If not supplied, not processed.
  
• 79 of new VEND adds in 3-05 were received with
  EFT data.
  
• Waiver is agencys assertion that EFT is not
  required for their vendor.
  
• Agency employees determine waiver applicability.
  
  
• Waivers are included in metrics reported to
  Treasury and have NEGATIVE impact on agency
  USDA EFT payment rates.
  

4
Actions to Improve EFT

• Identify Most Frequent Check Recipients Solicit
  EFT Data
  
• Focused on a list of 2004 Top 20 check
  recipients.
  
• UPS
• Fed-Ex
• Telephone Vendors (SBC, Qwest, ATT, Cellular
  One, Verizon, Sprint, Cingular, AllTel, Nextel,
  BellSouth).
  
• COD Administrative Payments Branch matching
  telephone vendors to TELE system to get EFT
  data.
  

5
Actions to Improve EFT

• TOP 20 Starting EFT Data
• 2004 VEND Codes Found For Percent
• Checks W/O EFT VEND Codes Now EFT
• Fed-Ex 20,145 21
  19 90.48
  
• SBC 21,934 12 11 91.67
• Qwest 14,150 5 5
  100.00
  
• ATT W/L 14,342 11 0
  0.00
  
• UPS 7,906 23 20 86.96
• Cellular One 5,562 13 11
  84.62
  
• Verizon W/L 5,421 12 12
  100.00
  
• Sprint 5,024 10 10
  100.00
  
• Cingular W/L 4,930 17 17
  100.00
  
• ATT 4,629 11 0
  0.00
  
• AllTel 4,457 9 9
  100.00
  
• Verizon 4,393 13
  12 92.31
  
• Nextel 3,411 6
  6
  100.00
  
• Summary 163 132 80.98
• As of 4-25-05

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Actions to Improve EFT

• The focus on Telephone vendors has revealed
• Some of the Telephone vendors who received check
  payments are not found within the TELE System.
  
• Indication that phone expenses are being paid
  outside of TELE via direct entry into FFIS.
  
• Telephone payments made outside TELE make it
  harder to analyze telephone expenses. Also
  harder to obtain EFT since no record of the
  vendor / points of contact exist in TELE.
• As analysis progresses, will produce report, by
  agency, detailing Telephone vendors paid outside
  of TELE.
  

7
Actions to Improve EFT

• Other problems with Telephone vendors
• ATT will only accept EFT if in CTX (Corporate
  Trade Exchange) payment format. ACFO-FS working
  now to implement CTX into FFIS.
  
• CTX allows multiple invoice payments to EFT
  vendors. Without CTX, documents submitted for
  EFT payment, that reference more than 1 invoice,
  are converted to check payments.
• Qwest advised their account numbers not being
  provided on addendums. ACFO-FS also working to
  determine fix required.

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Actions to Improve EFT

• VENDOR Solicitation
• Identified 19,000 different vendors who received
  check payments in 2004.
  
• Quick check of VEND indicated we had already
  obtained EFT data for 3,000 of those vendors.
  
• On 3-4 and 3-7 mailed 9,000 letters to vendors
  soliciting EFT data.
  
• Results
• As of 4-25, have received EFT data for 1,771
  of the recipients (19.6). Replies have also
  allowed deactivation of 120 vendor accounts.
  Replies continue to roll in.
• NOTE Many waivered vendors have supplied EFT
  data in reply to this effort. Indication that
  waivers were not needed.
  
• First question to vendor must be What is your
  Bank Account?

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Actions to Improve EFT

• VENDOR Solicitation
• OCFO will consider deactivation of VEND record
  for
  
• non-responders who do not posses a valid waiver.
  
  
• Could cause payment rejects and inquiries.
• If adopted, agencies will be provided listing
  prior to deactivation.
  
• Still analyzing 6,400 of the 19,000 in attempt to
  find EFT on CCR or related VEND records prior
  to doing a mailout to these vendors.

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Actions to Improve EFT

• AGENCY Assistance
• COD has provided worksheets to each agency CFO
  detailing vendors, identified to the agency,
  without EFT.
  
• Agency help is needed in making contact with
  their vendors
  
• to obtain EFT data.
• Instructions and forms were also provided to CFOs
  for getting the EFT data back to COD.
  

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Actions to Improve EFT

• 5. Check Inserts
• COD has worked with Treasury to do a stuffer
  (check insert).
  
• Treasury will place the stuffer in the envelope
  of every
  
• non-employee USDA check recipient for a period
  of a month. Depending on response, may repeat
  the process over several months.
  
• Stuffer provides vendor an explanation of our
  effort and a form for supplying EFT data back to
  COD.
  
• Next two slides are front and back of the
  stuffer.
  

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Stuffer Example

• IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING YOUR USDA CHECK
• The United States Department of Agriculture
  (USDA) is required to process payments, including
  vendor payments, electronically to comply with
  the United States Congress Debt Collection
  Improvement Act (DCIA) of 1996. Available
  waivers are noted in the Act. A benefit of
  receiving payments by Electronic Funds Transfer
  (EFT) is that your funds are directly deposited
  to your financial institution account and are
  available to you on the date of payment. By
  processing your payment via EFT, it will ensure
  your account remains active with USDA.
•  
• Use the form located on the reverse side of this
  card to enroll in Direct Deposit of your federal
  payment. Return the completed form to United
  States Department of Agriculture, PO Box 60000,
  New Orleans, Louisiana 70160, Bldg 350, 2nd
  Floor, Post S46, Attn EFT Improvement
  Initiative. Or FAX form to [phone] or
  [phone] Attn EFT Improvement
  Initiative.
•  
• If you have questions regarding your enrollment,
  please contact our help line at [phone].
  
• If you have already provided your bank account
  information to us, we thank you and please ignore
  this notice.
  

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Stuffer Example

• ACH VENDOR ENROLLMENT FORM
• (Please type or print all information)
• Company/Payee Name ______________________________
  ____________________
  
• Address _________________________________________
  _____________________
  
• Taxpayer ID Number (TIN) __ __ __ __ __ __ __
  __ __
  
• Financial Institution Name ______________________
  _________________________
  
• Financial Institution Routing Transit Number
  (RTN)__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
  
• Depositor Account Title _________________________
  ________________________
  
• Depositor Account Number _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
  _ _ _ _ _ Type _______Checking
  
• 
  
  ______ Savings
  
• Vendors Contact Person _________________________
  ___Phone _______________
  
• Vendors Contact E-mail _________________________
  ____________
  
•  
• ______ I am no longer doing business with USDA.
  Please inactivate my account.
  
•  
• Vendors Authorized Signature ___________________
  _______Date______________
  
•  

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Actions to Improve EFT

• 6. New Payment Stats
• COD has developed correct method for reporting
  payment stats on a monthly basis.
  
• Treasury only interested in stats on V (vendor)
  vendors versus including stats on M
  (miscellaneous) vendors.
  
• Monthly stats from COD now only include V
  vendors.
  
• COD working with ACFO-FS to place payment files
  in the FDW. Will further automate the stat
  calculation and allow canned and ad-hoc
  reporting.

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EFT Improvement Initiatives

• Where are We?
• Waivers, though allowable by DCIA, detract from
  our ability to get to green.
  
• 03-05 VEND Stats
• Active Vendors Excluding Employees 342,872 100.
  00
  
• Less Vendors with EFT 144,440 42.13
• Vendors without EFT 198,432 57.87
• Vendors with Waivers 75,917 38.26
• Treasury is considering reviewing green
  requirements to allow for agencies having high
  volumes of waivered vendors. No guarantee on a
  break though!
• Treasury also considering calculating stats
  versus allowing
  
• self-reporting. Ensures stats are
  consistently calculated.
  

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EFT Improvement Initiatives

• Where are We?
• January 2004 EFT rate 35
• March 2005 EFT rates by agency are
• AMS 65 FSA 67
• APHIS 64 FSIS 57
• ARS 60 GIPSA 54
• CSREES 80 NASS 56
• DASO 72 NRCS 61
• ERS 80 OIG 54
• FAS 76 RD 64
• FNS 66 RMA 77
• FS 53
• March 2005 Overall 59
• Still RED. Shows improvement but not near the
  96 currently needed for green.
  

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EFT Improvement Initiatives

• Where are we going?
• As stated, 79 of the VEND adds in 03-05
  contained EFT data. Going in right direction but
  means 21 of the adds requested a waiver.
  
• Continue to seek EFT data for Top 20.
• Continue to process replies to vendor letter
  mailout.
  
• Process replies to Treasury Stuffer.
• Agencies work listings provided to CFOs and
  provide EFT data to COD.
  
• Agencies enforce stricter policy over granting of
  waivers.
  
• First question to vendor What is your Bank
  Account?
  
• Make decision on de-activation of VEND codes
  without EFT.
  

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EFT Improvement Initiatives

• Thanks for your efforts thus far toward EFT
  Improvement.
  
• Agencies Play a HUGE ROLE in Improving EFT.
• Agencies are first contact with vendor. Battle
  Cry must be
  
• Ask and Limit.
• (Ask The Vendor For EFT Data and Limit
  Waivers).
  
• Contacts COD Table Maintenance Group
• Darrell Kennedy, Supervisor 504-426-5345
• Eddie Malter, Lead Accountant 504-426-5362
• Julia Murphy, Accountant 504-426-5445
• Kirt Ulfers, Branch Chief 504-426-5350