# Presentation: 431261

## EFT IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVES

- Presented by**Kirt H. Ulfers / Darrell R. Kennedy**

## Why All The Fuss?

- President’s 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.

- Office of the Chief Financial Officer

## 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 _agency’s 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.

- Office of the Chief Financial Officer

## 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, AT&T, Cellular One, Verizon, Sprint, Cingular, AllTel, Nextel, BellSouth).
- COD Administrative Payments Branch matching telephone vendors to TELE system to get EFT data.

- Office of the Chief Financial Officer

## 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%
- AT&T 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%
- AT&T	          	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

- Office of the Chief Financial Officer

## 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.

- Office of the Chief Financial Officer

## Actions to Improve EFT

- Other problems with Telephone vendors:
- AT&T 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.

- Office of the Chief Financial Officer

## 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?”***_

- Office of the Chief Financial Officer

## 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.

- Office of the Chief Financial Officer

## 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.

- Office of the Chief Financial Officer

## 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.

- Office of the Chief Financial Officer

## 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, 2******nd****** Floor, Post S46, Attn: EFT Improvement Initiative.  Or FAX form to (504) 426-9747 or (504) 253-5680; Attn: EFT Improvement Initiative.***
- 	If you have questions regarding your enrollment, please contact our help line at (504) 426-5377.
- 	If you have already provided your bank account information to us, we thank you and please ignore this notice.

- Office of the Chief Financial Officer

## 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
- 	Vendor’s Contact Person ____________________________Phone _______________
- 	Vendor’s Contact E-mail _____________________________________
- 	______ I am no longer doing business with USDA.  Please inactivate my account.
- 	Vendor’s Authorized Signature __________________________Date______________
**	****Privacy Act Statement**: Collection of this information is authorized by 31 U.S.C. 3332(g), 3325(d), and 7701(c).  The information will be used by the Government to make payments by electronic funds to a vendor.  This information may also be used for income reporting and for collecting and reporting any delinquent amounts arising out of a vendor’s relationship with the Government.  Disclosure of the information by the vendor is mandatory.  Failure to provide the requested information may result in the delay or withholding of payment to the vendor.

- Office of the Chief Financial Officer

## 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.

- Office of the Chief Financial Officer

## 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.

- Office of the Chief Financial Officer

## 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.”

- Office of the Chief Financial Officer

## 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.

- Office of the Chief Financial Officer

## 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

- Office of the Chief Financial Officer