In this Issue

Features

Question of The Day
Travelers Corner Where Do I Find

Administrivial Pursuits is Changing

Administrivial Pursuits will receive a make-over in the February 13 issue. Do not miss the new name and Question of the Day. To celebrate the kick-off of the next issue, the first person to answer the Question of the Day correctly will win a prize.

C. Request Training

A C.Request Requsitioner Class is being offered for those who have not taken the training. To reserve your seat please send an email to Robin Carpenter at Robin.Carpenter@mail.doc.gov. Seating will be reserved on a first come first serve basis. C. Request Requisitioner Training: April 24, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. in Room 6872A. Requisitioner classes are designed for anyone who needs an understanding of how to enter a requisition in C.Request. If you have questions please contact Robin Carpenter at (202) 482-4989 or via email at Robin.Carpenter@mail.doc.gov .

New Requirements to Administer the Freedom of Information Act

The OPEN Government Act of 2007 amended the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for the first time in over ten years. While the new law creates tougher regulations for federal offices to respond to FOIA requests, no changes were made to the FOIA’s nine exemptions. The amendments address a range of procedural issues impacting FOIA administration:

· Agencies will have to respond to FIOA requests within 20 days, and are prohibited from collecting fees if takes longer.

· FOIA offices must assign tracking numbers to all requests that will take longer than 10 days to process.

· Agencies are required to have dedicated Web sites or telephone hot lines to provide an up-to-date status on requests.

· Section 3 of the Act, Protection of Fee Status for News Media, defines the term “news” and recognizes the evolution of methods of news delivery through electronic dissemination and notes that news-media entities might make their products available by free distribution to the general public. This amendment also includes provisions for a “freelance journalist.”

As the ITA FOIA Officer addresses these additional administration requirements, the impact of the new law will also be felt by those responding to FOIA requests. Requirements to produce requested information will become more stringent if ITA is to meet the 20-day processing requirement. The ITA FOIA Officer will continue to provide guidance to the organization relative to the new law. For those interested in the requirements of the new law, the entire text of the OPEN Government Act of 2007 can be found at http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:s2488enr.txt.pdf . For additional information about FOIA, please contact Linda Bell, ITA’s OFIA Officer, at 482-3032 or e-mail her at Linda.Bell@mail.doc.gov

FY 2009 President’s Budget Request

ITA's Office of Financial Management continues to prepare ITA's FY 2009 President's Budget Submission to Congress. Details on the budget and copies of budget request materials will be made available after the President's Budget is released on February 4, 2008. For more information please contact Michael House at (202) 482-5739.

ITA First Quarter Performance Health

During the first quarter on FY 2008, ITA achieved the majority of its key performance targets.

Overall Export Success production for the first quarter of FY 08 was the highest production level in five years and was more than double that of FY07 during the same period. Although New-to-Export (NTE) and New-to-Market (NTM) numbers fell short of the first quarter goals, this was a reflection of the extraordinary effort US&FCS offices made to harvest all available NTE and NTM outcomes at the end of FY 2007. A concerted effort to meet future targets is underway.
Import Administration (IA) exceeded its target for “Percentage of AD/CVD determinations issued within statutory and/or regulatory deadlines” by three percentage points. IA undertook 95 determinations during the first quarter of FY 2008 of which 88 determinations were issued within statutory and/or regulatory deadlines. 83 cases had statutory mandated deadlines and constituted the vast majority (87%) of determinations issued. The first quarter highlighted IA's work of applying the U.S. Countervailing Duty (CVD) law to China. IA was also well below its targeted error rate of 12% for the “Percent of ministerial errors in IA's dumping and subsidy calculations”. (Present error rate is at 3.3% although lagging data means the final rate will not be available until February).
MAC performed exceptionally well and exceeded targets for the “Percentage of Market Access and Compliance Cases Concluded Successfully” for the first quarter. MAC will review second quarter results to see if this was an outlier data point or part of a trend. During the first quarter, the “Value of MAC Cases Resolved Successfully” exceeded its target by over 30%. The planned target value for MAC cases resolved was $375 Million; the actual result was over $1.2B.

Please note that several outcome measures are tracked in ITA programs on an annual basis and those outcomes are not included in this report. Please contact Ed Meyer at (202) 482-3304 or Dondi Ojeda at (202) 482-5204 for additional information on ITA performance and results.

Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) Quarterly Statements

If you have recently received your TSP quarterly statement that was for the period July 1 – September 30, the Thrift Board is aware that this was in error. It should have been for the fourth quarter of the calendar year and not the third. TSP is re-mailing the fourth quarter (October 1 – December 31) statements out with an insert apologizing for the error. If you have any questions about TSP, please call Karen Brown at (202) 482-8065 or via email at Karen.Brown@mail.doc.gov.

Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) Annual Statements

Beginning in February, whether you usually receive your quarterly Thrift Savings Plan statements in the mail or via the TSP Web site, the TSP will send you an annual participant statement. The statement provides valuable information about your investments as of the end of the previous year as well as the personal information the TSP has on file for you -- including a list of your beneficiaries, if you have designated any. It also contains your account number, which you must use when accessing the secure sections of the Web site and the ThriftLine or completing most TSP forms. If you have any questions about TSP, please call Karen Brown at (202) 482-8065 or via email at Karen.Brown@mail.doc.gov.

Question of The Day

Can you answer the trivia question? Be featured in our bi-weekly Administrivial Pursuits by answering or providing trivia questions. Questions and answers may be submitted to Nina Harris via email Nina.Harris@mail.doc.gov.

Trivia Question: What should a traveler do when a gift of cash or a check is offered for travel expenses by an outside source?

Answer to Last Issue's Question: Is a traveler’s allowance for meals reduced if a meal is provided by a common carrier or a complimentary meal is provided by the hotel/motel? Answer: An ITA employee is prohibited from soliciting payment for travel, subsistence and related travel expenses from a non-Federal source, but may accept a travel gift if it is offered by a non-Federal source and is approved by the program Deputy Assistant Secretary. If you have questions, please call Sharon Russell at (202) 482-3267.

Travelers Corner

ITA travelers are reminded that contract carriers must be used when traveling on official Government travel unless one or more the following conditions exits which should be noted in Block #15 of the travel order: (1) Space on a scheduled contract flight is not available in time to accomplish the Department’s mission or the use of a contract carrier would require the traveler to incur unnecessary overnight lodging costs which would increase the total cost of the trip; (2) The contractor’s flight schedule is inconsistent with policies of the Department with regard to scheduling travel during normal working hours; (3) A non-contract carrier offers a lower fare available to the general public, the use of which will result in a lower trip cost to the Government, to include the combined costs of transportation, lodging, meals and related expenses. The GSA Federal Travel Regulations require that all airline tickets must be purchased from your designated Travel Management Center. In addition, when travelers use a non-contract carrier or if there are not contract fares in a particular market, the fares are not guaranteed until they are ticketed. The only fares that are guaranteed are Government contract fares. If you have questions, please call your travel contact or Sharon Russell at (202) 482-3267.

Where Do I Find... the form to gain access to the CBS Portal?

Launch the CBS portal website: http://cbs.nist.gov/portal and locate the link for "Access Forms" in the User Login section. Click on the link and select CBS Business Systems Portal Access Form. Follow the instructions to complete the form and mail it to the address listed. The NIST CIC (Customer Interaction Center) will contact you with your account information. If you have any questions when completing the form, please contact the CIC help desk at (301) 975-5375.