In this Issue

Features

Procurement/Purchase Card Corner
Where Do I Find

New Business Card templates for ITA

All ITA employees who have supervisory approval to have business cards can obtain them by providing a completed SF-1 and an ITA Business Card Procurement Form to the Commerce print shop. ITA will cover up to $60 for approved business cards. The cost to print 250 cards using the template is $35 and for 500 is $55. To obtain the correct forms, visit http://trade.gov/brand and click on the link under "templates" labeled "business cards". Additional templates reflecting the new ITA brand include PowerPoint templates, a MS Word document, briefing book cover and CD labels. More templates will be made available as they are established.

If you would like to learn more about the ITA brand and how it applies to you and your office, please feel free to attend a brown bag session either on January 31 in room 6059 between 1 and 2 p.m. or on February 14 in room B-841A between 1 and 2 p.m. If you have questions contact Cory Churches at (202)482-3251.

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

How does one handle documents that originated from and have been classified by a foreign government? If the documents are responsive to a FOIA request, submit them to the FOIA Officer along with all other responsive material. The document would be withheld from the FOIA requester under exemption (b)(1). We do not release documents classified by other governments. If you have any questions on this or any other FOIA-related issues, call Linda Bell at (202)482-3032 or e-mail her at Linda.Bell@mail.doc.gov .

Maintain Complete, Accurate Personal Property Inventories

Thank you to all ITA Property Accountability Officers and Property Custodians for your hard work and dedication in fulfilling ITA’s personal property inventory training requirements. ITA has now trained 100% of its property officials and has gone to green status in seven of its ten property inventory milestones. As a reminder, to ensure ITA’s property inventory is accurate, you must continually update your property inventory list whenever you add, delete, or transfer any accountable property in your office. If you are a Purchase Cardholder, please provide your Property Custodian with purchase records for entry into the inventory system for any new property purchases. ITA plans to migrate to the Sunflower Personal Property Management System next Fiscal Year, and it is essential that our property records are 100% accurate in preparation for this migration. If you have questions, please contact ITA’s Property Management Officer, Jeff Scherr, at (202) 482-3266.

ITA Security Containers

The Department's Office of Security (OSY) is currently conducting inspections of all ITA security containers (i.e. safes). All containers holding National Security Information (NSI) must be inspected annually. Employees who are container custodians are required to properly secure and maintain all classified information in their possession. Custodians should examine the contents of their containers prior to the OSY security inspections. The security briefing at the following link: \\HQ-FS02\global\Security Briefings\ITA Information Security Briefing.ppt provides information regarding the requirements for securing, marking, retaining, destroying and declassifying NSI. Questions regarding the protection of NSI, container inspections or other security issues may be addressed to the ITA Security Program Manager, Kurt Arneson at (202)482-3633 or via email Kurt.Arneson@mail.doc.gov .

Avoiding Interest Penalties When Paying Bills

All Federal Agencies are monitored regarding the timely payments of bills. Generally, bills paid after 30 days require an interest payment to the vendor. The performance standard for Federal Agencies is that 98% of bills be paid on time and without interest payments. In order to meet this standard you are required to send all payment documentation to the National Business Center (NBC) within 5 business days of receipt of an invoice. Ensure that the invoice has the date that the goods and services were received. This is important because the date the goods and services were received indicated on the purchase order is the date NBC uses in determining if interest is due. If this date is not annotated on the invoice, the only date that NBC can use to start the 30-day bill paying clock is the invoice date. By using the invoice date to calculate interest, ITA could be paying unnecessary late interest payments. If you have questions, contact Roxanna Allen at (202)482-8363 or Roxanna.Allen@mail.doc.gov.

W-2 Forms

Employees should receive their W-2 forms for the 2006 tax year by early February 2007. If you have not received the form by February 9, 2007, you can either contact the Office of Human Resources Management (OHRM) or you can go to the Employee Personal Page (EPP) at the National Finance Center’s (NFC) website and print out a copy of your W-2 form. Go to http://www.nfc.usda.gov/ and click on My EPP. Press the ENTER key or click on ACCEPT to continue. Enter your social security number and Password then click LOGIN. Then scroll down to W-2 and click on that. You can print out your 2006 W-2 form. If you have not previously signed up with EPP, you should access the website above and select My EPP to obtain a password to view your data. NFC will mail the password directly to you. The NFC-assigned password must be changed by the employee on the first access to EPP. If you have any questions about EPP, please contact Tawana Fonseca at (202)482-4275 or via email at Tawana.Fonseca@mail.doc.gov.

Procurement/Purchase Card Corner

C.Request Training
As a reminder the electronic acquisition system, c.request was deployed on October 16, 2006. ITA's Acquisition office (NOAA) is only accepting procurement actions that have been entered in the c.request system. Anyone who will submit a procurement request must take c.request training. Therefore, it is imperative that you sign-up for the Requisitioner or Reviewer/Approval training class. The Office of Acquisition Management will be conducting C.Request Requsitioner and C.Request Reviewer/Approver classes for those who have not taken the training. To reserve your seat please send an email to Frank Krempa at fkrempa@doc.gov with the date and time of the class you would like to attend, seating will be reserved on a first come first serve basis.
C.Request Requisitioner Training - Room 5022
February 7 9:00 AM – 2:30 PM
February 8 9:00 AM – 2:30 PM
February 12 9:00 AM – 2:30 PM
February 26 9:00 AM – 2:30 PM

C.Request Review and Approver Training - Room 5022
February 6 9:00 AM
February 6 1:00 PM
Requisitioner classes are designed for anyone who needs an understanding of how to enter a requisition in C.Request. Reviewer/Approver class is designed for anyone who will be reviewing or approving a requisition, i.e. supervisor, budget officials. If you have questions please contact Robin Carpenter at (202)482-4989 or via email at Robin.Carpenter@mail.doc.gov .

Where Do I Find ..... Information on Alternative Work Schedules?

Alternative work schedules are an umbrella term that refers to compressed work schedules and flexible work schedules. Compressed work schedules are a fixed work schedule with no flexible bands in which an employee can complete the biweekly work requirement in less than 10 workdays. Flexible work schedules means one of several types of work schedules, all of which comprise core hours and flexible time bands. The term “core hours” is used in the context of flexible work schedules. It refers to the scheduled hours of the workday during which an employee must either be present at work, on leave or using credit hours. Flexible time band refers to the time periods on either side of the core hours during the workday, workweek or pay period within the tour of duty in which the employee can vary arrival or departure time or work credit hours. Only employees who are on a flexible work schedule can earn credit hours. To learn more about alternative work schedules, go to the Department’s Office of Human Resources Management website at http://ohrm.os.doc.gov/index.htm and click on the A-Z Index at the top and then click on Alternative Work Schedule. If you have any questions about alternative work schedules, including compressed work schedules or fixed work schedules with flexible time bands, please contact Robert Montague at (202)482-8088 or via email at Robert.Montague@mail.doc.gov.