Prompt Payments - Congratulations!

We are pleased to be able to report that ITA has exceeded the Government's prompt payment standard (95%) in five of the past 6 months.  This means that over 95% of our invoices were paid on time.  Many people worked hard to achieve this goal after several years of falling short.  Congratulations, thanks for your efforts and keep up the good work!

New Procedures for Publishing Federal Register Documents

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued a directive that requires agencies to use the new "ADDRESSES" template located at http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/document_

drafting_handbook/address.html when drafting regulatory actions that offer opportunity for the public comment.  These include: Proposed Rules; Direct Final Rules and Interim Rules.  All submissions received by the Office of the Federal Register must include  name and docket number or Regulatory Information Number (RIN) for this rulemaking.  For additional information refer to OOMS 29, "How to Publish Documents in the Federal Register, or to the Document Drafting Handbook.  For further guidance, contact your program unit's Federal Register Certifying Officer at http://www.ita.doc.gov/ooms/FRcontacts.htm

/FRcontacts.htm or Glenitta Chase at (202)482-3757.

E-travel Update

The Department has decided to combine its etravel and travel manager center evaluation efforts, and has formed teams to evaluate the full range of major travel services (e.g. travel services, security, reports, technical interfaces).  From these evaluations, the team will develop a comprehensive solicitation report by this summer and  will choose one of  the 3 GSA etravel options  (Carlson-Wagonlit, Northrop-American Express, or EDS-Navigant) to provide a complete array of travel services.  If you have questions, contact Hamilton Humes at (202)482-6123.  

Procurement Cut-off Dates

NOAA's Acquisition Management Division (AMD) has adopted the following cutoff dates for receipt of fiscal year 2004 procurement requests from ITA. A complete procurement request package with all necessary approvals and documentation must be received by NOAA by the cutoff date. Any requirement received after the cutoff date must be accompanied by either a hard-copy memo or an e-mail from the line office Assistant Administrator to the Director of AMD, Gary Rice indicating the requisition number, description of service/supply, project officer, purpose and criticality of acquisition, priority of acquisition and reason for delayed submittal. Cut-off dates are as follows:

• Any order for services against an existing contract (GSA Schedule or other) - June 30, 2004

• Any order for supplies/products against an existing contract (GSA Schedule or other) - July 30, 2004

• Orders $0.0 - $24,999.99 - August 31 
• Orders $25,000 - $100,000  - July 16

We recommend that, whenever possible, you use the purchase card. If you have questions, or need additional information, please contact Robin Carpenter at (202)482-4989.

DOI/NBC (our accounting provider) is NOT affiliated with Employee Express. When you make changes to your banking information, you must submit the same information to NBC.  All reimbursements made by DOI/NBC to an employee will be sent to the account information that DOI/NBC has on file.  New employees must submit banking information with their first claim for reimbursement.  Bank account change notification forms are available via Internet by logging on to Our Place, selecting ITA Forms, and then selecting ITA-2056 ACH Vendor/Miscellaneous Payment Enrollment Form or http://ourplace.ita.doc.gov/DOC/workflow.nsf.  If you have questions. contact Roxanna Allen at (202)482-8363 

FY 2006  Budget  

ITA's FY 2006 Budget New Initiatives have been approved by the Under Secretary and will be included in the ITA FY 2006 budget in priority order.  Budget analysts are working with resource coordinators to put the requests into a budget request for fiscal year 2006 that will be submitted to the Office of the Secretary on May 19th.  This budget will focus on efforts to assist and support the manufacturing sector through analysis of both domestic and international competitiveness. In addition to helping U.S. manufacturers, ITA will embark on a number of priority programs to advance the competitiveness of American industry in the world marketplace-(1) Expanding global intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement by cracking down on IPR violators;

(2) Expanding textile trade with China by addressing problems where U.S. companies see roadblocks; (3) Decreasing standards problems that impede U.S. exports by supporting U.S. industry's desire for more analysis of emerging overseas standards issues and their effect on U.S. companies' competitiveness.   For additional information, contact Amy Duncan at (202)482-5739. 

Performance Management in the FY 2006 Secretarial 

Budget Request 

As directed by the President's Management Agenda and the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), ITA has identified three performance goals that drive the content and structure of the fiscal year 2006 Secretarial Budget Request.  The three major agency-specific goals are:  (1) Strengthen U.S. Industries. This goal deals with work performed by the Manufacturing and Services program;  (2) Expand the U.S. Exporter Base. This goal captures trade promotion efforts performed by the Trade Promotion and U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service; and (3) Ensure Fair Competition in International Trade.  This goal encompasses trade law enforcement and compliance work done primarily by the Market Access and Compliance and Import Administration programs.  Through these three goals, ITA supports the Commerce Department's core mission of promoting job creation and improving living standards for all Americans.  For additional information on ITA's goals, contact Halina Malinowski at (202)482-4083.

Audit Notes

Under a series of legislative initiatives beginning in 1990, the Federal Government embarked on a course to increase the quality of the financial management information used to manage its activities.  These legislative initiatives include:

1. Chief financial Officers Act of 1990
2. Government Management Reform Act of 1994
3. Federal financial Management Improvement Act of 1996

Each of these laws deals with the preparation and audit of annual financial statements by Federal agencies. KPMG has been selected as the auditor for FY2004. FY2004 audit for ITA is currently in progress.  The test work at the CS Office in St. Louis was completed in late April and the Auditors will be in Italy the week of May 17 to conduct test work.  If you have questions, please contact Leslie Hyland at (202)482-5434.

The exit interview is used to gather information from employees who have decided to leave ITA. The exit interview is administered by the Office of Human Resources Management through a questionnaire that is provided to departing employees. The questionnaire contains questions on topics such as training and development, awards and recognition, the work environment, and the quality and quantity of work assigned. The answers to these questions provide valuable information that can be used to identify the reasons for turnover/attrition in ITA and provide insight for designing retention tools aimed at retaining good employees. The exit interview is designed to improve data collected for the measurement of "Job Satisfaction"-one of the ITA-wide performance measures. If you plan to leave ITA, please take a few minutes to complete the exit interview. Your responses to the questions will help us identify our strengths and weaknesses as an organization. If you have questions,  contact Robert Montague at (202)482-8088.

Procurement/Purchase Card Update

OOMS is introducing a new series of articles to Administrivial Pursuits.  Articles on procurement and purchase cards will appear once a month. For those who have questions regarding procurement or purchase card policies you will find your answer here. If you have questions and answers you want to see posted in the new series, contact Robin Carpenter.

Question: How do I apply for a $2,500 purchase card?

Answer: A new Cardholder must fill out the ITA2058 (Government Purchase Card Set-Up Form) by accessing "Ourplace" and must take the GSA on-line training located at the following website: http://apps.fss.gsa.gov/webtraining/trainingdocs/smartpaytraining/index.cfm

/index.cfmsmartpaytraining/index.cfm. Both the application and generated certificate of completion from the on-line training must be submitted to Robin Carpenter, room 4001, with all required signatures. If you have questions, contact Robin Carpenter at (202)482-4989.

Where Do I Find.... How No Pay Effects Benefits? You can find information about how no pay, (i.e., LWOP, AWOL) will effect your benefits at http://www.ita.doc.gov/hrm/nonpay.html. For more information on Leave Without Official Pay (LWOP), contact Vanessa Lewis at (202)482-8327 or Dottie Bowling at (202)482-3504.