The following article is also available
on the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program
website in their Summer
2004 newsletter.
Pay.gov - Reinventing Government Collections
The combination of the "Government
Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA)" and the "President's
Management Agenda" has compelled agencies to review how they
conduct business and, in the process, how to be citizen-centered,
results-orientated and market-based. An initiative of enormous potential
in helping agencies meet these goals is the e-commerce application
- Pay.gov.
What is Pay.gov?
Pay.gov is the e-commerce initiative
developed by the US Treasury allowing citizens, businesses and federal
agencies to process transactions via the internet. The system can
be used for collections, such as fees, fines, sales, leases, loan
payments, and certain taxes, such as excise taxes, but not income
taxes.
Launched in October 2000 the application
has processed (by end-April 2004) over 700 thousand transactions
totaling more than 10 billion dollars.
At its launch, Gary Grippo (then
Chief Architect of Electronic Commerce at the Treasury's Financial
Management Service, now Assistant Commissioner, Federal Finance)
described the benefits: "Pay.gov will save the Government money
by eliminating paper processing and speeding the deposit of money
into the Treasury. It benefits the general public by providing convenient,
24x7 access to Government services."
Services Provided
Pay.gov provides the following suite
of services, enabling an agency to gather information from their
customers via the Internet to initiate and process their collections:
Collections
Reporting
Billing and Notification
Forms
Verification Service
Collections
Pay.gov processes ACH (Automatic
Clearing House) Debits and Plastic Card collections. The ACH Debits
are processed through the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland which
forward deposits to CA$HLINKII. Deferred and recurring payment options
are available. Plastic card transactions are processed through Mellon
Bank and Bank of America. The following credit cards are supported
- American Express, Discover, Diners Club, Master Card and Visa.
Pay.gov offers several ways to initiate
a collection:
An agency can redirect an end-user
from their website to a collection page hosted by Pay.gov or an
agency can send a batch file of collections for processing through
Pay.gov using Pay.gov's secure batch interface.
A form hosted by Pay.gov or by an agency - upon completion the end-user
is directed to a collections page.
In response to a notification/bill sent by Pay.gov on behalf of
an agency requesting payment.
Reports
An extensive range of reports are
provided, allowing for transaction reconciliation with reports from
other financial applications such as CA$HLINK II or settlement agents.
The reporting service delivers transaction details via two mechanisms
- online reports and activity files. Online Reports display the
transaction details as webpages while activity files provide the
transaction details in electronic format, allowing the agency to
download and incorporate the information directly into their own
databases.
Forms
Pay.gov can host agency forms. The forms can be
configured to mirror (to the extent practical) their paper counterparts,
including OMB and agency control numbers, Paperwork Reduction Act
and Privacy Act notices, agency logos, and instructions. Forms can
be used to either gather information for administration purposes
such as production reporting, or to initiate an associated collection.
Billing & Notification
Allows agencies to send out notifications of payment
due. The notifications are sent to the user via email. If the bill
has an associated payment, a link is included directing the user
to the Pay.gov Billing page where the information can be reviewed
and, if applicable, payment made.
Verification Service
Enables agencies to authenticate potential customers
of their site in "real time." The customer provides key
pieces of information about themselves, the Verification Service
references government and commercial databases to confirm the authenticity
of the information provided. The Verification Service can be used
merely as a verification engine for agencies to authenticate their
customers or it can be used to control access to specific forms
hosted by Pay.gov.
Security
Pay.gov resides in the Treasury Web Application
Infrastructure (TWAI) - a highly secure environment provided by
the Federal Reserve Information Technology (FRIT). All communications
between Pay.gov and the agencies use dedicated lines, virtual private
networks, or 128-bit hardware-based, version 3-only Secure Sockets
Layer (SSL) encryption. This architecture is certified and accredited
to National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) and Federal
Information Security Management Act (FISMA) standards.
In addition to Pay.gov's Production environment,
Pay.gov offers a QA environment to enable agencies to test their
system-to-system interface to Pay.gov or to validate the form or
bill developed for them for hosting on Pay.gov.
Who's using Pay.gov?
A wide range of government agencies are currently
on-board with Pay.gov processing collections ranging from payment
processing of I-90 renewals for the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration
Services through to collection of excise taxes for the Alcohol and
Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Pay.gov was also chosen by the Federal
Trade Commission as its back-end collection service for online sales
of "Do Not Call" lists to telemarketers. Currently approximately
40 applications are on board with another 20 in test.
The Pay.gov site is available 24 hours a day,
7 days a week (holidays included) for customers to submit payments
(Note, that collection transactions are processed in accordance
with the ACH and plastic card standard processing schedules.)
"It is a perfect example of true cross-agency
benefits and an example of what e-government should be," said
Chip Mather, senior vice president of Acquisition Solutions Inc.,
which advises the federal government on best practices and acquisitions.
