USDA - APHIS

Financial Management Division (FMD) - Debt Management Team

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The Debt Management Team (DMT) is responsible for APHIS and GIPSA debt management of program debt for reimbursable agreements, user fees, civil penalties, reimbursable overtime, and other miscellaneous activities.

DMT staff members collect agency debts that are overdue and are not governed by the user fee legislation. While most of our debts involve reimbursable services, many are established to recover funds for damage to government property, contract defaults or overpayments, and penalties assessed for violation of administrative laws. To facilitate our successes, we fully utilize our skills in financial analysis, investigation, and negotiation. More specifically, we:

Provide credit and debt management services for the agency in commercial and military reimbursable overtime service, reimbursable agreements, civil penalties, and miscellaneous debts and user fees.
Provide assistance to agency staff in procedural enhancements and provide training in the specific topics involved.
Locate debtor and violators who attempt to evade collection efforts by using investigative techniques.

DMT is responsible for the collection of Veterinary Services and PPQ Agricultural Inspection User Fees. They include the following:

Phytosanitary certificates
Aircraft clearance and passenger fees
Animal Health Certificates
Veterinary Diagnostic Testing

Mission

To collect 100% of our Agency's debt in the most cost-effective manner while providing statistical information that ensures agencies' accountability in financial decisions.

We are responsible for the collection of fees from:

Veterinary Services User Fees
PPQ Agricultural Quarantine Inspections
- International passenger
- Aircraft clearance
- Railroad cars
- Reimbursable Overtime
- Export Certificates
Wildlife Service Agreements
APHIS & GIPSA Civil Penalties
APHIS Miscellaneous Bills (Trust Funds, Contracts, etc.)

Customers

PPQ - Funds collected are part of PPQ's budget.
VS - Funds collected are part of VS's budget.
WS - Reimbursable agreement collections
IES - Uses data for monitoring civil penalty activity
GIPSA - Uses all services for civil penalties-credit bureau reporting, skip tracing, referrals to Treasury Offset Program, DOJ

Role

The DMT is a centralized debt management unit at FMD. Our strategy is to have a professionally trained staff to perform debt collection precluding the program units from the time and aggravation of chasing debts themselves, and allowing them to concentrate on their mission work. Our team of collectors are experienced in every aspect of overdue account management, including important debt collection techniques. Team members perform the full range of debt collection activities which include:

Negotiating payment plans
Providing guidance and assistance to field offices on billing and collection issues
Providing the necessary follow-up actions on delinquent debts resulting from billings initiated by APHIS and/or NFC
Suspending credit privileges when necessary for seriously delinquent accounts
Suspending services when necessary for seriously delinquent accounts
Notifying field offices when debtors are suspended or on COD
Determining the creditworthiness of potential customers and approving credit accounts for new customers
Referring delinquent accounts as necessary to the Department of Treasury, Department of Justice (DOJ) for litigation, and for write-off.

Program, field and headquarters offices are not required to attempt collection of outstanding debts, but may be asked for assistance from DMT.

Debt Management Strategy

Debt management refers to recording, tracking and collecting outstanding debts owed to APHIS.

The key to successful management of debts is to:

Promptly record, in a centralized book (system) of record, all amounts due after services or goods were provided
Quickly collect all the money due to us
Follow-up quickly, forcefully, and persistently when debts become delinquent
Accurately report on the status of our Agency's receivables and/or collections to the appropriate internal and external entities.

Successful businesses take early action to collect overdue accounts rather than waiting until the debt has become a major problem. Regular notices and telephone contacts reminding debtors of past due amounts, along with the forewarnings of suspension of credit privileges and suspension of services, is necessary to keep the numbers of delinquent accounts manageable. Any reduction of these efforts could result in lost revenue needed to fund program operations. We are determined to take timely, forceful, and persistent action to collect debts that become delinquent. The sooner we begin taking actions to collect delinquent debts, the more likely it is that the debt will be collected.

DMT's actions are taken to:

Prevent unexplained or prolonged delays in collection,
Prevent the occurrence of additional debts, and
Identify potential causes for and clarify misunderstandings of the billing process.

Tasks

Debt Management for all APHIS debts. (i.e. VS, PPQ ROT, AQI, WS, Civil Penalties, and miscellaneous bills)
Determine credit worthiness of potential customers, maintain accounts for VS and PPQ.
Reporting to VS, PPQ, WS and IES on the status of accounts.
Provide financial management services

Tools

Dun & Bradstreet's Risk Assessment Manager (RAM) software
National Finance Center's Financial Foundation Information System (FFIS)
VS User Fee System (UFS)
IES Compliance Investigation Tracking System (CITS)
Treasury Cross Servicing
Treasury Offset Process (TOP)
Referrals to Department of Justice for litigation
IRS Form 1099/IRS Tax Offset
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