Judgment Fund Journal Spring 2002: Judgment Fund: Programs and Systems: Financial Management Service

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Judgment Fund Journal Spring 2002

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Incomplete Claim Forms

by Phyllis White

In the past few months, The Judgment Fund Staff has received many incorrect or incomplete claims submissions for our processing. Approximately three out of every four submissions received in this office are either incomplete or incorrect. These submissions are increasing the processing time for the payment of the claim. The analysts spend many hours of the workday making phone calls, E-mails and faxing questions to the agencies requesting the missing or the corrected documents. This extra work ultimately impacts the time it takes for the agency to receive the check.

Both your agency and the Judgment Fund Staff could benefit greatly if the submitting agency would take an extra few moments to ensure that all of the necessary documents are enclosed in the package. The FMS Form 197 or 197A must agree with the Court document or the Settlement Agreement pertinent to the case being submitted. We are open to your suggestions that may be E-mailed to us at the following address: Judgment.Fund@fms.treas.gov.

Contract Disputes Act

We are in the process of sending out to all Federal Agencies a letter advising the agencies that the Financial Management Service will no longer accept checks as reimbursements to the Judgment Fund. The IPAC (Intra-governmental Payment and Collection) system is the preferred way of transferring funds between agencies. If you are not enrolled in IPAC but make payments to FMS, you should contact the GOALS Customer Support Staff (202) 874-8270 or fax (202) 874-6170 for enrollment information.

The payment voucher (FMS 197 or 197A) is being redesigned for clarity and additional space has been added for reimbursement information. If you have any suggestions for the form, please contact us at our E-mail address Judgment.Fund@fms.treas.gov.

Paid Claim Submissions

We have experienced a few delays and problems with initiating the phase in the Judgment Fund System database with uploading the paid date to the web site. We hope that we have now solved most of the problems and you will see a vast improvement on the web site. Please type: http://www.fms.treas.gov/judgefund select "Search Judgment Fund Transactions by Agency". Information can be found on the Web site by entering the agency, which is a required field, and either the agency reference number, received date, Judgment Fund ID number or payment amount. The Web site should provide agencies with a quick and easy way to check a status. However, you may continue to call (202) 874-6664 for status.

Judgment Fund Staff Presentation

If you are in the Washington D.C. area and would like for the Judgment Fund Staff to give a presentation, outlining the Laws and Regulations that govern the Judgment Fund and the completion of our Forms, please contact us at our E-mail address or contact Wayne.Jones@fms.treas.gov. Either we will come to your agency or you may come to our office in Hyattsville, Maryland. For those not in the area, we do have handouts and a Power Point presentation we can E-mail you. However, if you can come to us, that would be great. Please let us know if you are interested.