FEDLINK INFORMATION ALERT 2004-5
The Federal Library and Information Center Committee--The Library of
Congress--101 Independence Avenue S.E., Washington, D.C.
20540-4935--Phone: (202) 707-4800--FEDLINK Fiscal Hotline (202)
707-4900--URL: http://www.loc.gov/flicc/

TO: FEDLINK Members and FEDLINK Vendors
FROM: Joseph Banks, FEDLINK Business Manager
DATE: June 23, 2004
SUBJECT: FY2004 End-of-Year Schedule

1. End-of-Year Schedule

FEDLINK will accept authorized transfer pay orders and signed
interagency agreements (IAGs) for direct pay fees from member agencies
up until 4:30 p.m. (ET) on September 24, 2004. For direct pay fee IAGs,
members must meet their agency's FY2004 deadlines for orders or order
modifications if the agency uses annual funds.

Members participating in the Direct Express program should contact
their local procurement office to meet their end-of-year deadlines.

FEDLINK is authorized to accept signed IAGs and amendments by fax,
pending receipt of originals via courier service or mail. This reduces
the lead time necessary to add funds to purchase information products
and services at the end of the fiscal year.

Please follow the instructions for increasing or decreasing funds as
described in each section of this information alert. For assistance,
please call the FEDLINK Hotline at (202) 707-4900.

2. Bona Fide Need

To make an end-of-year purchase, member agencies with annual funds and
a bona fide need for this year may place an order with the revolving
fund while those annual funds are available. The revolving fund lifts
the requirement that FEDLINK fulfill the customer's order during this
fiscal year or contract to fill that order during this fiscal year.
(Reference: GAO Principles of Federal Law, Volume IV, March 2002, pp.
15-160-161.)

3. Increasing Funds--Augmenting Existing Accounts or Adding New
Services

Member agencies may add funds for anticipated additional requirements,
deficits, rejected invoices or invoices that the vendor has not yet
submitted. Per the attached schedule, member agencies may: 1) move funds
between existing accounts through September 13, 2004; 2) add new funds
to a transfer pay order/IAG through September 20, 2004; 3) begin a new
service by creating a new transfer pay order/IAG through September 9,
2004. Excluding move funds transactions, member agencies must return
signed new IAGs and amendments for transfer and direct pay accounts and
provide funds certification for the new amounts by September 24, 2004.

Direct pay users should note: To expedite your end-of-year order, you
may send in your direct pay purchase orders over $100,000 (and any
supporting documentation) with your request form instead of waiting to
attach them to your IAG amendment.

Procurement Thresholds for Books and Serials

If the funding increase causes an existing account or new service
account for books and serials to go over $25,000, order requirements may
need to be synopsized with www.fedbizopps.gov, the online portal for
federal government procurement opportunities over $25,000. For
procurements over the $100,000 simplified acquisition threshold, FEDLINK
may assist transfer pay members in a formal competition.

Members who anticipate a $100,000 action or any other action that will
require extensive coordination or a formal competition, such as a new
serials account, should contact a FEDLINK contracting officer right
away. If a direct pay action will cross the procurement thresholds,
members need to give their agency's contracting officer enough time to
synopsize any requirements and/or conduct competitions. For details,
call FEDLINK Contract Services at (202) 707-0461.

Forms and Supporting Documentation

Use the Transfer Pay Adjustment form (available through the Online
Registration Page of the FLICC/FEDLINK Web Site at
http://www.loc.gov/flicc/onlinedoc/online.html) for all transactions
that increase or decrease funding in your services. Complete the form
online, print out a copy, and fax it to the FEDLINK Member Services at
(202) 707-4999. Printed copies of the form are also available from the
FEDLINK Fiscal Hotline.

Remember to send in the supporting documentation that LC/Contracts
needs to issue your delivery order. This includes: names of ordering
officials for new transfer pay books accounts; direct pay P.O.
modification; direct pay proof of synopsis for new books and serials
services over $25,000; and selection documentation for direct pay books
and serials actions over $100,000.

4. Decreasing Funds--Moving Funds Out of Accounts and Requesting
Terminations and Refunds

Before moving or refunding funds, members certify they have spoken with
vendors and have enough funds to cover all charges against the account
to be reduced. FEDLINK then verifies vendors' concurrence that all
outstanding charges are accounted for. Members must be careful not to
"spend" any funds intended to be moved or refunded. The deadline
to submit a signed request to move funds to another vendor account is
September 13, 2004. However, the deadline to submit a signed request to
move funds to another vendor account to begin a new service is September
9.

Instead of requesting a refund, members may find it useful to move
money into other accounts to cover anticipated expenses. This reduces
the likelihood of having to transfer additional FY 2004 funds to FEDLINK
to cover deficits at some time in the future. For example, a member
might move funds into a serials account to cover supplementals or
bill-laters, or into a database account to cover online subscription
charges.

Please contact the FEDLINK OCLC team at [log in to unmask] or (202)
707-4846 by August 31, 2004 if you are canceling OCLC services at the
end of FY2004.

Sufficient Remaining Balances

When you decrease the funds in an account, you must leave sufficient
funds behind to cover rejected invoices, pending invoices, on-order
items, and your August and September usage. The Transfer Pay Account
Adjustment form, which you use for both money moves and refunds,
requires that you certify that you have checked with the vendor and that
funds that remain in the account will be sufficient to cover all charges
against the account. To be sure your accounts are not left in the red,
FFO will double-check with the vendor to be sure all outstanding charges
are accounted for before moving funds out of your account or refunding
money.

Additional Usage

Because no decrease takes effect until a delivery order is issued, you
must be careful that your agency does not "spend" the money you
intend to have moved/refunded by placing orders against it after you
have submitted a request to decrease funds. Similarly, your agency will
be responsible for any usage incurred between the time you submit a
request to terminate a service and the time the final delivery order is
issued.

Refunds

Refund requests may be processed at any time, but in order for your
agency to receive a refund in time to "reobligate" the funds this
fiscal year, your request must be submitted by July 31, 2004. You should
be aware of a federal financial procedure that can make your current
year refund available for reobligation before your agency actually
receives the refund check/EFT from LC. After you receive a copy of the
LC delivery order that deobligates your funds from the vendor, your
finance office may "book a receivable" in the exact amount of the
delivery order. This is the exact amount LC will refund to your agency.
With a receivable on the books, your agency may obligate the funds, even
though LC has not yet transferred the cash back into your agency's
account.

Forms and Supporting Documentation

Use the Transfer Pay Account Adjustment form on the Online Registration
page at http://www.loc.gov/flicc/onlinedoc/online.html for all
transactions that decrease the funding in your services.

5. New Library of Congress Financial System Will Affect Fall Payment
Processing

The Library of Congress (LC) will implement a new financial management
system this fall. During its installation and data conversion efforts,
LC anticipates a 45-60 day period when FEDLINK (and other LC service
units) will not be able to process or disburse vendor payments through
the LC central payment system. The current time line indicates this
period will begin at the end of September 2004 and last through
mid-November.

FEDLINK will process all current and prior year vendor invoices
submitted by September 10, 2004. To reduce delays, vendors should review
any unpaid invoices with valid delivery orders that they have in-house
and submit them to the FEDLINK Fiscal Office/Accounts Payable Section
for payment processing as soon as possible. (Please allow extra time for
mail delivery to LC because of increased screening.)

Vendors should also submit any invoices previously returned due to
insufficient funds or without a FY2004 interagency agreement that now
have a new delivery order that corrects these issues. Vendors should
also submit any "end-of-year" orders ready to be invoiced by the
submission deadline.

Vendors with questions or concerns about invoice processing should
contact Mary Wilson, head of FEDLINK's Account Payable Section, at
(202) 707-4970.

6. Assistance

To review your accounts and plan your end-of-year actions, log onto the
FEDLINK electronic fiscal reporting system, ALIX-FS, at
http://www.loc.gov/flicc/fedlacct.html to check account balances and
recent transactions. For assistance with your account or end-of-year
transactions, call the Fiscal Hotline at (202) 707-4900; fax: (202)
707-4999; email: [log in to unmask]

End-of-Year Schedule for FY2004 Accounts

FEDLINK Fiscal Operations (FFO) must receive requests for adding or
canceling services, or for adding or transferring funds, by the
deadlines noted below to complete necessary Interagency Agreement (IAG)
activity by the end of FY2004. Requests received after these dates
cannot be processed this fiscal year.

REFUND
Requests for refunds must be received in FFO (to ensure receipt in your
agency before September 30, 2004)--July 31

TERMINATION
Requests to terminate service before the delivery order expires must be
received in FFO--August 31

ADD NEW SERVICE REQUEST
Requests to add a new service account must be received in
FFO--September 9

ADD NEW FUNDS REQUEST
Requests to add new funds to an existing account must be received in
FFO--September 20

RETURN OF SIGNED IAG
ALL SIGNED IAGs MUST BE RECEIVED IN FFO (no exceptions)--September 24

MOVE FUNDS
Requests to move funds to another vendor must be signed and received in
FFO (with no new service request)--September 13

For serials competitions or funding increases over $100,000, please
allow enough time for extensive coordination or a formal competition.

For more information on your account or on the FY2004 End-of-Year
Schedule, please contact the FEDLINK Fiscal Hotline at (202) 707-4900.