FEDLINK INFORMATION ALERT 2005-4
TO: FEDLINK Members and FEDLINK Vendors
FROM: Joseph Banks, FEDLINK Business Manager
DATE: June 3, 2005
SUBJECT: FY2005 End-of-Year Schedule
See the End-of-Year Schedule for FY2005 Accounts Below
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 27, 2005. For direct pay fee IAGs, members must meet their agency's FY2005 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 20, 2005; 2) add new funds to a transfer pay order/IAG through September 23, 2005; 3) begin a new service by creating a new transfer pay order/IAG through September 9, 2005. 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 27, 2005.
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 http://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 20, 2005. However, the deadline to submit a signed request to move funds to another vendor account to begin a new service is September 9, 2005.
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 FY2005 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, 2005 if you are canceling OCLC services at the end of FY2005.
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 29, 2005. 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. 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-Yend Schedule for FY2005 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 FY2005. 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, 2005)--July 29
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 23
RETURN OF SIGNED IAG
ALL SIGNED IAGs MUST BE RECEIVED IN FFO (no exceptions)--September 27
MOVE FUNDS
Requests to move funds to another vendor must be signed and received in FFO (with no new service request)--September 20
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 FY2005 End-of-Year Schedule, please contact the FEDLINK Fiscal Hotline at (202) 707-4900.
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