CAPPS Notes for Meeting on January 17, 2001

1/01 Pay Increase (Cliff & Billy D.)

Locality Pay - the State of Rhode Island has been added to the Boston-Worcester- Lawrence, MA-NH-ME-CT locality pay area; and Monterey County, CA has been added to the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA locality pay area.

LEO GEO Adjustment - the 16% LEO GEO for the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA. locality area has been discontinued. Locality Rate is 16.98% for 2001.

Retirement rate reduction will be processed with the NOAC 894 actions. (NOAC 903 for employees without a January Pay Increase)

[handout: NFC Bulletin 01-2, “Federal Pay Raise and Locality-Based Comparability Payment,” dated January 11, 2001]

Special Rates for IT Workers (Cliff)

References:

• CPM 2000-13 dated November 3, 2000
  
  
• CPM 2000-17 dated December 1, 2000
  
  
• (Page 3, “Documenting IT Special Rates)
  
  
• CPM 2000-19 dated December 26, 2000
  
  
• (Page 3, “Special Salary Rates for IT Workers”)
  
  
• Qs and As on Information Technology Special Salary Rates
  
  
• (www.opm.gov/oca/compmemo/2000/2000-14Q.htm)
  
  
• NFC Bulletin 01-1, “Special Rates for Information Technology Workers,” dated January 10, 2001

NFC implementing special rate for all IT positions other than those on grade/pay retention; agencies should process for those on PRDs other than 0,6,or 7. Agencies will be responsible for processing the NOAC 894 actions for these employees (PRDs 3, A, B, K, & J). NFC will provide agencies with a list of covered employees on grade and/or pay retention (one report for included employees, and one for excluded employees). Note: GAO banded employees excluded & Treasury is dealing with NFC separately for PD employees.

For GS-13s, the IT rate impacts their underlying rate (base pay) even though locality rate exceeds this base rate.

[handout: NFC Bulletin 01-1, “Special Salary Rates For Information Technology (IT) Workers,” dated January 10, 2001]

Physicians Comparability Allowance (Cliff & Jody)

P. L. 106-571 dated December 28, 2000 - provides that the physicians comparability allowance be treated as part of basic pay for retirement and TSP purposes. Effective December 28, 2000, retirement deductions and TSP contributions should begin. At present, 212 employees are receiving Physicians Comparability Allowance. Actual implementation will be PP3 at the earliest. We are awaiting further OPM guidance.

[2 handouts: OPM BAL 01-305, dated 1/9/01; & OPM memo of 1/5/01 to LISTSERV re. Phys’Comp Allow]

Federal Wage System Increases (Cliff)

46 FWS Schedules were issued December 22nd, with effective dates from October 8, 2000 (PP21) thru December 31, 2000 (PP27). Pay Adjustments for PP27 were processed in PP27. Pay Adjustments for PP21 thru PP26 will be processed in PP01.

Question was raised as to why the FWS schedules were being held up. It was indicated that the FWS schedules were linked to the GS schedule, and that this release has always been delayed.

W-2's for CY2000 (Cliff & Lynda)

Copies of NFC Bulletin 00-15, “Delivery of IRS Form W-2, Wage & Tax Statement”, and NFC Bulletin 00-27, “Federal Income Tax Withholding and Earned Income Credit” were distributed.

Individual W-2 information is available on the Employee’s Personal Page. WTWOINQ and WTWO for Windows information will be available to personnel offices within the next week or two. Offices using WTWO for Windows will have to obtain a new client from the FTP site. Notifications will be issued when the new client is available.

A concern was raised about the availability of information to the employees prior to providing the information to the personnel offices. The group feels that coordination should be such that personnel offices and employees are given access to the information at the same time.

A question was asked as to why a new client is needed for the DB2 application - why do you need 1999 WTWO, 2000 WTWO? It was set up this way because of the changes made to the form and calculations for 2000. If you have access to 1999 you will also have access to 2000 data.

Question also raised about FEHB pre-tax not being deducted from gross income–details discussed and found to be correct as presented (only the tax portion of the deduction, not the entire premium) More information on W-2 coming from NFC; in essence, W-2 will not “balance out” during cursory review.

Note: HUD problem of doubling of state tax was submitted for review.

EFT Requirement For Spot Awards/Update of Spot Award Problems (Cliff, Jo, & Rick M.)

USDA notified by Treasury’s Financial Management Service that spot award payments must be made by EFT as required by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996. (Handout)

Jo updated group on Spot Award issues and Award Workgroup’s efforts to date–programming complete to default to “0" for payment option for front-end systems (note: “don’t generate pay” only applies to Spot Awards). Much dialogue re. specific problems; questions on awards problems during PP2, 3, 4, of 2000; question of where/how NFC-29 to be initiated when problem occurs; also problem identified when employee receives cash in one tax year, but action not entered in system until new tax year–no answer.

Awards workgroup to meet Wed. 1/24/01, 9-11:30, USDA room 3017.

Group informed that there will be a flat 2% deducted on Spots for State tax (since taxes are rounded up on award amount). Also, award SF-50Bs for PP19-23 will be reprinted in PP1. DOJ asked that EPIC award submissions be reviewed prior to PP19 since there were problems with awards for much of the year.

(handout: ).

Proposed Standard Costs for NFC Services (Cliff)

Handout from NFC provided–AM-2 (1314-1), dated 12/14/00.

Proposed standard costs for PMSO mass changes, sorting and mailing SF-50's, TSP lost earnings computations, Earnings & Leave Statement inserts, FESI testing, etc. Comments to Pat Hanks by January 31, 2001

Update on Employee Personal Page (George)

Policy on “inactive” employees under review & policy on “separated” employees (Form W-2 + other personal info “frozen” in EPP at time of employee’s departure) under review by ASD. Posed question to group:

1. Do we want to keep employee data in EPP after employee leaves (for W-2 access, etc.)?
   
   
2. If so, how long?
   
   
3. Exactly what data to keep?
   
   
4. What about PIN maintenance?

Response due by next CAPPS meeting (2/21).

Update on Directives Distribution (Lynda)

Effective January 14, Teresa Trentacosta replaced Gail Para as head of the payroll/personnel section of DAB.

Almost all the external procedures have been placed on the WEB. By the end of the month, all procedures for all titles will be available on the WEB for downloading and/or printing. DAB is working towards a paperless environment and in that effort they have developed the following plan:

• Distribution of all guidance (bulletins, directives, etc.) for the legacy systems (PACT, PRES, SINQ, etc.) will continue to be mailed to the addresses on the old REDS listing. Notifications of changes to the systems will be made via the Bulletin. No Amendments will be issued. If a change warrants new page(s), the new page(s) will be attached to the Bulletin for insertion into the procedure. The WEB version of the procedure will always be the most current version.
  
  
• Distribution of all guidance for the client server and WEB applications will be made via the WEB and applications. The procedure is the online help which is a part of the application. When the software changes, a bulletin will be issued to notify agencies that the help/procedure has been updated and agencies can go to the WEB version to print a copy if needed. Again, the WEB version of the procedure will always be the most current version. If agencies, are unable to access the WEB version, they may request a hard copy from DAB.
  
  
• The REDS system has been replaced with a data mart. The data mart system contains an email capability which DAB will be ready to use sometime this year. Their goal is to email a notification to the appropriate office that a new procedure is available on the WEB. This will replace the hard copy Bulletin notification. More information will be available on this process at the March HR meeting in New Orleans.

Child Equity Act (Cliff)

Handed out OPM POL P-00-36, dated 12/14/00. Requires employers to ensure that spouses who are under court order to provide health benefits to dependents to prevent coverage drop. This ties to Employee Express.

Suggestion was made (at Employee Express on 1/18) to add new FEHB coverage code of “C” which would identify said spouses, and trigger SINQ if they changes their coverage to at least allow the POI to review the action and intercede if necessary.

Front End Systems Interface (USDA/Cliff +) General dialogue concerning the recent changes to testing windows availability for FESI. USDA proposed re-establishing a FESI group, and Hans H. will coordinate an open forum (#201-504-4136). They will discuss all front-end systems needs.

Review of Agency Designated Agent Lists (Cliff)

NFC currently has 1,451 designated agents on its records; 1,370 designated agents appear to be inactive. Agency asked to review and purge of their designated agents. NFC will provide lists to agencies in near future.

Documenting Volunteer Service (Jo)

Update 36, The Guide to Processing Personnel Actions, dated 12-31-00; Agencies may no longer use SF-50's and Official Personnel Folders to document volunteer service. The question was raised about turning off SF-50 production, however since “some” documentation was still required, most clients still wanted 50s–solution: shred 50s if you don’t want them.

Reporting Center (Lynda)

The WEB Team continues to work on the sensitive reports (detail information behind the statistical reports which are available). They are testing a feature called Entrust True Pass which they hope to make available sometime next month. Once an agency has the Entrust certificates, then that agency will be able to access the new reports with their WEB browser. When NFC is ready to make the certificates available to agencies, a notice will be issued. Individuals are encouraged to use the Reporting Center and to monitor the NFC Home Page for updated information. A small group will also be needed to pilot or test the new capabilities of the Reporting Center.

At the request of USDA, the WEB Team is also working on reports for the greening of government. These reports will provide information which will allow the more efficient use of utilities. These reports may be made available to other departments if requested.

Retirement Coverage Code 4 (Cliff & Jody)

Changes for the HITS deductions were implemented in Pay Period 26. Changes to PINE edits for reemployed annuitants under review, and will be provided to group for review. Bottom line, if employee is a US citizen & has RCC 4, then will pay HITS. Reemployed annuitants is the Foreign Service cannot be readily identified, since they have to specific identifier code.

Pay Problems in Pay Periods 25 & 26 (Jo)

PP25 Overtime Problem-- lists of affected Agency employees to be distributed; PP26 CV06 Problem--894 unpaid employees. Lists faxed to agencies. Duplicate payments & leave adjustments discussed in depth. Questions about how notification of problems is made and Why “always CV6"? Jo provided subsequent response to CAPPS on details of how problem occurred. Client questions still remain about corrective actions to be taken to communicate better on such problems.

2001 HR Briefing in New Orleans (Jody & Margaret Prell)

Much group discussion & presentation by Margaret of draft agenda–currently will cover Wed/Thur (approximately 5 hours each day). NFC North has additional agenda items & suggestions, which we will send out to CAPPS next week.

Work Group Updates

RIF workgroup will meet 1/30 to go over specs.

Awards workgroup will meet 1/24 (9-12) in room 3017.

Leave workgroup will meet 1/26 (9-12) in room 3017.

T&A workgroup will meet 1/23 (9-12) in ??

EPIC User Group - With the exception of reports, the group has pretty much completed User Acceptance (QA) Testing of EPIC version 1.07. Quality Assurance is scheduled to being January 22 and continue through February 2. Participants include Treasury, FEMA, DOJ, DOC and USDA. Use of EPIC version 1.07 in production is scheduled for pay period 3, February 18. When customers report to work on February 20, they must have version 1.07 installed if using EPIC. The EPIC application will not be available February 17, 18, or 19 to allow appropriate time for moving the new version into production. Volunteers are needed to test on February 19 to assure all the “805" bind problems are located. Please notify Lynda Wilson on 202-720-2199 if you can help out that day. The new version will be available on the FTP site as soon as the customers sign off on QA.

PODS Work Group - The PODS Development Team will be in Washington DC during the week of January 29 to provide demos and presentations regarding PODS on the WEB. They have developed a strategy and determined what we believe should be contained in the first version. The plan is to meet with the PODS User Group including all the new members who have volunteered to work on the development of the WEB version on Tuesday, January 30. The meeting will start at 9:00 a.m. and work til noon to review and get feedback on the proposed application, concepts, flow, functionality and security. They have also scheduled two special sessions to allow your managers and personnelists to review and comment on the proposed application, functionality and security. The first session is at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 30. The second session is at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, January 31.

Lastly, on Wednesday afternoon, January 31, the Team will have a closeout session with the PODS User Group to discuss the comments and recommendations received during the two special sessions. They will also discuss next steps and expectations. All the meetings will be held in the USDA Training Center, Room 1623, South Building, USDA Building Complex and everyone is encouraged to attend.

PPSPS (NFC North) Staff Assignments (Cliff)

Handout provided.

Potpourri

Treasury–raised issues of night differential/leave, comp time

USDA/Treas.–raised issues of recruitment/relocation bonus (choosing %).

USDA–problem with a negative balance for military leave.