CAPPS Notes - November 28, 2001

I. Welcome

Cliff welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced Jim Julian and Lenny Bankston from NFC-South. Steve Cunningham, John Faciane, Wendell Bergeron, Glenda Dorsey, Sandra Diamond and Theresa Trentacoste from NFC participated via teleconference.

Cliff explained a new procedure, in light of the September 11th attacks, in which we are responsible for ensuring the safety of CAPPS Representatives when they are in the USDA building. With this in mind, Cliff asked that all attendees complete the sign in sheet. If the fire alarms go off and we have to leave the building, we will have a list to account for everyone. In the event of an emergency, we are to exit the South Building and head down 14th or 12th Streets, to the Mall area directly in front of the Smithsonian's American History Museum. This procedure will be reviewed at every meeting.

PPSPS has requests from several agencies for an emergency locator system. Prior to the meeting, Lynda sent out the requirements we have received to date. We ask that you take a look at them and give us your comments by January 10, 2002. Comments are to be submitted to Lynda.Wilson@cfo.usda.gov. If you have questions call Lynda on 202-720-2199.

When we heard of the NFC Contact Center, we immediately thought we could adapt this system to meet the needs of the community for an emergency locator system so we asked Steve to explain the system to you. Steve discussed "inside page" which is an intranet system for employees of NFC South. The NFC Contact Center is being developed as part of the NFC "inside page". It is growing and can be very helpful when we need a list of people and ways to get in touch with them. NFC South is hoping this WEB application can replace the paper phone book. A PDF file can be posted on a website and you can locate a number much quicker. Bldg and Room numbers will also be included. NFC can help the agencies on the technical side by working with the phone folks to figure out how to get the data from one data source to another. Can be tailored to each individual's wishes.

There is also an existing mainframe system, LOCATOR, which may be converted to a WEB version which may meet the needs of the security folks. The applications could be fed from a variety of systems even Employee Express. The EOD package that EEX is currently developing requires entry of information that could be maintained in the new application.

After comments are received, NFC will have to take a look at all the options to determine which method best meets the needs of the community for a secure accessible Emergency Locator System

III. Pay

A. 2002 Pay Adjustments - Cliff noted that PL 107-67 signed by the President on November 12, 2001 indicates the January 2002 pay adjustment will be 4.6%. However, the President's Pay Agent has not yet announced the locality rate percentages for the locality pay areas. The Pay Agent is also considering expanding the locality pay areas, but this is not yet approved.. Section 641(a) of PL 107-67 authorizes rank awards to "senior career employees" (e.g., SL and ST employees) similar to the SES meritorious and distinguished executive awards to be effective in 2003. Both sections were identified in a handout of excerpts from PL 107-67.

B. COLA/Post Differential - Cliff mentioned that a number of lump sum leave payment (LSP) documents are currently in suspense with error message "059 - COLA/Post Diff error". Post differential was not previously included by NFC in LSP calculations. Changes were implemented this pay period but a problem with the edits resulted in many of the LSP documents going into suspense. We are modifying the edits and as soon as the modifications are moved to production, these actions will apply.

C. Annual Pay Limitations - In January we plan to establish a work group of "pay people" and "systems people" to look at the annual and aggregate limitations. The task will be complicated because a number of agencies have special pay excluded from the Title 5 pay limitations. In addition, some agencies are required to monitor and limit certain types of overtime pay, exclusive of the annual pay limitations (e.g., overtime pay in excess of the biweekly limitations on pay for emergency situations). Until the annual and aggregate pay limitations can be properly programmed, agencies must continue to monitor their senior employees who receive meritorious and distinguished executive bonuses at the end of the year to ensure that they do not exceed the pay limits. Agencies must also monitor their employees who work overtime in emergency situations to ensure they do not exceed the annual pay limitations. The work group will be asked to develop requirements to address these issues.

D. Child Care Services - Cliff also mentioned that Section 630 of PL 107-67 made permanent the legislation authorizing the use of appropriated funds by executive agencies to provide child care services for Federal civilian employees. Since the program must be funded through appropriations, agency participation in the pilot programs has been light. A copy of OPM's web page http://www.opm.gov/wrkfam/html/cldguide.htm for the program announcing the legislation was distributed at the meeting.

E. Maximum Earnings - Cliff advised the group that the Maximum Earnings Taxable in 2002 for Social Security (OASDI) will be increased to $84,900. A Handout, "2002 Social Security Changes," was also distributed.

IV. Benefits - Jody

A. TSP increase for CSRS (7%) & FERS (12%) - With this Open Season, CSRS employees can increase their percentage from 6% to 7% and FERS employees can increase from 11% to 12%.

B. Update on TSP Corrections - NFC South has corrected 1,400 actions for the errors in pay periods 09-12. This was an extremely time consuming project and we wish to thank the developers and all involved for their hard work in making these corrections. As for the pay periods 01-08 errors, it was requested at the October CAPPS meeting that agencies submit AD-343's with supporting documentation to NFC. To date only a few AD-343's have been received at NFC. As a reminder, it is the agency's responsibility to ensure correct TSP Eligibility Codes are entered on personnel actions, and if the processing office is unsure of the correct code, they are advised to check with their agency Benefits Officer. If they still are unclear as to the correct code to enter, please contact Jody Nyers for assistance. (JNYERS@cfo.usda.gov)

C. 60-day window edit "Grace Period Has Expired" - The edit on this was put into place for new employees who reached the 60-day window for entering the action and an override code was needed to release the action. This code is only for the purpose of allowing actual "new employee" documents to apply. Open Season changes are not covered by this edit and should not be receiving an error message. If this occurs, please let Jody know.

D. FEHB Open Season - Some carriers are ‘going out of business' (eg., CM). Information on this particular carrier was e-mailed last week. Although employees should have been contacted by their carrier, this does not always happen so we suggest you run a FOCUS report and alert the employees. It's important for agencies to be aware of carriers going out of business, (eg., George Washington University Hospital Plan is also going out of business effective 12/31/01) as this will negatively impact an employee's health coverage.

E. FEHB PC-HB code N or Y - Premium Conversion-Health Benefits allows employees to have their FEHB deductions tax-deferred. For this to take effect, users must enter code Y on the FEHB screen in EPIC or on the DP180 Document in PRES or N if the employees elects not to participate. The system default is Y. Please advise your employees of PC-HB and if they elect NOT to participate they need to be aware that they must wait an entire year until the next Open Season before they can change that election to Y.

Q: DOJ requested that EEX make the default Y as well. Apparently actions entered thru Employee Express (EEX) do not require the presence of this code and there is no default. As a result the action goes into Suspense and if the agency is using EPIC they must reenter the entire document. A: George indicated that the issue has not arisen in the EEX meetings. He will discuss it with Rhonda of EEX.

V. Reporting Center Update - John Faciane

The testing of the "Detail" reports has been successful to the point that we are ready to move the reports into Quality Assurance and then production. To date, there have been 49 testers with approximately half being clients and the other half being NFC employees. The participating clients are DOC, DOJ, FI, NLRB, and PT. We need to have several weeks of QA and have sign off from testers. QA window will depend on feedback and will occur sometime in December; dates will be e-mailed to CAPPS representatives. Prior to going to QA, some maintenance to the system must be completed.

These reports include Rosters as well as Employee Search capabilities. By "detail" we mean that these reports now contain information that was only available in IRIS. These new reports are accessible by going to the NFC Home Page at www.nfc.usda.gov, clicking on the Reporting Center icon, entering your user id and password and then clicking on Workforce Profile. The new reports are in "BOLD" letters.

A letter will be sent to each agency head explaining the new functionality. Any agency interested in accessing the data must notify NFC so that the data can be moved to the server. Once the data is made available, it can be accessed by individuals who currently have access to the Reporting Center. No additional security is needed for testors who participated in the UA testing. New testers will need to request security via their Agency Security Officer. The terminology to include in the request is ‘Access to DETAIL reports in the Reporting Center" and specify whether access should be to sensitive data or not.

If you have access to sensitive data, the information will also be available in these reports. A list of all users with access to sensitive data was sent to the agency security officers for review to verify that everyone on the list should have access to sensitive data. A request to have access removed should be submitted for anyone who should not have access to sensitive data.

Q: DOC (Mary Arnold) - Is there one level of security for aggregate data, one for detail non-sensitive, and one for detail sensitive. A: YES.

Other new features/ reports that are in development include:

A. Use or Lose Leave report

B. Military Status report

C. Missing T&As, Missing Personnel Actions and Employees Targeted for Salary Offsets (These are currently Culprit reports that are used by every HR office and we have been requested to add them to the Reporting Center. This will allow your time keepers to run their own reports and will decrease the amount of time spent by the NFC manual pay group and your office staffs in this function.)

D. Expanded Detail Reports

E. Several additional reports reflecting PayPers data which include several variations of Position Organizational Listings (POL).

F. Additional Detail Reports reflecting PMSO and PayTA data.

G. Custom Reporting capabilities (Ad Hoc).

H. New Financial and Administrative Reports

I.   Abstract of Transactions Report

J. OPAC Tracking and Reconciliation (OTRS) Reports.

K. Student Loan Repayment Reports

VI. SPPS UA Testing Update

Cliff indicated the UA testing finished 2 weeks ago and NFC is ready to move to QA testing. QA testing is scheduled for 12/17, 18, and 19. Some of the PPS staff will be here to assist in the testing. Further information on the QA testing will be sent to CAPPS under separate cover.

VII. Web STAR QA Testing - Jo

Web STAR QA testing is scheduled to run from November 28th through December 21st. Doug Womack sent an e-mail on today, November 28th, regarding the Web STAR QA testing and Jo forwarded this message to the T&A User Group and the CAPPS representatives before the meeting. The web address for testing and other pertinent details are in this e-mail. Jo checked the system prior to the CAPPS meeting and it was up and running, so far so good. The web address is https://qa2.nfc.usda.gov.

Q: Deborah King (DOJ) - DOJ sent to NFC, tester info for security profiles. However, employee's with departmental access had their reporting capabilities disrupted. For example, Cheryl Cotton could no longer run department wide FOCUS reports. A: Jo indicated that it sounded like the access had been placed on Cheryl's "live" ID. NFC's security office normally establishes an alpha behind the regular ID (T or an A) to designate the ID as a test ID so that a users normal NFC access is not disrupted. This also enables the staff to place an expiration date on the ID. Jo does not completely understand why, but it is apparently a routine problem to have FOCUS problems when an ID points to both live and test databases. Jo will contact the individual in security responsible for Web STAR security and alert them to the problem.

VIII. Database Expansion - Glenda Dorsey

ASD is completing the analysis of the requests that were received from the agencies. Submissions that were sent in as ‘nice to have' item will be returned to the agencies with either a project number or to request that the agency formally submit it to Mr. Roderick Keith, Director, ASD, as a ‘request for service' as opposed to a database (DB) change. The true DB change items will be prioritized in terms of the phase in which they will be implemented. NFC envisions periodic DB changes approximately every 18 months. This will make the system more flexible and facilitate the implementation of legislative and regulatory changes. The big tasks are analysis, design and implementation of the changes to the DB itself. NFC will add new fields and expand existing fields in the DB. The first projects related to the DB change will be implemented in January/February 2003. The Garnishments and Military Leave projects will be among the first completed. Also, the OPM change in the effective date for FEHB open season changes to January 1st, will be implemented in January 2003. Glenda will post a list with this information by the end of December or early January so that CAPPS will know which projects are included in the DB change

Q: from DOC - "When they went thru the exercise for the Pay Engine Project, we discussed many DB change needs at that time; were they looked at as well?" A: YES, there is no need to resubmit those items.

Q: from DOJ - "We sent in a request regarding garnishments sometime in 2000 and a regulation change for processing multiple Child Support garnishments; DOJ was cited by their OIG in a particular case and they sent a system change request for Child Support orders; will that be included? A: Glenda feels that this is part of the garnishment phase but will check and get back to DOJ.

IX. Electronic Bulletin Mailing - Saundra Dymond and Theresa Trentacoste

DAB has undertaken an initiative to reduce mailing hard copy documents to users by utilizing e-mail and the web as replacement distribution methods. They are also planning to reduce the distribution of documentation in the form of procedures. Users will be notified of updated info and changes via electronic messages. To do this, they need each users mailing address and e-mail address. This system cannot use what Steve is developing for the contact center because they utilize two different databases. Theresa said they need this info for the DAB database in particular.

Q: Jim Julian (NFC) - Asked Steve if there is a way to have the two systems ‘talk to each other'? A: Steve indicated yes. All employees and users of NFC could communicate back and forth. However, Theresa's concern is the collection time frame for the NFC Contact Center. Steve indicated that it had not been officially decided. Therefore, DAB will continue with its current plan of action since its project is further along and they plan on starting the collection process in early 2002. The DAB database structure is established and a bulletin is ready to be distributed requesting the needed information. In addition, DAB's focus is customer contacts versus employee contact information. Sharing of this information across the two systems in the future will be reviewed as the NFC Contact Center is established.

Q: Wanda Vaughan (DOJ) - How do you plan to notify current recipients of paper documents of the new process? She does not want to be the contact point for all DOJ agencies.....collect email addresses. Are you sending a bulletin requesting the info?? A: DAB will send a bulletin explaining the new process to all contacts in the current REDS database, Q: Wanda (DOJ) - What about those agencies who do not have e-mail addresses? A: Those can be sorted out and they can elect to continue to receive paper copies. If the mailing address has changed, the new address will need to be provided as well.

Q: Lucy McCabe (FDIC) - Do the agencies have access to update this database themselves. A: Not at this time. Currently all additions, deletions and changes must be sent to DAB for updating. The plan is that the agencies will have access soon so that they may do this themselves.

Q: Is this for all NFC documentation mailings? A: No. The system is currently designed to replace the NFC REDS system users. There is currently no interface to DISPATCH or TMGT (Table 003 - T&A Contact Points).

Q: Tom Neumeister (Smithsonian) - There are some old addresses in the REDS system. Will the agency have the opportunity to update this old info. A: If it goes to an ‘old address' and makes it to the individual who need it. That individual will be able to update the information and return it to DAB. Any info received from agencies will be verified and changed.

Q: Cheryl Cotton (DOJ) - Is this request being sent to timekeepers? A: If timekeepers are currently receiving bulletins, they'll receive this bulletin as well. Any person currently receiving any NFC bulletin, will get this notice.

Q: Cheryl Cotton (DOJ) - How are individuals who will not switch to the electronic format going to convey this request to remain hard copy? A: If the form is returned without an e-mail address and with a current hard copy address, DAB will continue to distribute to that individual/office in hard copy. If a form is not returned, DAB will also continue to distribute in hard copy. FYI - Hard copy is only bulletins - changes to procedures are not being mailed.

Q: Linda Mack (NLRB)/Jo/Jim - Multiple copies need to be eliminated so that agencies no longer receive multiple copies. Of particular concern is multiple envelopes addressed to the same individual and/or office. A: Theresa said they'll look into the form to see if it can include "number of copies" - Jo indicated that if they receive it electronically, then multiple copies will not be sent as long as the system is cleaned up so that only one or two copies are sent. In the latter case (multiple envelopes), all copies should be returned. However, the first should indicate the number of copies. All of the other forms should be returned for that directive with "CANCEL" on them so that the duplicates may be dropped.

Q: Jim Julian (NFC) - What is the long term reconciliation with all the other lists? A: REDS is the current focus, but other lists (DISPATCH, TMGT) that provide similar type of information should be included.

Q: What is the strategy to reduce this down to one central list? A: Theresa said with the revamping of the AD-1083 form and splitting out the report side, any info relating to receiving reports that have been provided will be maintained in DISPATCH - for which DAB is not responsible. DAB is aware of the problem with multiple lists and IRMD is looking at the process of cleaning up DISPATCH before moving into the product that will replace DISPATCH. DISPATCH will be a major undertaking due to its complexities. All of these are individual initiatives and not joined as one, so REDS will be done first and the others will follow. We recognize this is a problem when agencies move offices or change structure for receipt of reports, etc.

X. User & Work Group Updates

A. Awards - Jo

• A problem was reported on November 21st regarding the new Spot Cash award PAY process. If the award is effective and processed during the first week of the pay period, the document will go to future even if the current "processing" pay period is used as the effective pay period. A request has already been submitted to fix this problem.
  
  
• The change limiting the C124 code to DOJ only and activating the C024 code for both individual and group awards went into effect PP-23. This should resolve the problem FDIC has experienced since they had already programmed their front-end system to comply with the awards requirements submitted in the Spring.
  
  
• Jo plans to hold another meeting on awards as a follow-up (probably sometime in January) to try to identify what has been changed and what is outstanding.

  Q: Maria Vargues (GAO) indicated they are having problems with the 840 and 841 awards going to suspense in PP-23 because of invalid accounting codes. However, research has revealed that the codes are valid. A: Glenda responded that NFC is working on this issue. It involves mapping and dialog (a system error). IRMD staff is also involved.

  Q: Mary Arnold (DOC) has been experiencing the same problem. However, they have been blaming it on the processing and financial staffs. She requested that NFC please send out info on Bulletin Board when these types of errors occur. A: Glenda indicated that it had only been reported by GAO and that they thought it was confineded to them. Normally when multi-agency problems are identified NFC does post the problem. NFC will run an across-the-board report to see if this is affecting other agencies.

OPM's guidelines for the Referral Awards (848) permit payment of the award in installments. The first installment is payable to the referee upon EOD of the referred employee. The second installment is payable to the referee upon the referred employees successful completion of an agency specified period of work. (e.g., 90 days, six months, one year, etc.) NFC does not have a mechanism to verify that the referee is still eligible for the payment when the second installment is payable. The logical option is to have agencies enter each installment separately but sharing the same award code so that it would not be forwarded to OPM as two separate awards. This would mean that the agency's would be required to monitor the progress of the referred employee and ensure that the referee's second installment is entered. FYI - IRS is currently using the 972 to pay referral awards to its employees. Their policy is that no payment is made until the referred employee has been employed by the IRS for the prerequisite period of time. Jo inquired if anyone had plans to implement the referral bonus with the installment option. Agencies present indicated that the did not, again too burdensome to monitor. Jo requested that agencies review this possibility and discuss it with their agency award staff's to ensure that one payment is the method of choice. Unless an agency objects, the requirements will be submitted with the one installment payment method only. Please get back to Jo by COB on 12/14/01 with your decision. No response will be interpreted as an acceptance of the one payment method.

B. EPIC - Glenda Dorsey indicated that they are rebinding and rebinding, backing up the system and there are growing pains from moving with the new update. Rick's staff is working on a lot of issues. Wanda agreed these are growing pains, that the database is a bit unstable but software is working. She has been in contact with Sheila & Maithi and it'll work itself out soon. Stability is around the corner, we didn't have enough testers to catch the many problems. But working on it. DOC has a problem w/regard to a detail and apparently new PINE edits are in place and action is failing these edits. Were new PINE edits implemented? No per Glenda. Mary submitted this problem via Lynda and it was sent to NFC S. Wanda said if they start a HCUP package with an insert action, more edits/errors are being rec'd, rather than if they ‘start an action.' She'll talk to Sheila today.

C. FESI - Hans Heidenreich indicated that the group has not met since summer. NFC did have two FESI test windows and that several agencies participated. From a USDA perspective, all is well. Currently NFC is working on a function to enable electronic downloading of SINQ and FINQ files for them. Hans will schedule a meeting for next year.

D. Leave Share - Jo indicated that the Leave Share Work Group is continuing to meet bi-weekly. The group met with Lenny Bankston, Cherie Landry, and Pat Martin of NFC's Requirements and Development Coordination Branch (RDCB) on November 7th and 8th to discuss the draft package. This was a very productive meeting for both sides and that the work group will make some changes based upon those discussions. The workgroup anticipates providing the package - currently 600 pages - to CAPPS for comment in early Spring. Jim Julian indicated that the involvement of RDCB prior to finalizing is very beneficial to NFC as well and encouraged work groups to do this more in the future.

E. RIF -

• In light of Jim's comments regarding meeting with the RDCB Debby Berry requested a joint meeting for the RIF workgroup. Lenny will work with her on this.
  
  
• Final comments on the RIF package were due to Debby at today's meeting. A December meeting is planned, but not yet scheduled, to discuss the comment

F. T&A - Jo

• DOJ submitted a request to provide a prefix to TC-71 to record Military LWOP on the T&A so that this time would not be counted against an employee's WGI, RIF, Retirement, etc. counters in the system. Since this was one of the issues identified in Attachment 2 of the T&A Requirements package submitted in March 2001, Jo submitted a request to have the item accelerated. At the moment, an implementation date has not been set. In the mean time, agencies who have employees in a semi-pay status via the T&A and not through a personnel action must keep track of this data and manually adjust the counters in NFC. Failure to do so could result in a delayed WGI and/or adjusted SCD.
  
  
• The workgroup is continuing to review the comments from the RDCB staff as a result of the August 1 & 2 meetings. Many of these issues involve providing NFC with detailed information on how agencies handle optional situations within their department. These issues will be brought to the attention of CAPPS to ensure that everyone's needs are addressed. Currently the user group needs to know the maximum balance, expiration date, payout, etc. on the following items: 1) Regular Compensatory time, 2) Religious Compensatory time, and 3) Credit time. Please provide this information to Jo by November 7th.

XI. Potpourri

A. Cliff distributed copies of the CULPRPT P0148 report with changes requested by DOJ. Please provide comments on the recommended changes to Cliff by 12/14/01.

B. Jody distributed a calendar with all of the 2002 CAPPS meeting dates noted. Room locations will be announced in January.

C. Mary Arnold (DOC) has some issues about NFC making changes in the DB for BOND series - they have an I series bond located in the Bond Zip4 code. In addition, Mary cannot find the fields indicating that TSP funds are going to the S&I funds. Can this be renamed or can notification be sent to CAPPS or via a bulletin when changes occur? TSP fund distribution information is no longer stored at NFC because TSP has complete control of this function now. As for the bond issue, Theresa responded that DAB is building a database dictionary "cross-walk". This dictionary will be comprised of a series of tables accessible from web site and combining the info related to PINQ/IRIS and FOCUS related information and the database tags and definitions that go along with them. Another example of this problem is the EPIC Indicator is stored in FOCUS database but not with an obvious name. At this point in time, DAB is addressing what functions as PAYPERS or PERHIS but have not gotten into the T&A side yet. Very nice pleasing way to view this info in one location for researching or writing FOCUS reports. It will have a search feature. DAB is working with database staff and the webmaster on this initiative. No date has been set for completion yet, but hopefully it will be in 2002. Glenda will check with Billy for Mary to see if BONDS were included in the database expansion issues.

D. Mary Arnold (DOC) requested that work groups and new systems development teams, please consider the reporting end to ensure that reporting process is going to work as well. An effort should be made to bring them into the work groups for this purpose at the appropriate stage in the process.

E. Irma Marshall (USAID) presented a problem with remarks printing on the 50b's. A 499 remark which requires completed data does not appear on the 50. Other problems include duplicate remarks and actions where there is no typing required, but no data is included on the 50. There are also cases where the remark is not mandatory on the action but it appears on the 50's. Another case is where wrap around remarks are leaving part of word on one line and the rest on another line. PTO is also experience problems and they are not using EPIC. Jo indicated that Lynda is looking into several SF-50 remarks issues and she will provide the copies USAID brought to the meeting to her.

F. Barbara Hensen (HUD) indicated that they are experiencing problems with reports not running after BEAR runs. Mary Arnold (DOC) indicated that they have had this problem sporadically and asked if it was the printer number? Glenda indicated that this was not a system application problem and suggested that Barbara get in contact with the IRMD staff. Barbara indicated that she had already contacted them but wanted to see if others were having the same problem.