|
|
The provisions for administrative offset in the FCCS, set forth in 31 CFR 901.1–12, shall govern the taking of an administrative offset by the Postal Service and are hereby adopted without change by cross-reference. In the event of any inconsistency between this regulation and the FCCS, the provisions of the FCCS will prevail.
The Postal Service may initiate an administrative offset only after the former employee has been provided with written notice in compliance with the administrative offset provisions of the FCCS. The written notice must inform the former employee that he or she may pursue one or more of the following options:
- Inspect and copy Postal Service records related to the debt.
- Request a review of the determination of indebtedness, in accordance with 39 CFR 966.
- Make a written agreement to repay the debt.
The Postal Service may omit these procedures in certain circumstances set forth in the FCCS. These circumstances include, but are not limited to, the following:
- If the Postal Service first learns that a former employee owes money when insufficient time is available to afford the employee prior notice and an opportunity for review before the former employee must be paid. When prior notice and an opportunity for review are omitted under these circumstances, the Postal Service will give the former employee notice and an opportunity for review as soon as practicable and will promptly refund any money found not to have been owed by the former employee.
- If the Postal Service (or another agency) has already given a former employee the notice and review opportunities set forth in the FCCS with respect to a particular debt, the notice and review may be omitted. This includes, but is not limited to, when the Postal Service has already provided a former employee with the notice and review opportunities set forth in 450 and 460 with respect to a particular debt.
The procedures for requesting a review of the Postal Service’s determination of indebtedness and its proposed administrative offset schedule are set forth in 39 CFR 966, “Rules of Practice in Proceedings Relative to Administrative Offsets Initiated Against Former Employees of the Postal Service.”
The FCCS provides for centralized debt collection and administrative offset programs, which are administered by the Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”), as well as non-centralized, agency-managed administrative offset programs, in which a government agency administers its own debt collection program.
- The procedures in this subchapter apply to the Postal Service’s use of both centralized Treasury programs and non-centralized, agency-managed programs.
- Examples of non-centralized, agency-managed programs include the following:
- The Postal Service may ask the Office of Personnel Management to satisfy a debt by offsetting the annuity of a federal employee who is leaving government service.
- The Postal Service may undertake an internal administrative offset, meaning an offset of payments due to the indebted individual from the Postal Service, in order to satisfy a debt.
- When the Postal Service requests an administrative offset from another agency, or when the Postal Service refers a debt to Treasury for collection, the Postal Service must first:
- Afford the debtor the due-process procedures set forth in 472.1.
- Provide written certification to Treasury and/or the agency authorizing payment stating that:
- The debtor owes the past due, legally enforceable, delinquent debt in the amount stated; and
- The Postal Service has fully complied with its regulations concerning administrative offset.
|
|
