Correspondence and Newsletters:
Judgment Fund Journal Fall 2002

Judgment Fund Database & Web site

By: Wayne Penn Jones

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to all agencies for their patience and understanding during these past 8 months as the Judgment Fund Staff migrated from the "Old" Judgment fund system to the "New" Judgment Fund Database. Our dedicated claims analysts underwent extensive training in the comprehension and application of the new system in a very short amount of time.

The new system will generate a claim number and a Vendor ID Number. The claim number, as in the past will begin with a "Z". All of the claimants and payees connected with the claim will be associated with this claim number. What now is unique is the Vendor ID Number. This number will begin with a "J" for all new claims entered into the new database. Each payment will have an individual "J" number.

There may be five payments associated with one "Z" number. Therefore, there will be a "J" number for each of the payments. This will enable us to track each payment all the way to the Electronic Certification System. This "J" number will be extracted from the Judgment Fund Database and placed on our Web site. The Agency Reference Number will be the identifying feature for the agency to recognize the claim. The "J" number will be the payment identification number that will assist you when there are several payments associated with the one reference number. The paid dates will also be reflected on the Web site.

We now have the "Search for Transactions by Agency" feature ready for your use. The new feature replaces the monthly reports by appropriation, enabling each agency to create their own reports using pay dates, the appropriations, 20X1740, 20X1741, 20X1742, and 20X1743.

We are reviewing our claims submission forms and the data on the Web site for clarity and accuracy. In a future article, we will give updates on that project.

Contract Disputes Act

Many Federal Agencies that have had payments made on their behalf from the Judgment Fund under the Contract Disputes Act have reimbursed the Fund. Many thanks to you! All reimbursements to the Judgment Fund are expected to be fully collectable from the responsible agency.

FMS will make demands for the reimbursement in writing to the debtor agency 15 days from the date of the payment to the claimant. If the agency fails to contact FMS within 60 days of the date of the initial contact letter, a letter will be sent to the responsible agency's Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

If after three demand letters and the debt becomes over 360 days old and the debtor agency has not contacted FMS, the delinquent debt will be referred to the appropriate Appropriation Committee. Agencies should contact the Judgment Fund Staff on (202) 874-6664 as soon as possible, giving your name, agency, Z claim number/Vendor ID number and amount. You may also contact us by E-mail at Judgment.Fund@fms.treas.gov.

Proper Booking of Judgment Fund Payables

The Interpretation of Federal Financial Accounting Standards No.2, Accounting for Treasury Judgment Fund Transactions: An Interpretation of Statements of Federal Financial Accounting Standards Number 4 and Number 5

This interpretation requires agencies to recognize liabilities and expenses when unfavorable litigation outcomes are probable and the amount can be estimated. The agency will record an imputed cost and imputed financing source at the time they learn the Judgment Fund will be the source of payment for the settlement. The entry records both imputed costs and imputed financing sources as Federal transactions (G for FACTS purposes) and records the Judgment Fund as the trading partner (20). FMS will record an expense.

All agencies having potential claims to be submitted to the JFS must notify us of any possible liability that arose for a given month / year / that may not be payable until a subsequent month / year.

Congratulations William Yarwood and Thomas Gould

Thomas (Tom) Gould and William (Bill) Yarwood have both retired from the Judgment Fund Staff, Department of the Treasury. We all wish Tom and Bill the very best of luck as they start their new adventure.

More Personnel Updates

We would like to welcome to the Judgment Fund Staff, Felicia Dickerson, our new Administrative Assistant, Phyllis White and Allen Lehrer. These three individuals will be of tremendous assistance in improving our customer service and the timely processing of the claims submissions.

JUDGMENT FUND JOURNAL
Wayne Penn Jones - Editor
Allen Lehrer- Asst. Editor
Phyllis White - Asst. Editor
Department of the Treasury - FMS
Judgment Fund Staff
Rose Brewer, Manager
3700 East-West Highway - Rm. 6F03
Hyattsville, MD 20782
(202) 874-6664
(202) 874-9522