Operation Staff Meeting OSM November 2002

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Operation Staff Meeting (OSM)November 2002

• Presented by the DCP ARC

Putting the pieces together
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Agenda

• Reminders
• New OC codes for PSOs
• New procedures for PSOs w/ an honorarium
• Additional Omega invoice now required
• New Federal PerDiem rates
• When to use OC 21.51 21.52
• Non-Contract Carrier Justifications
• NBS Travel training news
• Travel card meeting
• Personnel Issues

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Previous Issues

• Actual Expense Allowance (AEA) memos
• The ARC is no longer allowed to approve AEAs
  after the fact unless it is an emergency
  situation. A need to stay in the conference
  hotel (even when conferring with colleagues or
  attending special meetings) is no longer an
  acceptable justification for an AEA. AEAs can be
  approved for the following reasons
• it is a prearranged conference or meeting where
  the rooms and meals must be procured without
  availability of less expensive alternatives
• lodging at per diem rates is so far away from the
  chosen hotel that transportation costs render the
  alternative more or equally expensive
• per diem for an area is generally available but
  costs have escalated for a short period of time
  due to a special event i.e. New Orleans during
  the Jazz Festival or Mardi Gras or
• due to special duties of an assignment an
  employee incurs unusually high expenses in the
  conducting of government business.

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PREVIOUS ISSUES (continued)

• Whos your backup?
• Please email your Administrative Technician who
  your back up is. This will help ensure that your
  groups travel orders, procurement, etc are
  completed during an unexpected absence. After we
  have a list of all the backups, we will be
  developing and distributing a listing for the ARC
  staff members and Group Chiefs.

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PREVIOUS ISSUES (continued)

• ARC DEADLINES Complete procurement documents
  and travel orders are due to the ARC no later
  than the following
• PSOs- 1 week (must have ACH)
• ROC- 1 week
• RQM- See your A.O. for deadline
• Local T.O.s- Please submit them on a monthly
  basis
• Domestic T.O.s- 1 week
• Foreign T.O.s- 6 weeks
• Domestic 348/520s- 4 weeks
• Foreign 348/520s- 6 weeks

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PROCUREMENT

• ISSUES

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PROCUREMENT

• New PSO with honorarium Procedures.
• THE POLICY
• If a Non-Govt meeting/conference attendee
  receives an honorarium on a Professional Service
  Order (PSO), they may NOT use Omega to reserve
  and procure their airfare.
• We may not use a Record of Call to purchase
  tickets for these individuals.
• Attendees receiving honoraria must reserve and
  purchase their own airfare and they will be
  reimbursed for their tickets on the PSO.

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NEW POLICY for PSOs with Honoraria (continued)

• Background Information
• Professional Service Orders (PSOs) are payments
  given to attendees after a meeting.
• PSOs are comprised of
• 1. Honoraria (if applicable) Not to exceed
  200/day
• 2. Per Diem (at the federal rate)
• 3. Travel (ground transportation and
  airfare)
• The total cost of a PSO must not exceed 3000
• (continued)

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NEW POLICY for PSOs with Honoraria (continued)

• These are fixed price contracts. This means
  the PSO is an estimate of costs. In order to
  expedite payments and to save administrative
  costs, the PSOs can be paid based on the
  estimates no receipts are required. HOWEVER, if
  after the meeting, the PSO needs to be increased,
  all receipts must be attached with an
  explanation A decrease in estimated costs can
  simply be noted on the PSO.
• PSOs must be released for payment by the ARC
  within 7 days from the meeting end date. (This
  means that the ARC needs signed copies from the
  attendee within 5 days from the last day of the
  meeting).

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NEW POLICY for PSOs with Honoraria (continued)

• THE IMPLICATIONS OF THIS NEW POLICY
• If attendees wait until the last moment to buy
  their airfare, well end up paying quite a bit
  more for their travel.
• Overall meeting costs will increase because
  non-govt attendees will no longer get the
  Federal rate.
• Since PSOs are fixed-price contracts, we must
  have an accurate estimate of the airfare prior to
  the meeting. We are encouraged not to make
  changes to PSOs. It will be up to the program
  to get accurate estimates on the non-govt
  travelers airfare.

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NEW POLICY for PSOs with Honoraria (continued)

• What OC Codes do you use on the 1st line item on
  a PSO?
• For Fee for Service
• 25.13 (1st line item Fee)
• For Honorarium
• 25.2H (1st line item Honorarium)
• What OC Codes do you use for travel Per Diem on
  a PSO?
• 21.21 for Domestic
• 21.23 for Foreign
• (see attached samples)

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TRAVEL

• ISSUES

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TRAVEL ISSUES

• Additional Omega Invoice now required
• Omega has begun issuing a third invoice for paper
  ticket costs.
• If you remember from our October meeting, some
  airlines have begun charging 20 for a paper
  ticket. Many other carriers are following their
  lead. There is no additional charge for
  e-tickets.
• In order to properly close out a travel order,
  please submit this newest invoice along with the
  other two standard invoices showing ticket costs
  and transaction fees.

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TRAVEL ISSUES (continued)

• New FY 2003 Federal Per Diem rates became
  effective on 10/01/02
• 13 new destinations were added to the per diem
  listing.
• The majority of destinations were not changed.
• However, some mie rates fluctuated both up and
  down. See attached Principal Travel Assistants
  Meeting 10/29/02 to view the mie rate tiers
  with a breakfast, lunch, dinner and incidental
  breakdown for 6 different mie rates.

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TRAVEL ISSUES (continued)

• When should we cite the Meeting/Conference OC
  codes?
• In the majority of situations, 21.51 21.52
  should only be used for AACR and ASCO. Other
  travel is deemed programmatic in nature or is a
  site visit
• (refer to TRAVEL OC CODE CHART on next slide)

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TRAVEL ISSUES (continued)
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TRAVEL ISSUES (continued)

• Non-Contract Carrier Justifications
• Per new regulations, cost alone is no longer a
  sufficient justification for use of a
  non-contract carrier. It must be combined with
  any one of the following
• space on a contract carrier is not available in
  time to accomplish the purpose of your travel
• or the contractor's flight schedule is
  inconsistent with explicit policies of your
  department or agency with regard to scheduling
  travel during normal working hours
• the non-smoking section is full and you cannot
  fly in the smoking section
• rail service is available and cost-effective

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NBS TRAVEL TRAINING NEWS

• Reminder Required training
• 1 hour CBT Should be completed this week.
• 6 hour CBT 3 options
• At your desk
• EPS T41 (email Jill if youre interested)
• Facilitated hands-on session (see handout)
• Lab Day Registration is required by Nov. 30th.
• Classes available 11/18/02-1/31/03
• Please note There have been changes to the
  Student Guide (see attached email)

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TRAVEL ISSUES (continued)

• TRAVEL CARD MEETING
• Travelers need to call US Bank before they leave
  on foreign travel.
• Notify the bank when and where they are going.
• This ensures that travel cards will work.
• 1-888-994-6722

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PERSONNEL

• Issues

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PERSONNEL ISSUES

• Carole Watson has left the ARC
• Carole is now located in EPS 5016
• The DCP will remain one of her customers
• Her assistant, Brenda Harrell can be contacted
  at 402-8985
• Open Season for Health Insurance 11/11-12/09/02
• The effective date of the deduction will be
  1/12/03, pay period 03.
• Open Season for TSP 10/15-12/31/02
  (continued)

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PERSONNEL ISSUES (continued)

• The ARC is retaining a small supply of TSP
  Health Insurance forms
• Please submit TSP forms to the ARC
• Or, better yet, use the links below to make your
  own changes online
• Here are some useful websites
• Employee Express (to increase/decrease
  contribution amounts)
• http//www.employeeexpress.gov/emain.htm
• Thrift Savings Plan (to change allocations)
• http//www.tsp.gov/
• Electronic Forms Website http//forms.cit.nih.gov
  /

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PERSONNEL ISSUES

• Time Keeping discrepancies
• Michelle will be distributing time keeping
  discrepancy reports to all the time keepers by
  the end of this week.

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Thank you
Putting the pieces together for a new fiscal year
The next OSM will be December 11th, 230-330pm
That's All Folks!