Charge-backs for Child Support Enforcement Network (CSENet) Usage
AT-94-04
Action Transmittal
OCSE-AT-94-04
Date: June 2, 1994
TO: STATE AGENCIES ADMINISTERING CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT
PLANS UNDER TITLE IV-D OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT AND
OTHER INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS
SUBJECT: Charge-backs for Child Support Enforcement Network
(CSENet) usage
AUTHORITY: Public Law 102-394, Department of Labor, Health and
Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies
Appropriations Act of 1993 at Section 214 specifies
that, "for any program funded in this Act or
subsequent Departments of Labor, Health and Human
Services, and Education and Related Agencies
Appropriations Acts, the Secretary of Health and Human
Services is authorized, when providing services or
conducting activities for which the Secretary is
entitled to reimbursement by the State, to obtain such
reimbursement as an offset against Federal payments to
which the State would otherwise be entitled under such
program from funds appropriated for the same or any
subsequent fiscal year. Such offsets shall be
credited to the appropriation account which bore the
expense of providing the service or conducting the
activity, and shall remain available until expended."
PURPOSE: The purpose of this Action Transmittal is to provide
information on the cost recovery procedures of the
Administration for Children and Families for the Child
Support Enforcement Network (CSENet).
The Federal Government has paid for the full costs of
the first two years of the CSENet contract. This
included funding for hardware, software, installation,
telecommunications, training, and services associated
with the implementation and use of CSENet. In
addition, we have and will continue to provide limited
funding for on-going technical assistance to assist
States in achieving an automated interface between the
CSENet workstation and their statewide automated Child
Support Enforcement (CSE) system.
As stated in OCSE-AT-92-05, dated August 21, 1992, in
order to make CSENet self-financing, the State users
will be charged back for the ongoing cost of CSENet
beginning in May 1994.
BILLING: There are two aspects of the CSENet charges: 1) a
fixed price portion which covers the management of the
network, host services, hotline and maintenance of the
CSENet workstations; and, 2) telecommunication charges
for FTS 2000 services which represent the remaining 6%
of the CSENet charges.
Initially, the CSENet charges will be equally divided
among the participating States and territories. For
your information and understanding of these charges,
the CSENet contractor will monitor the
telecommunication charges by State and provide
statistical and cost information to the States. As we
have discussed and gained agreement on by the CSENet
Steering Committee, the methodology and allocation of
charges among the States may change as the system
becomes fully operational. As the system matures,
this information will be presented to the CSENet
Steering Committee for a reexamination of the
methodology for charging. Such reexaminations will
take place periodically and be thoroughly reviewed as
the States develop automated interfaces between CSENet
and their statewide automated systems.
The estimated quarterly CSENet fee per State for the
4th quarter of FFY 1994 is $2,550 or $850 per month.
Any adjustments to the telecommunication costs will be
made in the following year.
PROCEDURES: The CSENet charges will be paid by the State through
the following procedures:
1) ACF will provide the States with a notice of their
quarterly CSENet fees thirty (30) days before each
Federal Fiscal Quarter.
2) States may pay these fees through any of the following
techniques:
a) States that have executed an agreement with ACF will
have their CSENet fees automatically collected through
offset to their quarterly CSE grant;
b) States that have not yet executed the agreement in
Attachment A should either include the total of
Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS) and CSENet fees
on line 11 of the OCSE-131 and provide a breakout
between FPLS and CSENet as a footnote on the form and
the amount reported as CSENet fees will be collected
though an offset to their quarterly CSE grant; or
c) States should send a check for the amount of the
CSENet fee made out to the Administration for Children
and Families and mailed to the attention of Charleen
Tompkins, ACF/OFM/DFEBG, Aerospace Building, Room 702,
370 L'Enfant Promenade, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20447.
3) The telecommunications portion of CSENet will be
estimated based on charges from the previous quarter.
Adjustments to the estimated telecommunications
charges will be made in the following fiscal year.
4) Please note that the State is eligible to receive
Federal funding at the regular matching rate for the
amount of the CSENet charge-back. The State should
report the actual charges on line 9 of the OCSE-131
which reports expenditures for the quarter during
which the State paid for CSENet services.
ACTION It appears that the most efficient means, for
REQUESTED: both the States and the Federal government, of
paying CSENet charges would be through automatic
offset of each State's grant award. This would
enable each State to pay quarterly charges without the
need to issue a check or enter charges to be offset on
the OCSE-131. If a State wishes to employ this
technique, it should execute the attached agreement
and return it to Robin Rushton.
States which elect to pay by check or through the
quarterly OCSE-131 process should inform Ms. Rushton
that they will use one of these techniques.
DEBT If a State is delinquent in paying its CSENet
COLLECTION: charges via check or the quarterly OCSE-131, ACF will
employ the Debt collection measures of
45 CFR Part 30.
RELATED OCSE-AT-92-05, dated August 21, 1992
REFERENCE:
EFFECTIVE CSENet fees will be collected beginning with the
DATE: Third Quarter FFY 1994 (April-June quarter).
INQUIRIES Robin Rushton
TO: Director
Division of Child Support Information Systems
370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW
Washington D.C. 20447
Telephone: (202) 401-6519
FAX: (202) 401-6400
________________________
Director
Office of Information Systems Management
AGREEMENT BETWEEN
THE ADMINISTRATION FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES (ACF)
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (DHHS)
AND
CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT AGENCY
STATE OF _____________________________
I. PURPOSE
To record the agreement and understanding between the
Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the State of
_______________________, to permit the fees for the Child
Support Enforcement Network (CSENet) to be offset against the
State's quarterly child support grant.
II. BACKGROUND
CSENet is a nationwide communications network linking State
child support enforcement systems. Over the network, States
will use standard transactions to electronically request or
report location, paternity and support establishment,
enforcement and collection information. The contract to
implement CSENet was awarded on April 30, 1992 to IBM Federal
Systems (now LORAL Corporation) with Computer Science
Corporation and Deloitte Touche as principal subcontractors. ACF
provided the funding for the initial 24 months, the technical
assistance task orders and the first option year of the CSENet
contract. As specified in OCSE Action Transmittal 92-5, the
State users will be charged back for the ongoing costs of CSENet
beginning May 1994. The fees collection for CSENet will be used
to exercise additional option years of the CSENet contract.
Public Law 102-394, Department of Labor, Health and Human
Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act
of 1993 at Section 214 specifies that, "for any program funded
in this Act or subsequent Departments of Labor, Health and Human
Services, and Education and Related Agencies Appropriations
Acts, the Secretary of Health and Human Services is authorized,
when providing services or conducting activities for which the
Secretary is entitled to reimbursement by the State, to obtain
such reimbursement as an offset against Federal payments to
which the State would otherwise be entitled under such program
from funds appropriated for the same or any subsequent fiscal
year. Such offsets shall be credited to the appropriation
account which bore the expense of providing the service or
conducting the activity, and shall remain available until
expended."
III. UNDERSTANDING
A. ACF will provide CSENet services to State Child Support
Enforcement Agencies for the purposes of transmitting
interstate child support information. These services will
include management of the network, host services, hotline,
maintenance of the State CSENet workstation and
telecommunication services for CSENet.
B. ACF will provide the States with projections for the fixed
price portion of the CSENet contract, currently
representing 94% of the total costs and estimates of
telecommunications costs based on the previous year of
telecommunication charges.
C. The telecommunications portion of CSENet will be estimated
based on charges from the previous quarter. Adjustments to
the estimated telecommunications charges will be made in
the following fiscal year.
D. ACF will provide the States with a notice of their
quarterly CSENet fees thirty (30) days before the end of
each Federal Fiscal Quarter.
E. ACF is hereby authorized to offset the CSENet fees from the
State's quarterly child support grant, without requiring
the State to report the CSENet fees on line 11 of the
OCSE-131.
F. The State is eligible to receive Federal funding at the
regular matching rate for the amount of the CSENet
charge-back. The State should report the actual charges on
line 9 of the OCSE-131 reporting expenditures for the
quarter during which the State paid for CSENet services
through automatic grant offset.
G. ACF and the State agree to identify a liaison to each other
to facilitate carrying out the provisions of this
agreement.
The parties executing this agreement have the authority to sign this
agreement:
By:________________________ Date:______________________
Laurence J. Love
Deputy Assistant Secretary
for Program Operations
Administration for Children and Families
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
By:________________________ Date:______________________
Title:____________________
State Agency:_______________________
Address: