The order calls for consolidating core financial systems and transactional financial management services “under standardized solutions to improve financial reporting and traceability.” Image: MidoSemsem/Shutterstock.com
An executive order from President Trump changes policies on how federal agencies make and receive payments, with a goal of “enabling the Department of the Treasury to more easily conduct improper payment and fraud prevention screening prior to disbursing funds on behalf of agencies.”
The order also seeks to increase transparency “by requiring agencies to provide the Department of the Treasury with the information needed to track transactions through the General Fund in greater detail”; and to promote efficiency “by returning disbursing functions to the Department of the Treasury when possible and consolidating and standardizing core federal financial systems.”
It requires agencies to comply with Treasury disbursement requirements including “ensuring that sufficient funds are available before obligations are incurred, verifying payee information, standardizing information reporting formats, confirming funds are being disbursed from appropriate sources, and implementing other verification and certification measures,” says an accompanying document.
Key provisions include:
* Directing Treasury to “update guidance and enhance systems across the Federal Government to ensure that all payments made on behalf of agencies undergo pre-certification verification to prevent fraud and improper payments.
* Requiring agencies to “share relevant data with Treasury to enhance Treasury’s ability to detect and prevent fraud, subject to applicable law.”
* Consolidating core financial systems and transactional financial management services “under standardized solutions to improve financial reporting and traceability.”
* Reducing Non-Treasury Disbursing Offices in individual agencies “with Treasury developing a plan to centralize and manage payments previously handled by NTDOs.”
* Generally requiring that incoming and outgoing payments be made only through electronic funds transfers, with paper checks eliminated except “for people without banking or electronic payment access, certain emergency payments, certain law enforcement activities, and other special cases.”
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