Civil Debt Collection Reconciliation Process

Report No. 02-08
March 2002
Office of the Inspector General

The Department of Justice (Department) is the federal government's principal litigator when federal loans and federally guaranteed loans are in default and cannot be collected through conventional means. Litigation and debt collection authority is assigned to the U.S. Attorneys Offices (USAOs) and the litigating divisions ² within the Department. The Office of Debt Collection Management (DCM) is the office within the Department that annually reports the status of the Department's collection efforts. The DCM is responsible for overseeing the collection of debt and developing programs to support the USAOs and the litigating divisions within the Department regarding the collection of debts. In this regard, the DCM oversees the Nationwide Central Intake Facility (NCIF) and the Debt Accounting Operations Group (DAOG), and is currently developing and providing automated debt collection and litigation support.

This audit supplements the Office of the Inspector General's (OIG), Audit of the Office of Debt Collection Management's Implementation of the Collection Litigation Automated Support System, Report Number 01-15 (the CLASS audit), issued on July 3, 2001. That report identified:

• discrepancies between civil debt collections reported by the USAOs and the litigating divisions vis-à-vis the Department's Treasury account deposits for FY 1998 and FY 1999 as reported by the DAOG; and

• inconsistencies between the fiscal year ending civil debt balance and the subsequent year's beginning balance reported by the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA) for those fiscal years.

The purpose of the current audit was to identify the causes of the differences between collections reported by the USAOs and the litigating divisions and Treasury deposits reported by the DAOG. Additionally, we determined the reasons for the inconsistencies between the EOUSA's beginning year's civil debt balances and the prior year's ending balances for FY 1998 and FY 1999. The details of our work are contained in the Finding and Recommendations section of the report. Our audit scope and methodology are contained in the Appendix at page 13.

2. The USAOs and the following litigating divisions have debt collection responsibilities: Civil, Civil Rights, Antitrust, Tax, and Environment and Natural Resources.