completed in EBS. Unemployment claim forms are completed, and employees are counseled. Department of Labor billing for unemployment paid to Senate employees are checked in EBS and submitted by voucher to the Accounting Section to be paid. Designations of beneficiaries for FEGLI, CSRS, FERS, and for unpaid compensation are filed and checked by EBS. Activities The annual Federal Employees' Health Benefits (FEHB) Open Season resulted in more than 600 employees changing plans. The FEHB Open Season Health Fair was attended by approximately 900 employees. Because the office has received so many requests for this information, the Fair was open to all employees on the Hill, including House and Architect employees. During the two Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) Open Seasons, the employee changes remained about the same as normal, one change for every seven employees. Mortgage rates, still dropping, kept employment verifications coming in at a rapid pace, averaging 140 per month. Unemployment verifications, termination packages, transcripts of service for employees going to other federal agencies, and other tasks associated with employees changing jobs were all heavy this year, as approximately 700 staffers terminated as of January 2, 1997. Another 700 entered on duty on the new staffs, and this required prior employment research and verification, new health and life insurance, retirement, and TSP enrollments, and the associated requests for verification. In addition, 34 offices requested a Senate transcript of service for all of their active employees, resulting in approximately 1,500 transcripts. Seminars were held for outgoing and incoming Members' staffs, as well as committees facing reorganization. Information about retirement, health and life insurance, unemployment, and Ramspeck privileges was available at the seminars. Requests for counseling, retirement planning and processing were very heavy in 1997. Since most of the Members leaving were long term Members who were retiring, our retirement caseload set a new record, with the caseload for January (30 FERS and 50 CSRS) totaling over half of a normal year's load. Total retirement cases processed equaled 213 (78 FERS and 135 CSRS), a 63 percent increase over the previous year and a new record. The annual Integral Conference was held in San Francisco, California in August. We used the Conference to review the 9.5 upgrade for our Human Resources Management System, and to begin planning and strategies to implement it. This related to the recently completed Booz-Allen and Hamilton, Inc. (BAH) review of the Senate's Human Resources (HR) needs and the combined BAH and KPMG reviews of future directions for our payroll system, as well as system requirements reviews. The 9.3 release of the Integral Human Resources Management System was finished, which achieved some of the year 2000 compliance requirements, and upgraded many aspects of the payroll system processing. The next step, moving to the full Year 2000 compliant version (9.5) was delayed. During this time, BAH consultants reviewed the Senate's Year 2000 plans, which was expanded to include a review of the HR needs. The Benefits Section worked with BAH to ensure that the full implications of the requested changes were included and that the full capacity of the current system was appreciated. It was finally agreed that the best approach was to continue with the work on the year 2000 update, which is well on its way. Next, KPMG was assigned the task of reviewing what system changes could be added to the 9.5 upgrade without risking the deadline. A payroll cycle change was reviewed, and the final decision was that time and current resources could not adequately ensure the deadline would be met if the changes were implemented in conjunction with the year 2000 update. The section has worked as closely as possible with KPMG to review the changes required to meet these requirements, and work will progress in 1998. It is anticipated that after the year 2000 update is completed (by October 1, 1999), work on a new version of the payroll system will begin. A study is under way to decide whether to keep the system on a mainframe computer or switch to a client/server environment. In either case, a distributed HR system will be implemented and a pay cycle change to biweekly can move forward. With the U.S. Capitol Police transferring from the Senate to the NFC payroll system on March 1, 1998, this section has participated in the planning of the transfer. All aspects of the movement of about 650 staff off the Senate payroll have been addressed, including all payroll and benefits records and computer data. One major part of the project completed in 1997 was the generation and correction of retirement records for each of the 650 police personnel. Records required correction due to the many changes in computer systems and tracking over the years. Future Activities In light of the new Retirement Open Season, which is scheduled for July through December 1998, the Benefits Section has been evaluating computer modeling programs to help with the anticipated load of 1,000 employees and Members seeking information to decide whether to remain in the old Civil Service Retirement System or to switch to the Federal Employees Retirement System. The section will prepare and give seminars, set up and staff a PC room so employees can use the computer models, and counsel these employees and Members to ensure that they have all the pertinent information required to make an informed choice. The TSP is scheduled to add two new investment funds in October 1998. The Benefits Section will work with the Computer Center to alter current HRMS screens and ensure that withholdings and electronic tapes are correct, as well as hold seminars and distribute printed information to all employees and Members to inform them of the new investment opportunities. Audit Section The Audit Section is responsible for auditing vouchers and answering questions regarding voucher preparation, identifying duplicate payments vouchered by offices, monitoring payments related to contracts, training new office managers and chief clerks about Senate financial practices, training office managers in the use of the Senate Office Accounting System (SOAS), and producing the Report of the Secretary of the Senate. The Section also maintains the Senate's central vendor file (Member, Office Direct Access or MODA) and monitors the Fund Advance Tracking System (FATS) by ensuring that advances are charged correctly, vouchers repaying such advances are entered, and balances adjusted for reuse of the advance funds. An "aging" process is also done to ensure that the advance is repaid in the time specified by the advance regulations. Activities This section performed training sessions for individual offices: 37 new office managers/chief clerks and 31 new SOAS users. The section assisted the audit staff of the Committee on Rules and Administration with the drafting of the regulations for advance payments for the Senate as authorized by the Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 1998. The section participated with the team chosen to evaluate the Senate's business practices with an eye toward the Senate moving toward ever more efficient business practices. This involved many meetings with the Sergeant at Arms, Committee on Rules and Administration, and the consultants from Booz-Allen. Decisions made by these groups then had to be discussed with the Senate user community for their input. With the addition of two staff to the Audit Section, restoring the staffing to normal levels, the time needed for the payment of expense claims was significantly reduced. A system was established through using cc:Mail and voice mail for the research of vouchers. Office managers and chief clerks were provided a cc:Mail address and a phone number to use to make inquiries concerning payment status for an expense. This procedure allows designated staff, to monitor the inquiry line rather than having multiple staff being interrupted as each call was received. This change has increased efficiency in the overall operations of the section. Another new procedure was established to send messages regarding voucher corrections via cc:Mail to Senate offices. Beginning in May, the Audit Section designed a standard cc:Mail message with check boxes and fill-in-the-blank areas to inform Senate offices when corrections were needed on expense vouchers. The message provided information on the corrections made and on problems with the vouchers that required action by the office managers. This procedure reduced the amount of time spent in trying to contact Senate offices and waiting for a response, thereby enabling expense vouchers to be processed more expeditiously. The number of outgoing messages regarding voucher corrections, from May through December, 1997, was 5,565. The Audit Section passed a milestone during the April-May time period when 19,000 vouchers were processed, with 11,500 being processed in May alone. The 11,500 represents the highest number of vouchers processed since records have been kept. The section received 89,685 vouchers for calendar year 1997, which represents an 8.3 percent increase over figures for the prior year. The totals by office are as follows: Senators-57,090 (63.5 percent); Sergeant at Arms-14,171 (15.8 percent); Stationery Room and Gift Shop 8,816 (9.8 percent); all others 9,608 (10.7 percent). The following figures were also obtained for the period of January-December: Average number of vouchers received in a week 1,736 Nearly all Senate offices are now utilizing the SOAS application for electronic voucher generation, record keeping, and budgeting for the Senators' official personnel and office expense account. The section made changes to the database system for the generation of the Report of the Secretary of the Senate to accommodate the changes in the Fiscal Year 1998 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act that now calls for the expenses of franked mail to be debited against Member and committee funds, not to the official mail account. Accounting Section The Accounting Section compiles the annual operating budget of the Senate for presentation to the Committee on Appropriations and ensures adherence to appropriation limitations established by the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, and Title 2 of the U.S. Code. The Accounting Section accomplishes its control of appropriation limitations through the maintenance of the general ledger of the Senate. Activities During fiscal year 1997, the Accounting Section processed 90,442 expense reimbursement vouchers for payment on 61,152 United States Treasury checks issued. The section also processed 1,548 deposits for items ranging from receipts received by the Senate operations to canceled subscription refunds from Member offices. General ledger maintenance also prompted the entry of 8,072 adjustment entries that include all appropriation and allowance funding limitation transactions, all accounting cycle closing entries, and all non-voucher reimbursement transactions such as payroll adjustments, stop payment requests, travel advances and repayments, and limited payability reimbursements. Working closely with the Audit Section and with the support of the Secretary of the Senate, the Accounting Section has worked diligently over the past year to improve service to our customer base: Member offices, committees, leadership and support offices. Staff attrition in recent years had impacted the timeliness of voucher payments to staff and vendors. With the support of the Secretary of the Senate, additional resources have been acquired and processing time has been improved by nearly ten business days. Workflow reorganization planned for this year should maximize our existing resources and this should reflect in customer service. A voucher payment status line has been implemented in the past year to assist office managers manage their vendor and staff reimbursement requests. The payment status line is a voice mail system that office managers can call to check the status of payments, which helps the Accounting and Audit Sections manage the flow of calls and assign specific staff to monitor the line. Financial Systems Currently, more than 9,000 active ledger accounts are tracked daily through the Disbursing Office Voucher Entry System (DOVES). All voucher reimbursement payments, checks written, deposits and adjustment entries are processed using this system. The DOVES system was designed in the late 1980's to be a short term (2-3 years) general ledger system for the Senate. The system has been modified substantially throughout the years and is functional, but is quickly outliving its usefulness. Routine system maintenance and modification are performed in conjunction with staff of the Senate Computer Center and require significant Accounting Section resources. The system currently resides on an outdated 3Com local area network. The 3Com servers used in this LAN are no longer manufactured, necessitating a transfer to a new operating environment. Future Financial Systems While routine maintenance and enhancements to the DOVES system continue, the primary focus is to prepare for the replacement of the Senate general ledger system. The Senate currently operates on a cash basis accounting system. With the implementation of the new general ledger system there will be a conversion to an accrual and obligation basis accounting system. Consequently, current staff must be trained in use of this system, and new staff must have experience with this system. The Accounting Section worked closely with Management Concepts, Incorporated to develop a specialized, week-long course on the government standard general ledger and standard government financial reporting. The course included staff from the Accounting, Audit, Payroll and Administrative and Financial Services Sections. This is the first step in what will become ongoing human resources development and training of existing and new financial management staff. Planning for the conversion to the KPMG Federal FAMIS 4.0 general ledger product will continue to be the top priority for the Accounting Section management and staff in the coming fiscal year. Conversion, which is projected to occur during fiscal year 1999, requires extensive planning and coordination between the FMIS project office, the Senate Sergeant at Arms staff and the Accounting Section. As part of the conversion, the Senate's data classification structure will be significantly altered to enable the creation of standard financial reports and enhanced expense category tracking using the Office of Management and Budget's object classification code structure. The new general ledger system will also enable the Senate to begin making vendor and staff reimbursement payments electronically, which should greatly enhance customer service. The Accounting Section looks forward to the implementation of the new general ledger system and planning all aspects of FMIS and continuing to improve our service capabilities to best meet the financial management needs of the Senate. Financial Management System Development Section The Financial Management System Development project team focused on five activities this year: Continued support of the Senate Office Accounting System (SOAS); deployment of the Senate Time and Attendance Reporting System (STAR); development and implementation of new procedures; development of new processes and requirements for FMIS; and support of the Disbursing Office LAN. Activities Senate Office Accounting System (SOAS) SOAS, a Paradox-for-DOS-based standalone system, is used by 106 Senate offices to prepare vouchers and track office accounts. In January 1997, it was installed in the offices of the 15 newly elected Senators. In the fall, SOAS access to fiscal year 1998 was installed in all offices. For the Secretary, SOAS version 4.0 was installed in the Historical Office, the Chief Counsel for Employment and the Office of Public Records. Senate Time and Attendance Reporting System (STAR) STAR, a Paradox-for-DOS-based standalone system, is installed in 91 Senate offices to track time and attendance records, and to produce overtime reports submitted to the Disbursing Office to authorize payment for overtime. A number of enhancements suggested by offices were implemented this year, assisted by a programmer from the Senate Computer Center who supports the leave tracking function of the system. Training sessions for all offices where STAR is used were offered. Development and Implementation of New Procedures The Disbursing Office implemented three new procedures that have been very popular with offices this year. The project team wrote procedures and provided the technology to make these “quick hits” possible. These were: -Sending messages regarding voucher corrections via cc:Mail. In May, we designed a standard cc:Mail message with check boxes and fill-in-the-blank areas that the Audit Section uses to inform offices of corrections on vouchers. The message provides information on corrections made and on problems for which the office must respond. This replaced the previous system of "telephone tag" and is very popular among the office managers because they can deal with voucher problems at their convenience. -Sending voucher payment data electronically to office managers for use in reconciling SOAS records to DOVES records. This saves office managers a significant amount of time because payment data used in their monthly reconciliation process is posted automatically and therefore, there is no need to re-key the Disbursing Office payment data. -Creating two avenues for offices to inquire about voucher status: cc:Mail and Voice Mail. The Audit and Accounting Sections share responsibility for responding to these inquiries in a timely manner. This system is popular with office managers because they can make inquiries outside of the normal Disbursing Office hours. Development of New Processes and Requirements for FMIS During the summer and early fall we worked with Booz-Allen and Hamilton (BAH) to plan and conduct a series of Business Process Re-engineering sessions attended by staff from the Disbursing Office, Sergeant at Arms (Finance, Purchasing, and Operations), and the Rules Committee. These daily meetings, during most of September and October, resulted in a series of process flows diagrams showing the steps between purchasing, receiving of goods and services, invoice receipt, voucher preparation, auditing, sanctioning by the Rules Committee, and payment. The office supervised the production of minutes and process flow diagrams from these meetings, which were distributed to the participants on paper and through a FMIS home page on Webster. The process flow diagrams were presented to the FMIS user group, a small group of office managers and chief clerks who met with staff weekly during October and November. The processes and discussion at both sets of meetings are forming the basis of a new set of FMIS system requirements. OFFICE OF HUMAN RESOURCES The Office of Human Resources implements and coordinates human resources policies, procedures, and programs for the Office of the Secretary of the Senate including hiring, training, performance management, job analysis, compensation planning, design, and administration, leave administration, records management, job advertisements and postings, employee handbooks and manuals, employee relations, and organizational planning and development. Merit Review Program The Office of the Secretary designed and implemented a new pay delivery system in 1997, a merit review (or performance-based) program. As the name implies, this is an incentive compensation system designed to motivate employees to perform well and to reward them in relation to their performance. The Office's merit review program will now be conducted annually in the last quarter of each fiscal year. While some organizations choose to review performance on the anniversary of each employee's employment, we have decided to review all employees at the same time every year to improve the budget planning and utilization processes, to provide more flexibility for developing compensation strategy from one year to the next, and to ensure that each employee receives the same opportunity for a salary increase. Performance Evaluation The point of reference for performance-based compensation is, of course, a performance appraisal. Formal evaluations of employee performance were sporadic and infrequent in years past. Therefore, a new evaluation instrument, "The Employee Feedback and Development Plan," was developed. The plan is somewhat different than traditional performance appraisals in that it elicits continuous feedback and communication. It is used by the supervisor throughout the performance period and is finalized at year-end. Feedback to employees is timely and nonthreatening, management has the opportunity to provide adequate direction as employees are performing their jobs, desired performance is identified and reinforced, undesirable performance and results are identified at a time when change can more easily be made, and the focus of the more formal discussion (at year-end) is the present and the future, not the past. The plan also features performance objectives that focus on the employee's current work requirements, a non-traditional rating scale that encourages supervisors to "call it like it is," and rating factors that stress organizational values. Intern Program The Office hosted 30 interns during the summer of 1997. Serving in 13 different departments, these interns made many worthwhile contributions to the goals and objectives of our organization and received a unique educational and work experi ence. SENATE LIBRARY The Senate Library provides legislative, legal and general reference services to the United States Senate. The core collection consists of a comprehensive collection of congressional publications dating from the Continental Congress. In addition, the Library maintains executive and judicial branch materials with an extensive collection of books on politics, history and biography. These sources plus a wide array of in-house and commercial online systems, assist Library staff in providing timely and accurate information services. Administration The Library's major administrative achievement was the implementation of the merit review program with the development of performance objectives, annual staff evaluations and an incentive compensation program based on merit. The second significant accomplishment was the reduction in Library operating costs by $11,314.21. These reductions, the most substantial in Library history, were accomplished |