collection personnel because of the training and overall emphasis

on the program.

Also, we are nearing completion of the second of

a three-phase implementation of the Prosecutors Management

Information System (PROMIS).

This system is a fully automated

data storage, management and retrevial system which will replace our current semi-automatic, labor intensive Docket and Reporting System. We currently have PROMIS in 23 United States Attorney

offices and are in the process of entirely phasing out the older

semi-automated reporting system in those offices.

The offices

which have been equipped with PROMIS are already benefiting from

the advantages of this system.

New Jersey, which had a ten-fold

increase in cash recoveries last fiscal year, is one of those

offices which has taken advantage of PROMIS and successfully

applied its capabilitie to its debt collection effort.

With all of these accomplishments in mind, we sincerely

believe that our efforts have made the Department of Justice stand

in the forefront of this Administration's worthy objective to

collect debts owed to the federal government.

We are satisfied

that we have made good progress and, in a relatively short time

We are not content, however, and are continuing our effort

frame.

to improve our debt collection system and to enhance the

By a letter dated April 11, 1983, you were provided

information on 74 claims, involving 71 debtors, on matters referred to this Department by the Public Health Service on defaulted debts under the National Health Service Corp Scholarship Program since fiscal year 1981. I will be happy to respond to your questions concerning these referrals. By way of a brief summary, 27 of the claims, involving 25 debtors, have been taken to judgment; two have taken an appeal, one from a court of Claims judgment and the other

from a District Court judgment.

of the remaining 47 claims,

involving 46 debtors, 18 are in the litigative or negotiation process, 12 more are in that posture but are making payments and 17

have been returned to the Public Health Service for various

We

reasons, including payment in full of judgments or compromises. have attached that letter to this testimony, and have also attached other statistical information which should provide you with additional perspective on our accomplishments in this area of debt

collection.

Having provided you with that background, I will be happy to

respond to specific questions in this area.

This letter is in response to your letter dated March 19, 1984, and the telephonic requests made by your staff to officials in the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, seeking information on defaulted debts under the National Health Service Corp Scholarship Program. Specifically, you requested certain information on approximately 80 cases or matters involving overdue loans which were referred to the Department of Justice by the Public Health Service for collection litigation.

We have identified those matters you are interested in and have enclosed the information you requested. In consideration of the privacy interests of those debtors who have not had their debt acknowledged publically in litigation or otherwise, we have deleted all the names from this data compilation.

Please understand that the nature of our recordkeeping system in collection matters is such that we do not collect statistical information on specific agency programs. The essential reasons for this are because of the changing nature of federal agency programs, the massive number of the programs administered by federal agencies, and our perception that the benefit derived from maintaining such detailed information is not balanced by the burdensome cost of recording the information. However, we have been able to collect the information you requested from the data we do naintain.

We view this as an appropriate time to provide you with some background on the Department's current efforts to collect monies owed to the government, and also to place the delay in responding to your request into perspective. As you are aware, this Administration is fervently committed to collecting overdue debts owed to the United States and maintaining a tight reign on existing obligations. The Justice Department's primary role in this effort is to conduct litigation to enforce and recover overdue obligat ons

which are referred to us by other federal agencies (referred to as creditor clients). We are, as such, engaged as the attorneys who litigate and collect the overdue claims of our creditor clients. This is the case, for example, in this instance regarding these approximately 80 collection referrals from the Public Health Service.

This Department has taken several steps to respond on an organizational level to the increased emphasis on debt collections. For example, the Executive Office for Onited States Attorneys was reorganized in June of 1982, to create a Debt collection section. This section is devoted solely to the management of the debt collection activities of the United States Attorneys' offices, which conduct a substantial aajority of the debt collection activities of the Department. This debt collection unit provides executive direction and oversight to the Onited States Attorneys; develops and implements collection and reporting procedures; provides training to debt collection personnel, and provides liaison functions between the Department of Justice, United States Attorneys' offices and creditor client agencies.

In addition to the support provided by this new unit, we have made substantial improvements in the individual United States Attorneys' offices. The technology used by debt collection personnel has been updated allowing for a more prompt, efficient and accurate flow of debt collection processing. We have developed model plans and set collection goals for each office to strive for (and which have been exceeded in many instances). A direct deposit procedure has been implemented which expedites the flow of funds to the Treasury, eliminates substantially all of the time-consuming receipt writing procedures, reduces 'insufficient fund" problems, improves accounting procedures, and minimizes opportunities for waste fraud and abuse. In addition, we have improved our evaluation procedures for debt collection activities and now provide on-site assistance to debt collection personnel through our Regional Debt collection Specialist Program.

Also, since the mid 1960's, the Department has had an elaborate data reporting system which provides the necessary information on all cases and matters processed by the United States Attorneys. This system is called the Docketing and Reporting (DER) Systen. One of the stated purposes of this system is to provide accurate information on debt collection activities, to assist in the management of the debt collection effort and to meet the proper accounting of debts being collected by Onited States Attorneys. This system has been under continual review and underwent a complete revision as recently as September 1, 1980. This system has a detailed coding system which identifies and tracks information on the judicial district and the creditor clients involved in a case; the general nature of the action, li.e., the collection of money, enforcing federal programs, etc); the specific cause of action