Nov 6, 2009

I Thought This Was The U.S. Treasury's Job

Does anyone know what this presolicitation notice from Social Security means?
The Social Security Administration (SSA) located in Baltimore, MD has a requirement for an establishment where money is stored for saving or commercial purposes or is invested, supplied for loans or exchanged and is a FDIC member institution to provide banking services to implement and maintain a Third Party Payment System (TPPS) that will allow SSA to issue selected payments using payment instruments. Payment instruments mean drafts, checks or other similar negotiable instruments that will be printed and provided by the Government Printing Office. The contractor shall service up to 6,000 SSA cashiers in approximately 1,500 SSA offices worldwide. SSA expects to issue in fiscal year 2010 approximately 300,000 payments equaling an estimated $110,000,000. The SSA TPPS shall require 1 master account and 15 subsidiary accounts.

1 comment:

Nancy Ortiz said...

FO's get a supply of numbered TPPS checks to be used as emergency payments for needy beneficiaries to whom we owe money. A check doesn't come or an underpayment is due, but hasn't arrived and the beneficiary is experiencing extreme hardship as a result. These checks have to be issued by a particular bank the same way banks issue credit cards, money orders, certified checks and so on. SSA is the contracting agency, not Treasury. This process has been in place since the 80's, I think, but if I'm wrong, someone please correct me. Treasury has the big kitty, for sure. That is, the Treasury actually pays the bank for the credit issued on SSA's behalf. But, SSA has these special issue checks in the meantime. FYI