3.43—Non-centralized administrative offset.
(a) Scope.
In cooperation with the Federal agency certifying or authorizing payments to the debtor, a creditor agency may make a request directly to a payment authorizing agency to offset a payment due a debtor to collect a delinquent debt from, for example, a Federal employee's lump sum payment upon leaving government service in order to pay an unpaid advance. Also, non-centralized administrative offsets include USDA internal administrative offsets, for example, of CCC payments to pay Farm Service Agency (FSA) delinquent debts. Unless prohibited by law, when centralized administrative offset is not available or appropriate, past due, legally enforceable nontax delinquent debts may be collected through non-centralized administrative offset.
(b) Effectuation of offset.
A non-centralized administrative offset may be effected 31 days after the date of the Notice of Intent to Collect by Administrative Offset, any time after the final determination in an administrative review conducted under subpart F upholds the creditor agency's decision to offset, or any time after the creditor agency notifies the debtor that its repayment proposal submitted under § 3.42(c) is not acceptable if the 30-day period for the debtor to seek review of the Notice has expired, unless the creditor agency makes a determination under § 3.41(b)(3) that immediate action to effectuate the offset is necessary.
(c) Certification.
A payment authorizing agency may conduct a non-centralized administrative offset only after certification by a creditor agency that:
(2)
The payment authorizing agency has received written certification from the creditor agency that the debtor owes the past due, legally enforceable delinquent debt in the amount stated, and that the creditor agency has fully complied with its regulations concerning administrative offset.
(d) Responsibilities of payment authorizing agencies.
Payment authorizing agencies shall comply with offset requests by creditor agencies to collect debts owed to the United States, unless the offset would not be in the best interests of the United States with respect to the program of the payment authorizing agency, or would otherwise be contrary to law. Appropriate use should be made of the cooperative efforts of other agencies in effecting collection by administrative offset.
(e) Application of recovered amounts to satisfaction of debts.
When collecting multiple debts by non-centralized administrative offset, agencies shall apply the recovered amounts to those debts in accordance with the best interests of the United States, as determined by the facts and circumstances of the particular case, particularly the applicable statute of limitations.