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On January 12, 2009, Scott H. Johnson was appointed as the Assistant Commissioner for Debt Management Services (DMS) at the Financial Management Service (FMS), U.S. Department of the Treasury. In this position, he is responsible for the collection of delinquent debts owed to the federal government.

Prior to this appointment, Scott served ten years as the Assistant Commissioner for Management and Chief Financial Officer at the Financial Management Service, U.S. Department of the Treasury. 

In this position, he was responsible for providing direction and leadership for the FMS’s administrative and financial programs, ensuring that policies developed and implemented for resource management conform with federal and Departmental regulatory requirements. He also provided legislative coordination, support and advice to FMS management officials in developing and fully utilizing resources, materials, and funds to meet goals and objectives.

Previously, Scott was also the Director of the Business Management Division in the Office of the Assistant Commissioner for DMS. He was responsible for directing management and support functions to help agencies receive the necessary assistance to remain in compliance with the Debt Collection Improvement Act (DCIA) of 1996. In addition to other duties, Scott was involved in directing policy- making on debt collection policy practices with the Department, Office of Management and Budget, Congress and other government agencies.

Prior to joining DMS in January 1998, Scott was the Director of the Program Integrity Division, Comptroller Directorate in the Office of the Assistant Commissioner for Management. He was responsible for FMS security programs, internal control, internal audit, and implementation of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). In addition, he had the responsibility for development and management of Strategic and Operational Planning. 

Scott joined FMS in November 1991 as the Manager of the Security Branch, Program Review Division. He was responsible for the Security Program and Oversight, Physical and Personnel Security and Emergency Preparedness. Prior to that, he served as Chief of the Overseas Security Operations Branch, and Special Agent of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 1984 to 1991. From 1980 to 1984, Scott served in the U.S. Army as a counterintelligence officer, rising to the rank of captain.

Scott holds a bachelor’s of science degree in finance and commerce, which he received in 1980 from Georgetown University. Additionally, he also holds a master’s degree in government, which he received in 1993, also from Georgetown University.

The Debt Business – A Thriving Organization

Scott has enthusiastically taken over the helm of DMS and already in his brief tenure there has begun to stamp his imprint on the organization. Under his leadership, DMS continues to fine-tune their business to look for opportunities to enhance the Treasury Offset Program and Cross-Servicing, which will lead to improved debt collection. Overall, the debt collection business is very successful. In FY2008 alone, DMS collected $5.9 billion from all collection tools.

Among the initiatives being addressed in DMS under Scott’s leadership are: movement of the Debt Management Operations Center to a new facility; an increasingly more  pro-active debt collection role for DMS collectors; a review of debt collection policy options available to DMS and creditor agencies; documentation of debt collection roles and responsibilities among DMS components; development of a new model to capture debt collection costs with a view toward informing DMS’  fee structure; and creation of a comprehensive mechanism outlining the roles and responsibilities of DMS and the suppliers that provide services to the debt collection effort.

DMS has been very effective at collecting delinquent debt over the past few years with both the Treasury Offset Program (TOP) and Cross-Servicing having record collections last year. Collections so far this fiscal year are on pace to be even higher. DMS has plans to continue to improve its debt collection systems, in order to better serve agencies. In 2005, DMS first implemented web-based access to our Cross-Servicing system, FedDebt. Last year, DMS implemented the web-client access to the Treasury Offset Program (TOP) system and implemented the new DMS accounting system called the Financial Accounting Collections Disbursement and  Reconciliation (FACDR). While providing web-based access for agencies to our systems is important, DMS believes that there are a number of additional projects that will improve the debt collection process and increase overall government-wide collections.

In FY 2009, DMS will be receiving wage and employment information from the Department of Health and Human Services’ New Hire Database. This will increase collections for Administrative Wage Garnishment (AWG) but only for those agencies that have authorized DMS to utilize AWG. It is imperative that agencies authorize DMS to use AWG or there is a possible loss of additional collections. 

In the fall of 2009, DMS will begin a project to update the technology behind the Treasury Offset Program.  This multiyear project will allow TOP to utilize better technology that will increase processing time for matching federal payments against the delinquent debts in TOP, improve the loading and updating of debts in TOP, and allow DMS to better manage the over $300 billion of debts referred to TOP. Going forward DMS will be implementing a Data Mart to provide DMS and agencies with better analytics to improve the overall debt collection process. In addition to these major projects, DMS has begun prioritizing future projects that will improve the manual processes that still exist in the debt collection process related to handling debtor disputes, requests for additional debt documentation, and other paper intensive activities.

For more information, visit DMS online at www.fms.treas.gov/debt.

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