Servicing Personnel Office (SPO) Personnel Data Record (PDR) Reviews
Contents:
- PDR Source Document Final Push
- Alternate SSN Verification Method
- Clarification of Documentation Requirements for SPO-PDR Review
- Talking Points for Unit Commanding Officers and Officers in Charge (CO/OIC)
PDR Source Document Final Push
SPO YNs,
Thanks to your efforts, the collection of our member source documents is over 90% complete CG-wide. Some of you are at or near 100% compliance now, while others unfortunately are still in the 70 percent range. I know this has been a significant additional workload for you and has been largely thankless work. Your continued efforts are needed to help us achieve a clean financial audit this year.
To help in this effort, PSC has begun validating member Social Security numbers through an alternate method [See "Alternate SSN Verification Method ", below, or http://www.uscg.mil/announcements/alcgpsc/022-12_alcgpsc.txt]. To date, approximately 75% of the remaining members needing to submit their SSN cards have received their SSN validation CG-3307 via email. Members have been directed to sign the Page 7s and forward to you for filing. We expect to have the remaining member SSN validations completed OOA March 16th.
In addition to this e-mail sent to you, PSC has engaged with LANT, PAC, DCO, and DCMS leadership separately to push the message down to their Districts, Directorate and commands with individual names that remain to comply which should help in your efforts. If you are receiving resistance from particular members please report it to your leadership so that they can engage the member's command.
For members missing Birth or Marriage Certificates, replacement documents must be obtained from the state in which they were issued. Each state website has information on how to accomplish this task. Most states perform this service remotely for a nominal fee and can be done fully online or by mailing a notarized documents obtained online to the state. This task typically does not require the knowledge or cooperation of the member's spouse or other parent which is often used as an excuse as to why they can't comply. Here are a couple of websites that may help your members to obtain copies of their vital documents. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/w2w.htm (provides info on how to get vital records from states, territories and foreign resources) http://www.vitalchek.com (provides vital records services)
Again thanks for your efforts to date. I appreciate your assistance to get this final push done to obtain 100% compliance Coast Guard wide.
R/
CAPT Robert K. Thompson
Division Chief
PSC-Business Operations Division
Arlington, VA
Alternate SSN Verification Method
ALCGPSC 022/12 announced the Social Security Administration's Social Security Number Verification Service (SSNVS) as an approved alternative method to verify member social security numbers.
PSC-BOPS-C will use the data that you already submitted or will submit for the SPO-PDR Review data call due to DCMS-81 by COB 07FEB12. There is no need to send an additional request to BOPS to initiate SSN verifications.
BOPS will run the member's name, SSN and DOB through the SSNVS.
If the member's SSN is valid and matches both name and DOB, BOPS will send the member a digitally signed CG-3307 via email. The member's SPO Supervisor will also receive a copy of the CG-3307 for informational purposes. The member will need to digitally or manually sign the CG-3307 and return it to his/her SPO YN.
If the member's SSN is invalid and does not match both name and DOB, the member and their SPO Supervisor will be notified by email. Once the situation is resolved, the SPO should contact BOPS to have the member's information run again.
SPO YNs file the CG-3307 as if it were a copy of the members SSN by placing it in Section 1 of the SPO-PDR (not in Section 4 as the message indicates or in Section 2 where normal CG-3307's are filed). SPO YNs should also forward a scanned signed copy of the CG-3307 to PSD-MR at ARL-PF-CGPSC-PSD-MR_DOCS@uscg.mil.
If you have any questions, please email ARL-DG-M-CGPSC-BOPS-C@uscg.mil or contact YN1 Juan Calderon or LCDR Christine Fern.
Clarification of Documentation Requirements for SPO-PDR Review
E-Mail ALSPO Message D/11 announced a CG-wide SPO-PDR review. Additional guidance for completing the review was provided in a series of five Question and Answer documents (Q&As) jointly prepared by Commandant (DCMS-81 & CG-852). The purpose of this posting is to clarify supporting documentation requirements for completing the SPO-PDR review.
The three following concerns have been noted:
- Dependent's birth certificates
- Divorce decree
- Social Security card
Each supporting documentation concern is discussed individually below.
Dependent's Birth Certificates: It was stated that a birth certificate was required for each dependent of a member. To clarify this matter, a spouse of a member does not need to obtain his or her birth certificate for the member's PDR. A marriage certificate from an issuing agency will suffice. However, the birth certificates for any children who are claimed as dependents are required.
Divorce Decree: In addition to determining the effective date of the marital status change, the purpose for obtaining the decree is to determine the custody arrangements for any children of the marriage. Many states now handle custody arrangements separate from divorce proceedings, a child custody agreement filed in the PDR along with the page(s) from the divorce decree showing the effective date of the divorce is sufficient documentation..
Members may be concerned with having to provide an entire decree, which may include lengthy, detailed property settlements, and other information of a private and confidential nature. The entire decree is not required. We only need those portions/pages of the decree applicable to BAH and dependency.
In situations where there are no minor children of the marriage, we only need the part of the decree showing the effective date of the divorce (usually only the first page).
Social Security Card: A social security card is necessary to validate the member's information. Although this information is extremely sensitive, this document is required for a 100% completed PDR.
Questions: Any future questions or concerns can be emailed to spopdrreviews@uscg.mil
Talking Points for Unit Commanding Officers and Officers in Charge (CO/OIC)
Issue:
- Coast Guardsmen serving under your command are being asked to provide important Human Resources (HR) documents to your local SPO in support of the CG-wide SPO PDR Review. Though this tasking through ALCOAST 236/11 constitutes a lawful general order, many CG members don't understand why they are being asked to support this effort. Moreover, the local SPOs are fielding the complaints from CG members, many of whom are senior to the SPO Chief. The below talking points are intended to help you as the CO/OIC communicate the purpose of this important effort.
Talking Points:
- ALCOAST 236/11 and ALCGPSC 098/11 directed our SPO to conduct a 100% PDR review to identify important missing documentation.
- Many of you have already received an e-mail from the SPO asking for certain documents and are wondering "why?"
- The purpose of the SPO PDR Review is to support Military Payroll transactions. The requirements for source documentation for the Coast Guard to support monthly payroll transactions are much more comprehensive than in years' past and very important since payroll is essentially half of the Coast Guard's operating expenses.
- Many of you have provided these kinds of source documents in the past. Under the 1995 Paperwork Reduction Act, it was not mandatory to retain evidence related to payroll transactions. In fact, Federal Agencies were encouraged to dispose of paper records, long before electronic-imaged systems were developed to hold that data. As a result, many of these documents that you have previously provided were returned to the members or shredded for security purposes.
- After 2002, standards changed and all federal agencies, including the Coast Guard are now required to produce copies of documentation to demonstrate that your pay and benefits are fully supported. So we must again ensure that these documents are in the PDR. Eventually, all these documents will be scanned into the Electronic-Imaged Personnel Data Record (ei-PDR).
- Many of you remember the 2009 Self Validation that was conducted in Direct Access. This was conducted for a very different purpose; to support the calculation of the Coast Guard's Military Retirement system into the future. It included data elements such as Date of Initial Entry in to Military Service, Pay Base Date and others items. The SPO PDR review is to make the PDRs whole and to support or pay.
- We all need to get our documents to the SPOs by 31 October. Please comply as soon as you can and remember that the SPO Yeomen are merely trying to do what has been asked of them. If you can't find items like your birth certificate or marriage license, you should go get new ones, these are all documents you should maintain for your lifetime.
Summary:
- The SPO PDR Review statistics are briefed monthly to the Vice Commandant. The chain of command is responsible for members that actively resist or refuse to comply. If you have further questions and/or concerns, please contact CAPT Thompson (PSC) at (202) 493-1966, CWO Schuster (DCMS-8) at (202) 475-3671 or CDR Passarelli (CG-85) at (202) 372-3459.