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See Can I Buy and Unauthorized Purchases for more info.Q: How do I obtain a government bankcard?Contact Cicely Simmons(321-867-3912), NASA KSC Bankcard Program Administrator, to obtain a government bankcard (purchase). You will be advised when the next mandatory bankcard training class will be held. Please see “How to become a Cardholder”. Q: Who is eligible for the Bankcard Program?Only NASA KSC Civil Servants may apply for a government bankcard. Q: Can I allow other civil servants to use my bankcard as long as I have authorized it?No. Only the cardholder whose name appears on the bankcard can use it. In the new P-Card system, cardholders can delegate "Alternates" to create and reconcile transactions in their place, but only the cardholder can actually place the order with the vendor. Q. What if a vendor does not accept Purchase Cards?You may enter a PR in SAP or contact Procurement for other possible ways to make the purchase. Q. Can I order and pay through a third party such as Pay Pal?NO. Q: Who is my Approving Official?Your approving official is generally your immediate supervisor. If it is not please see someone in your business office. Q: How will Special Approvals be handled in the new P-Card system?P-Card does not have the functionality to route order logs for approval. Because of this, Cardholders will need to obtain any Special Approvals prior to entering and saving the order log in P-Card. See Can I Buy?.... for further information on off-line required approvals. Any Special Approvals obtained in this manner will need to be documented in the "Comments" field in the P-Card order log. In a similar manner, use of funding other than your own also needs to be approved prior to entering and saving the order log in P-Card. If the Purchase Program Auditors are advised by a funding organization that funding was used by a cardholder without prior approval, that could result in the issuance of a warning memo and suspension of your cardholder account Q. What is considered 'Splitting Requirements'Splitting of a requirement to fall within the $3,000 limit is prohibited [See FAR Part 13.003 (c)].Requirements aggregating more than the micro-purchase threshold shall not be broken down into several purchases that are less than $3,000 merely to permit use of a Bankcard and avoid preparing a requisition to be processed by the Procurement Office. The total of a single purchase to be paid for using the card may be comprised of multiple items, but cannot exceed the authorized single purchase limit of $3,000.An illustration of a split award would be where a customer requirement can only be met by purchase of several separately priced items the total of which exceeds $3,000 and would normally be purchased together, but are purchased separately solely to avoid exceeding the $3,000 threshold. An example would be where a machine tool (priced below $3,000) and several accessories or separately priced options (when added to the price of the machine tool exceed $3,000) are necessary to have the required capability. The requirement is for the machine tool with the capabilities provided by the accessories. Therefore, the value of the requirement is the sum of the item costs and purchasing the items separately would be “splitting the requirement.” Another illustration would be where it is known in advance that quantities of the same item valued below $3,000 will be acquired with a total value over $3,000, but the purchases are purposely spread over time to stay below the $3,000. Q: As a result of a recent bankcard purchase, the store gave me a gift card. What should I do with it?KSC Bankcard Gift (Discount) Card Policy Bankcard Holders may receive gift/discount cards
for future purchases as a result of a government purchase. For example, a
Bankcard Holder could receive a $25.00 gift/discount card after a purchase of
$399.00 or more at Q: Are goods and services paid with the government bankcard taxable?No. When paying for goods and services with the Bankcard/Purchase Card, tell the merchant that this is a government purchase and should not be taxed. Contact Cicely Simmons (321-867-3912) for a copy of the tax exemption document . Q: What should I do with my bankcard if I change organizations?Contact Cicely Simmons (321-867-3912) immediately. If you wish to remain a cardholder, your organizational data will be updated. If not, your card will be canceled. Q: What should I do with my bankcard if I resign or retire from NASA KSC?Contact Cicely Simmons (321-867-3912) for further instructions on canceling your account. Q: What should I do if I lose my government bankcard?Lost or stolen purchase cards must be reported immediately to Bank of America at 1-800-472-1424. Be sure to notify Cicely Simmons.. Q: When I need to use my government credit card to make a purchase, do I still have to create a purchase request? With the coming of the new IFM Core Financial system including SAP and P-Card, you will now have to create an "Order Log" in the P-Card Solution software and verify that fund certification has successfully taken place before you make any purchases. This is for non-Procurement cardholders. In fact, if you placed an order using your purchasing bankcard without having a successfully saved (i.e., fund certified) order log in P-Card, you would be guilty of making an Unauthorized Commitment which is a violation of federal regulations. Q: We just purchased a software upgrade with a bankcard. It came with a $50 rebate offer. Can we submit this rebate offer? Rebates cannot be applied back to your Order Log. When NASA receives a rebate check, it is considered a miscellaneous recovery/refund. The funds are forwarded to the US Treasury. This is because of the appropriation law that states that we may not augment appropriations. (There are other statutes related to the definition and disposition of cash received as well) The philosophy behind this follows: When we purchase an item the amount we agree to pay for the item at the time of the sale is the amount we have contracted for. This means also that the goods have been received and accepted. When a rebate is received because of the purchase, the contracted amount between NASA and the vendor has not changed, and the rebate must be applied to miscellaneous receipts (basically the money goes back to the U S Treasury.) I know this seems a little strange at first glance. It really is the duty of a government employee to recover these funds even if their own agency is not keeping them. So the rebate should be applied for. Should the rebate be issued in the individual's name, she/he should turn the check over to the collection agent in GG-B-B (where payroll is located) after endorsing the check. If at all possible, the rebate paperwork should request that the check be made payable to NASA and mailed to: NASA Collection Agent/GG-B-C Q: How do I get additional funds on a Bankcard PR? Bankcard purchases are now recorded by creating Order Logs within the P-Card Solution software which along with SAP has replaced APRS. If you find that you need additional funds on a P-Card Order Log, you will need to modify the order log within the P-Card system. This can be done until the order has been reconciled. Q: Can I use my government bankcard for personal use? No. Use of the government bankcard for personal use is strictly prohibited. Q: Can I order items from different vendors on the same order log? No. All line items on a single order log must be able to be purchased from a single source. This pertains to both bankcard/purchase card order logs as well as SAP PRs submitted through Procurement. A Procurement Buyer can only place an order to one vendor per PR even though the requestor may have provided several suggested vendors. In the case of bankcard purchases, we were informed of a recent occurrence of a cardholder who was asked to make a bankcard purchase for a number of books. An on-line web source was listed as the suggested vendor. As it turned out, this source was actually a clearinghouse for many book vendors and the books being purchased were not all available from a single vendor. To correct this situation, the cardholder had to initiate separate PRs for each vendor and send an e-mail to FMD to adjust the funding level of the original PR. Bottom line. It would be tremendously helpful and would help to speed things along if requestors could make sure that all line items that they are ordering on a PR are available for purchase from a single vendor. |
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