Chair Lee on ECB collection targets and the 30-day review rationale
Lee asks about the $70.1 million collection target and whether DOF will set higher targets. Commissioner Lee explains the FY27 target plus $25 million from the amnesty program, and describes the 30-day review as an internal brainstorming to improve collections and compliance.
Okay, and then your announcement of $70.1 million in collections is just 12% of the collectible debt.
So would you be willing to set targets for additional collections of outstanding debt in the fiscal year, and what would those targets be?
So the FY27 executive budget.
right now sets our ECB collection target at about 70.1 million, as you stated, with an additional $25 million in collections driven by the ECB amnesty program, which was added at prelim.
And as we implement a lot of the findings that we have from our review, we're hoping that the process will better target some of these violations.
And should it be readjusted in the middle of the year, we're happy to do so.
Okay, and how much would you like to see collected in FY27?
Again, we're reviewing some of the processes internally to improve some of our collections.
And one of those examples is how we collected the Amazon $9 million.
We had a direct approach, sort of like a case management approach, of working directly with Amazon Logistics, walking them through the process, identifying issues that they might have to bring them into compliance.
So initiating a lot of the strategies like that, plus others across the board internally, we're hoping to better the ECB collection.
We're happy to update as we go along throughout the fiscal year.
Okay.
And what was the rationale behind the 30-day review?
Oh, so our teams internally, we collect outstanding debt all the time, like every day.
Right, that's what I was wondering.
That's the mission.
Essentially the mission of our agency led by Deputy Sheriff Annette Hill, who oversees our collections divisions.
The reason why we wanted to do a 30-day review is because we wanted to really encourage our entire agency, who's impacted by collections and administration, to think creatively.
on what we can do to really enhance and improve collections and improve compliance across the board.
So it was an internal sort of brainstorming of how we can better it.