Chair Lee on ECB outstanding debt: $1.3 billion total and collectibility categories
Lee questions the breakdown of $573 million collectible and $744 million uncollectible ECB debt. Commissioner Lee explains uncollectible debt involves respondents who cannot be identified, bankrupt businesses, or those lacking financial ability to pay.
And then moving on to ECB violations, we discussed ECB violations and outstanding debt at length, and we were happy to see one of your first actions as commissioner was to announce a 30-day review to increase...
Collections of Outstanding Debt.
And this has been an important issue for the council, as you know, in recent years.
And in your announcement, DOF identified that $573 million in outstanding debt is potentially collectible and an additional $744 million is deemed uncollectible for a total outstanding debt of $1.3 billion.
Is that correct?
Yes, that is correct.
This is as of beginning of fiscal year 2026.
Again, as you mentioned, we did identify $573 million in outstanding debt that is potentially collectible, an additional $744 million that is deemed uncollectible.
And then how did you break down the categories of what's collectible or not collectible?
So when, in some cases, when debt is categorized as uncollectible, it's because of the respondents that cannot be sufficiently identified or verified
and limits DOF's ability to pursue outreach and any other enforcement action.
In other cases, it might be because the business that received it might have gone bankrupt and no longer exists, or they might just simply lack the financial ability to satisfy the outstanding debt.
So that's largely the main reasons why we have an uncollectible category.