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The U.S. Department of Labor's Pension and Welfare
Benefits Administration (PWBA) has selected National Computer Systems, Inc. of
Iowa City, Iowa, to complete the development of its new Employee Retirement
Income Security Act (ERISA) Filing Acceptance System, known as EFAST.
In addition to providing for an initial period to
scale-up its system, the contract also allows five option periods to process
the Form 5500 series reports through June 30, 2005.
NCS was one of two contractors awarded contracts
in September, 1998 to design and develop fully functional minimum-capacity
systems. When the firms completed their “small scale” system
assignments, PWBA evaluated the systems to determine which system most fully
met the federal government's needs. PWBA then selected NCS because its system
represented the best value for the government. NCS will process the forms at
its Lawrence, Kans. facility.
“This new system upgrades our technology
capabilities to meet the challenges of the future,” said Alan D. Lebowitz,
the pension agency’s deputy assistant secretary for program operations.
“EFAST make paperless electronic filing of Form 5500s a reality, which
will result in lower costs and greater service.”
The federal government uses the information
provided by employee benefit plans in the Form 5500 Annual Reports in a variety
of ways. The information will be available to the regulatory agencies which
administer various sections of ERISA — — the Labor Department, the
Internal Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)
and to employee benefit plan participants upon request.
Since 1976 the forms have been processed by IRS
service centers which provided copies of the forms and data tapes to the
agencies responsible for administering the federal employee benefits law.
Under the new system, plan filers will submit
paper filings that range in length from a single page to several hundred pages;
and electronic filings containing the same information that the filer would
submit if furnished in a paper filing.
NCS developed an integrated, imaged-based work
flow process system using the latest proven technology appropriate to the work
of this contract. The system is expected to expedite the efficient processing
of all forms in conjunction with the requirement to create digital images of
each form for data entry, data capture, search, retrieval and archiving
purposes. NCS will use automated data capture technology, when applicable, as
well as digital imaging, in initial processes for document analysis and data
entry.
NCS is expected to receive Form 5500 filings,
process the data into machine-readable format, conduct specified edit tests for
validity and completeness, initiate correspondence with filers whose filings
fail one or more edit tests, attempt to perfect the data using filer responses,
and, finally, provide the data to the federal government.
EFAST will be ready to process plan year 1999
filings which will generally be filed in July 2000. |
