Urgent - Billing Information Needed

To assure that your Scholarship and Grant Policy and Procedure Manual remains current, please record this document on your TOPS Bulletin index and retain it with your manual.

This office has been asked to report to the Division of Administration those funds which were appropriated for the TOPS that will not be expended in the current fiscal year and which could be used to meet other budget-year shortfalls.

As per our bulletin T99-6, dated March 5, the final date that schools may bill this office for Fall and Spring 1998-1999 TOPS awards is July 1, 1999. However, to permit a timely response to the Division of Administration, we request that you notify this office of the number of students at your institution, if any, for whom we have not received a payment request but for whom you will be billing prior to the July 1 deadline. Please respond, to include negative responses as appropriate, no later than 2 p.m. Tuesday, May 25. This notification does not have to be in the form of a formal billing; however, please include the number of awards which you plan to bill by award type so that we can include stipends in our calculations. Your ad hoc report should be submitted to Customer Services via fax to 225-922-0790; by E-mail to custserv@osfa.state.la.us or by telephone to 800-259-5626, extension 1012.

To date, only five schools have reported students on academic probation for the Spring Semester, 1999. An award cannot be made to a student determined by the school to be on academic probation. If your institution has not reported its TOPS recipients who are on academic probation, you may be billing for and awarding students who are not eligible to receive the award. Schools which have not done so should immediately report their TOPS recipients who are on academic probation for the Spring Semester using the Academic Probation File (TPYAP01). A negative response is required if the school does not have TOPS recipients on academic probation. The format and instructions for this report were forwarded previously as TOPS Bulletin T99-1, dated January 28, 1999. Copies of this bulletin can be downloaded from our website at, http://www.osfa.state.la.us.

Our records show that a number of schools have not reconciled all award payments. A reconciliation will be necessary before the close of the current fiscal year. We shall be contacting individual schools to assist in reconciling award payments.