Hold Special Circumstances
Local Funds

State agencies and institutions of higher education are required to follow the warrant hold statutes when issuing payments from local funds (funds held outside the State Treasury).

Payment Prohibited

If the payee is on hold, agencies and institutions must not use local funds to issue a payment unless the hold source agency or agencies consent to the release of the payment. The consent must be:

• In writing
• Obtained on a payment-by-payment basis
• Retained for audit purposes

Agencies are required to verify payee hold status before issuing payments from local funds. Payments made through the USAS with appropriated funds are automatically checked for holds.

Verifying Holds Using TINS

TINS is the system of record for accessing hold information for all debtors and should be used to verify if a person is prohibited from receiving state payments.

• If the TIN is unknown, use the Payee Name Search (PAYNAM) screen to help locate an existing TIN.
• Once you have the TIN, check for holds on the PYHOLD inquiry screen.
• You may also check the Debtor Hold File Extract.

Verifying Holds Using the Vendor Hold Search — FIELD STAFF USE ONLY

TINS is the system of record for warrant hold. However, field staff unable to access TINS may use the Vendor Hold Search web tool. This tool is not a comprehensive search of state debtors.

The web tool allows:

• Searches for possible vendor holds only. The search excludes holds for state employees and individual recipients.
• A name search only. You may not search by TIN, SSN or EIN. If the search finds multiple hold records with similar names, additional research will be necessary using TINS.

Holding Payments

Each agency must establish its own policies and procedures when issuing payments to debtors from local funds.

Agencies and institutions that are physically holding payments issued from local funds may want to research if the payments are eligible to be processed through USAS. Once processed in USAS, the payments would be held and offset toward the state debts.

Reimbursement Payments

The Comptroller may not reimburse an agency for payments issued from local funds to a payee on hold.

• The paying agency or institution is responsible for preventing these payments.
• Any such payments could constitute an audit finding against the paying agency.