(a) In cooperation with the Federal agency certifying or authorizing payments to the debtor, a creditor agency may make a request directly to a payment authorizing agency to offset a payment due a debtor to collect a delinquent debt from, for example, a Federal employee's lump sum payment upon leaving government service in order to pay an unpaid advance. Unless prohibited by law, when centralized administrative offset is not available or appropriate, past due, legally enforceable nontax delinquent debts may be collected through non-centralized administrative offset.

(b) A non-centralized administrative offset may start 31 days after the date of the Notice of Intent to Collect by Administrative Offset, any time after the final determination in an administrative review conducted under subpart F of this part upholds the creditor agency's decision to offset, or any time after the creditor agency notifies the debtor that its repayment proposal submitted under §3.42(b) is not acceptable if the 30-day period for the debtor to request review of the Notice has expired, unless the creditor agency makes a determination under §3.41(b)(3) that immediate action to effectuate the offset is necessary.

(c) A payment authorizing agency may conduct a non-centralized administrative offset only after certification by a creditor agency that:

(1) The debtor has been provided notice and opportunity for review as specified in §3.41; and

(2) The payment authorizing agency has received written certification from the creditor agency that the debtor owes the past due, legally enforceable delinquent debt in the amount stated, and that the creditor agency has fully complied with its regulations concerning administrative offset.

(d) Payment authorizing agencies will comply with offset requests by creditor agencies to collect debts owed to the United States, unless the offset would not be in the interest of the United States with respect to the program of the payment authorizing agency or would otherwise be contrary to law. Appropriate use should be made of the cooperative efforts of other agencies in effecting collection by administrative offset.

(e) When collecting multiple debts by non-centralized administrative offset, agencies will apply the recovered amounts to those debts in accordance with the interests of the United States, as determined by the facts and circumstances of the particular case, particularly the applicable statute of limitations.

(f) Debts arising from the shipment of commodities procured by CCC are subject to the following:

(1) Debts due CCC from a carrier for overcharges will be offset against amounts due to the carrier under freight bills involving shipments if:

(i) The carrier, without reasonable justification, has declined payment of the debt or has failed to pay the debt after being given a reasonable opportunity to make payment; and

(ii) The periods of limitation as specified in 49 U.S.C. 11705(f) or 49 U.S.C. 14705(f) have not expired;

(2) Debts due to CCC from a carrier for loss or damage will be offset against amounts due to the carrier under freight bills involving shipments if:

(i) Timely demand for payment was made on the carrier;

(ii) The carrier has declined payment of the debt without reasonable justification or has ignored the debt; and

(iii) The periods of limitation as specified in 49 U.S.C. 11706(e) or 49 U.S.C. 14706(e) have not expired; and

(3) Any overcharge, loss, or damage debt due to CCC on which the applicable period of limitation has expired may be offset against any amounts owed by CCC to the carrier which are subject to limitation.