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DeCA will accept CertifiChecks until July 31

Commissary customers can now redeem those worthless CertifiChecks, thanks to a plan approved Friday by Defense Department officials.

Defense Commissary Agency officials announced late Friday that defense officials will allow the commissaries to continue to accept customers’ gift certificates, known as CertifiChecks, for groceries. Customers must redeem them by July 31.

The company that ran the program ceased operations Feb. 26, rendering the gift certificates worthless.

“I am happy to report that DeCA and DoD have found a way that we can honor our customers’ unredeemed CertifiChecks,” DeCA Director Philip E. Sakowitz Jr. said in the announcement. “We have been deeply concerned about how this situation has impacted our customers worldwide, and we’re happy that we’ve been able to find a solution.”

Commissary store managers have been notified of the policy change.

CertifiChecks Inc., of Dayton, Ohio, posted a notice on its Web site Feb. 26 that it had ceased operations, citing a difficult economic environment. The notice said the company is in the process of filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It warned merchants not to present any CertifiChecks to a bank, because they would be returned.

Initially, commissaries could not accept the worthless gift certificates, for legal reasons, because they are funded by taxpayer dollars.

CertifiChecks officials could not be reached for comment, and commissary officials also have been unable to reach CertifiChecks officials.

Since Feb. 26, DeCA officials have been working “non-stop” with defense officials to settle on a legal recourse to help customers left holding the worthless CertifiChecks, according to the announcement. DeCA will be allowed to absorb losses incurred honoring the certificates from its retail stocks account in the Defense Working Capital Fund.

Customers or donors have bought more than $20 million of these gift certificates since 2002, including more than $3.9 million in fiscal 2008, officials said. It has not yet been determined how many are unredeemed. A number of the CertifiChecks were given to non-profit organizations like Operation Homefront and Fisher House Foundation to give to military families in need.

The military exchange systems also used a CertifiChecks program, as did hundreds of other retailers and entities across the country. The Army and Air Force Exchange System, Navy Exchange Service Command and Coast Guard Exchange Service said earlier this week that they will continue to accept the CertifiChecks.

Information was not available from Marine Corps Exchange officials about whether they will accept the CertifiChecks.