Federal Daily - April 23, 2009

RetireEZ Effort Still Faltering, GAO Says

The Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) two-decade search for a way to modernize the antiquated paper-intensive processes that are used to manage federal employee retirement benefits stumbled last year when the agency canceled a $290 million contract to provide technology for the RetireEZ program. But the setback was emblematic of larger problems, according to a report released April 21 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). GAO said that OPM initiated technology contracts for the system despite GAO warnings that it was moving too fast to implement the program properly. After RetireEZ was rolled out on a limited basis last year, problems appeared, and in May 2008 OPM pulled the plug on the Defined Benefits Technology Solution (DBTS) contract to furnish the core technology for the integrated electronic retirement system. And now, as OPM attempts to regroup, GAO said the agency still has not yet developed a complete plan that describes how the program is to proceed without the DBTS system. And although OPM documents describe program implementation activities, they do not include a definition of the program, its scope, lines of responsibility and authority, management processes or a schedule, the report said. Despite years of effort to move to an integrated electronic system, federal agencies that submit retirement information to OPM continue to provide paper packages and information when employees are ready to retire, and the agency continues to manage cases through paper tracking and stand-alone systems, the report said. “OPM remains far from fully implementing the retirement modernization capabilities described when it documented its plans for RetireEZ in 2007,” the report said. New OPM Director John Berry, in his April 15 comments on the report, said that the agency already has started to address the issues outlined in the study. Berry said that, among other things, OPM has begun work to revise its retirement modernization plans, develop a new program cost estimate, and incorporate guidance into its requirements management planning. To see more, go to: www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-529.

:: Back to Top ::

Army Reserve, CBP Launch Jobs Partnership to Fill 11,000 Positions

The Army Reserve and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on April 21 announced a formal partnership designed to help Reserve members find jobs within the agency that has an estimated 11,000 openings. CBP becomes the first federal agency to join the Army Reserve’s Employer Partnership, which aims to enhance job opportunities for soldiers and vets. As part of the partnership, CBP benefits from access to men and women with Army values, experience and proven leadership skills, the agency said. “These citizen-soldiers have a well earned reputation as exemplary employees with proven leadership, teamwork, discipline and grace under pressure,” said Jayson P. Ahern, acting CBP commissioner. Since its inception in April 2008, nearly 300 employers have joined the initiative, CBP said in a statement. To see more, go to: www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/04212009_3.xml.

:: Back to Top ::

NFFE Defends Workers in Passport Flap

The State Department has wrongly fingered passport workers for erroneously issuing passports to undercover government auditors, including one based on the Social Security number of a dead man, said Colin Walle, president of National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) Local 1998, a nationwide local of passport services employees. In an April 21 statement, Walle said that the State Department has mistakenly suspended the adjudication duties of the passport specialists who approved the four fraudulent applications. State Department officials claimed that “human error” led to the issuance of the four passports because specialists did not wait for the results of a required Social Security Administration (SSA) database check before approving applications made by undercover Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigators. However, Walle pointed out that passport specialists were under extreme pressure to move ahead with adjudications without waiting for document verifications. “I need to set the record straight because the State Department’s comments are inaccurate,” said Walle. “Passport employees were instructed to move forward with the processing of passport applications and not to wait for certain checks that would slow the adjudication process. The agency made that decision, and they are responsible.” In fact, NFFE has been warning the passport officials about passport vulnerabilities due to rushed applications for years, Walle said. The State Department has taken some temporary measures to alleviate the production quotas, but more needs to be done, Walle said. In its April 13 summary, GAO recommended that the State Department improve the training and resources for passport acceptance facility employees and establish a process where passports are held until they are checked against names listed in the SSA Death Master File. To see more, go to: www.nffe.org/ht/display/ReleaseDetails/i/8826 or the GAO summary at www.gao.gov/new.items/d09583r.pdf.

:: Back to Top ::