FederalDaily - December 28, 2005
President Implements Fed Pay Raises for 2006
President George W. Bush signed an executive order last week ensuring that
the annual federal pay raise is implemented in January 2006. The increase in
base pay—averaging 3.1 percent nationwide—will go into effect Jan.
1, 2006, for uniformed services personnel, and the first applicable pay period
on or after Jan. 1 2006, for the general schedule and all other federal pay
scales. In addition, the 2006 federal pay scales are now available through
the Office of Personnel Management Web site. To view the pay scales, go to www.opm.gov/oca/06tables/index.asp.
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OMB Report on E-Government
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) outlined the accomplishments and
goals for the E-Government initiative in its annual “Expanding E-Government” report,
released last week. E-Government was established in 2002 to increase federal
agency effectiveness and efficiency by expanding the use of information technology
(IT) resources. Thresholds were attained in enterprise architecture, security
and business cases during fiscal year 2005. Federal agencies did not attain
goals in earned value management and IT workforce. The four main goals for
fiscal year 2006 are:
- 90 percent of agencies to have acceptable business cases
for all of their IT systems;
- 50 percent of agencies utilizing effective earned value management;
- 90 percent of agencies having certified IT cyber security,
including verification by the inspector general; and
- 50 percent of agencies operating without IT skill gaps.
The full report is available at www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budintegration/expanding_egov_2005.pdf.
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GAO Finds Issues with OSC Contracting
The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and Administrative Resource Center (ARC)
did not follow proper federal contract regulations in awarding a $140,000 sole-source
task order to Military Professional Resources, Inc. (MPRI), the Government
Accountability Office (GAO) discovered. The November report, released on Dec.
19, found that the ARC did not seek competition among vendors or provide adequate
justification for a sole-source order. In addition, there was no documented
explanation for MPRI’s fees. GAO also found that OSC officials performed
duties reserved for the contracting officer of appropriate representative.
GAO recommended ARC conduct careful reviews of documents to verify competition
compliance. The report also advised OSC to establish procedures that guarantee
only authorized individuals perform contracting duties. For the full report
go to www.gao.gov/new.items/d0616.pdf.
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Story Correction
In the last edition of Federal Families FEND reported on the 2005 OPM Toy
Drive. One sentence in the story read, “OPM “adopted” the
Theodore Roosevelt when the ship sank shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, when the
ship was stationed in the Middle East to assist in fighting the war on terror.” The
ship did not sink, and that phrase was included in error.
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