FederalDaily - February 9, 2006

Government Makes More Electronic Payments

More Americans received electronic payments from the federal government in 2005 than a year earlier, according to the Treasury Financial Management Service (FMS). The move away from paper checks seemed most apparent from the increase in vendor payments made via electronic fund transfers (EFTs), which rose from 47.9 percent in 2004 to 86.3 percent last year, according to FMS. The amount of EFTs recorded for Office of Personnel Management payments rose from 93.7 percent in 2004 to 94.3 percent in 2005. For Supplemental Security Income payments, EFTs rose from 54.1 percent of payments in 2004 to 55.4 percent last year. Similar trends were recorded for Railroad Retirement Board, Social Security and Veterans Administration payments. FMS also reported that total check payments declined from around 15.3 million in 2004 to around 15 million last year.

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DOE Layoffs Due to Budget Shortfall

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) reduced its staff by 32 people on Tuesday to help meet a $28 million budget shortfall. The agency said 27 are regular staff, and five are temporary employees. Of the 32, eight were research staff and 24 worked in support positions. NREL said the laboratory made substantial cuts in other areas, including travel, outside contracts and other operating expenses, before reducing staff. Regular staff affected by the layoffs will remain on payroll for three days and will receive severance pay and job search help. NREL is DOE’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by Midwest Research Institute and Battelle.

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GSA Contractor Web Site Problems

Several senators are concerned about reports of security flaws in the General Services Administration (GSA) government contractor Web site. Last week Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., wrote a letter David Bibb, GSA acting administrator, requesting information on the issue and corrective measures the administration is taking. The New York Times first reported on problems with eOffer—a web-based application that allows government contractors to submit offers and modifications electronically—last month. The article said contractors could gain unauthorized access to other contractor bids and potentially tamper with system information. Collins and Lieberman asked GSA to address the following:

• the GSA inspector general was informed of the issue on Dec. 22, 2005, but the system was not taken offline until Jan. 11, 2006;
• the issue of whether other users had discovered or exploited the vulnerability; and
• steps being taken to verify that other contractor/vendor systems are not at risk.

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Administration Touts Human Capital Management

In its proposed budget for 2007 (released this week), the administration commented on last year’s human capital management successes in federal agencies. Specifically, it said:

• the Social Security Administration hired 4,600 new employees in 2005 while reducing hiring time and improving new employee retention;
• the Department of Agriculture used targeted recruitment to reduce vacancy rates and shorten hiring time in several areas;
• the Department of the Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency used work force planning to identify the need for entry-level bank examiners to serve as future senior-level employees; and
• the Federal Highway Administration conducted skills gap analyses and targeted its recruitment program for those identified skills, allowing the agency to reduce employee attrition.

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