FederalDaily - February 16, 2006

NIH Employees Win Job Competition

National Institutes of Health (NIH) employees won a competitive sourcing competition to perform property management services, NIH announced last week. The NIH Real Property Management group, consisting of 380 employees, submitted a more efficient and lower cost bid than private sector competitors. The competition began in 2003, but a settlement agreement extended the evaluation period. The group will handle construction management, property management and operations and utilities maintenance. NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. said, “Once again the NIH employees have prepared an outstanding bid and have won the competition.”

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Outsourcing Military Mail Service

The Department of Defense (DoD) is touting a new contract for servicemembers’ mail delivery, saying it could save the department several million dollars. Bill Carr, deputy undersecretary of defense for military personnel policy, said the new contract requires DoD to pay for the weight of cargo flown from Newark, N.J., to mail sorting centers in the Middle East. Carr estimated that the contract would save $18 million over two years. The plan includes reassigning the 4,500 servicemembers working in mail delivery and transferring the duty to another source. Under the new plan, Carr predicted that lower-ranking servicemembers would be reassigned to other military occupations, while senior-ranking postal managers would “remain for a time.”

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“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Costly to Taxpayers

Implementation of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy—banning openly gay and bisexual people from serving in the armed forces—cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars between 1993 and 2004, according to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN). A 2005 Government Accountability Office estimated that the law cost $190.5 million to execute. However a Blue Ribbon Commission (a group of military experts) recently came to a different conclusion. The commission’s report—released this week—estimated the taxpayer cost to be $363.8 million. Dixon Osborn, SLDN executive director, stated, “‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ places an unnecessary burden on American taxpayers by asking them to fund a discriminatory law that hurts military readiness.” To read the commission’s analysis, go to: www.gaymilitary.ucsb.edu/Publications/2006-02BlueRibbonFinalRpt.pdf.

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Treasury Procurement Plan Criticized

The Department of the Treasury’s Communications Enterprise (TCE) procurement plan—meant to replace the department’s current telecommunications services—suffered from poor planning, execution and documentation, the Treasury Inspector General (IG) announced in a Feb. 10 audit report. The IG report found that the department did not complete sufficient business case and cost analyses or properly document planning and development efforts. These deficiencies caused delays and increased costs for TCE, with the program estimated to cost up to $1 billion over 10 years. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., who had been highly critical of the TCE plan from the outset, urged Treasury to cease the TCE procurement plan and explore other options. “Today’s inspector general report confirms all of my negative assumptions about the TCE scheme,” Davis said, adding, “TCE is a disaster and ought to be abandoned before Treasury wastes even more precious taxpayer funds.” The IG report is available at www.ustreas.gov/inspector-general/audit-reports/2006/oig06028.pdf.

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