FederalDaily - March 30, 2006

OPM Focuses on Retirement Claims Process

One of the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) main priorities this year is to improve the federal retirement claims process, OPM Director Linda M. Springer told the House Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce and Agency Organization on March 28. This process serves more than 2 million federal work force retirees. “This year, OPM is asking Congress to appropriate $27 million to help us improve retirement administration using a new Information Technology system to process claims,” Springer said. Springer said the new technology is necessary to replace the current, paper-based retirement administration process with a system capable of handling the increasing volume of claims being filed. “We have set goals of making final 90 percent of initial retirement benefits in 30 days by October 1, and mailing notices in 10 working days for 80 percent of subsequent change requests by the same date,” Springer said. Springer told the committee OPM wants to award a retirement systems modernization contract by May 1 and an Information Technology service contract by June 1.

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Unions Want Better Staffing, Pay for VA Nurses

A group of federal unions, led by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), warned that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) needs to increase staffing and compensation for nurses. AFGE announced on Monday the formation of an Industrial Coordinating Committee (ICC)—including United American Nurses and seven other unions—to “give nurses a strong voice in fixing health care systems in the public and private sectors.” AFGE was critical of the current situation for VA nurses, alleging insufficient staffing levels, poor compensation and mandatory overtime. “VA nurses constantly tell us that low staffing levels top their list of concerns,” said AFGE National Vice President Jane Nygaard. “VA nurses are being forced to take care of too many patients at one time.” AFGE urged the VA to divert more budgetary resources to nursing care and staffing, particularly with the number of wounded soldiers requiring care, to improve retention.

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How ICE Allocates Resources

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Office of Investigations (OI) investigates customs and immigration violations and enforces customs and immigration laws. In a new report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that, overall, between 10 and 15 percent of investigative resources were used for investigations considered to have a link to national security. (About half of OI resources during fiscal year 2004 and the first half of 2005 were used for cases related to drugs, financial crimes and general alien investigations—not likely to be related to national security.) Additionally, the equivalent of about 400 of OI’s 5,600 special agents worked full time to identify incarcerated aliens who were eligible for removal from the United States, a function that does not require the skills and training of criminal investigators. GAO said ICE plans to free investigators for more appropriate duties by shifting these functions to other ICE units and to study whether other functions could be shifted to employees in a noninvestigatory job series. For the full GAO report, go to: www.gao.gov/new.items/d06462t.pdf.

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