FederalDaily - April 12, 2006

Union Files Suit to Take Part in CBP Vote

The National Association of Agricultural Employees (NAAE) filed a lawsuit last week with the U.S. Court of Appeals, hoping to delay the May 9, 2006, vote among Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employees to determine the agency’s sole employee representative. Currently only the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) and American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) are in the running. This past December, the Federal Labor Relations Authority ruled that CBP’s agricultural specialists—represented by NAAE—were classified as “non-professionals,” and would join the rest of CBP in choosing a sole bargaining representative. NAAE wants the court to postpone the vote and reinstate professional employee status to agricultural specialists, which would give the specialists the option of maintaining NAAE representation. According to its Web site, the union would throw its support behind AFGE if its appeal fails.

:: Back to Top ::

State Wasting Millions on Travel

The Department of State’s centrally billed accounts—used to purchase transportation services for State and other foreign affairs agencies—lack adequate controls and oversight, resulting in tens of millions of wasted taxpayer dollars. A March 2006 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that between April 2003 and September 2004, the accounts were used to purchase more than 32,000 premium class tickets at a cost of $140 million. GAO noted that such tickets only accounted for 19 percent of total tickets purchased, but accounted for a staggering 49 percent of the tickets purchased with the department’s travel cards. To prevent further abuse, GAO recommended mandatory audits, finding and dealing with unused tickets, disputing questionable purchases and urging other departments to comply with regulations. To read the full report, go to www.gao.gov/new.items/d06298.pdf.

:: Back to Top ::

Military Still Meeting Recruiting and Retention Goals

All four active duty branches and four of the six reserve components of the U.S. military met recruiting and retention goals for the month of March and remain on track to reach fiscal year targets, the Department of Defense (DoD) said Monday. The Army attracted more than 5,300 new active duty recruits in the month of March, 4 percent above the target, while the Marine Corps exceeded its goal by 2 percent. Only the Army Reserve and Navy Reserve did not reach the recruiting goal for March, falling 11 and 13 percent short of their goal respectively. The Army Reserve and Air National Guard are the only two military branch components behind on retention, but both stand 5 percent or less below expectations. All other active duty and reserve components are meeting or exceeding retention targets.

:: Back to Top ::

DOE Small Business Contracting Falling Short

The Department of Energy (DOE) has improved small business contracting efforts but still fell short of its small business prime contracting goal in four of the past five years, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). In the April 2006 study, GAO commended the department for expanding small business development and outreach opportunities. In addition, in some cases DOE shifted portions of large facility contracts to small businesses. However, GAO said, DOE does not have a defined process for achieving its small business goals or collecting information on small business programs to verify their effectiveness. The report called upon DOE to “define concrete steps” toward further progress and periodically review the success of those efforts. The report is available online at www.gao.gov/new.items/d06501.pdf.

:: Back to Top ::