Small OPM IT group wins its jobs

The Office of Personnel Management said yesterday that 52 information technology specialists in Macon, Ga., will keep their government jobs after winning an outsourcing competition under the federal government’s Circular A-76 rules. Those rules allow the private sector to compete for federal jobs that are not inherently governmental.

OPM officials said they expect internal work changes affecting the 52 IT employees in the agency’s Macon Technical Services Group will enable the government to save about $900,000 during the next five years.

Following A-76 rules, employees made changes to create a more efficient organization, OPM officials said. Under the rules, all 52 were able to keep their federal jobs after they proved they could provide IT technical services for $9 million less than it would cost to buy those services for five years from the private sector at prices listed on the General Services Administration’s Federal Supply Schedule.

The Office of Management and Budget published a report in May that shows five-year annualized net savings of 27 percent, or $22,000, on each full-time employee who participated in A-76 job competitions in fiscal 2004. OMB noted, however, that those net savings were not adjusted to reflect fixed costs and transition expenses.

In fiscal 2004, A-76 competitions for federal IT jobs generated higher annualized gross savings per employee than for any other type of nongovernmental job, according to OMB. Last year, OMB officials reported $36,900 in annualized gross savings per employee as a result of A-76 outsourcing competitions in which 2,207 IT jobs were competed.

The greatest savings from those job competitions came from consolidating IT operations, according to the report.