OPM to move on Financial Management LOB competition

The Office of Personnel Management will proceed in July with its stalled plans to acquire a single integrated accounting and procurement system under the Financial Management Line of Business consolidation initiative. OPM next month will issue a synopsis and request for information for its contract action and conduct a public/private competition between September and November, the agency said in its posting June 21 on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site. OPM anticipates making an award by summer 2008 and starting implementation by October 2009. The competition will be among private- and public-sector shared-services providers that have proven their expertise in using software applications certified by the Financial Systems Integration Office. The Office of Management and Budget has directed agencies to migrate their core financial services to shared-services providers when they are ready to upgrade their financial-management systems. Late last year, OPM terminated its agreement to use the financial-management services of the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Public Debt, a public-sector shared-services provider, because it could not fully meet OPM’s requirements. OPM was still defining its requirements when it hired Public Debt’s Administrative Resource Center.