Online extra | Financial management ahead of the pack

The Office of Management and Budget hopes the Financial Management Line of Business initiative will improve the cost, quality and performance of agencies’ financial systems.Four agencies have been selected as Centers of Excellence: the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Public Debt, the General Services Administration, the Transportation Department and the Interior Department’s National Business Center.Also, the Labor Department last December issued a solicitation for a services provider to help it become a center of excellence as well.Meanwhile, a handful of agencies have migrated to FM COEs, OMB reported, including the Office of Personnel Management migrating to NBC, and smaller agencies such as the National Gallery of Art, the Federal Housing Finance Board, and the Institute of Museum and Library.Two other agencies—the Environmental Protection Agency and the Agriculture Department—are expected to migrate to FM COEs in the near future, as both have released solicitations for a public or private service provider and are expected to make a selection by the end of the year.OMB is putting the finishing touches on a financial management road map that will contain a set of performance measures and a sample service level agreement to help agencies plan to use shared-services providers under the LOB. A draft for public comment should be released within the next few months, OMB officials said.