MGT Act money goes to fix federal payroll
The Technology Management Fund is close to maxing out after a $20.7 million award to GSA's NewPay software-as-a-service payroll modernization.
An effort to centralize the federal government's payroll system is getting a $20.7 million boost from the Technology Modernization Fund.
The move, announced Feb. 11, comes after a push to pay about 800,000 federal employees after a 35-day government shutdown led to problems in deductions and missed payments for some employees across multiple payroll systems.
NewPay, a software-as-a-service program hosted by the General Services Administration, is intend supply the entire government with commercial, cloud-based payroll, scheduling and leave management solutions. In September 2018, teams led by Carahsoft and Grant Thornton were named as awardees on a $2.5 billion blanket purchase agreement to field commercial payroll solutions to agencies.
"As the last proposal accepted in 2018, the Board believes the NewPay proposal is a critical step forward to transform an antiquated technical and operational process," Federal CIO Suzette Kent in a statement.
With the award to GSA, the TMF Board has allocated almost $90 million of its original $100 million in funding to seven projects. The NewPay award ranks among the largest. Other sizable awards include $15 million to the Department of Energy to consolidate email systems and $20 million to Housing and Urban Development to move legacy servers to the cloud.
The fund, authorized by the Modernizing Government Technology Act, is intended to be paid back by recipients out of savings to support future projects. Congress appears set to add $25 million to the revolving fund for fiscal year 2019.