OPM workers win sourced work

Employees at a division of the Office of Personnel Management outbid private sector competitors in a streamlined competition to prevent officials from outsourcing an information technology project.

Officials at OPM's division for human resources products and services/center for talent services in Macon, Ga., won the bidding process to keep the project in-house. The five-year contract is for computer assistants and building management assistant activity that provide technical advice and support in an IT environment at the Georgia location. The agency employees' bid was more than $4 million less than the private sector's bid, said Clarence Crawford, OPM's chief financial officer.

"Federal employees at Team OPM invested time and effort in the spirit of the A-76 process to identify efficiencies in their processes and performance," said OPM Director Kay Coles James.

Competitive sourcing is governed by Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, which allows federal employees to develop a most efficient organization strategy to compete with private-sector proposals in situations in which more than 10 jobs are at stake.

Competitions between federal employees and private-sector companies for work that is not inherently governmental is part of President Bush's Management Agenda. OPM officials have conducted 12 streamlined competitions. The agency's employees have won all of them, saving the government more than $57 million, according to OPM figures.