Cross agency providers chosen

The federal agencies eligible to provide financial and human resources management to other parts of the federal government are named in the "analytical perspectives" section of the Bush administration's fiscal 2006 budget request.

Office of Management and Budget officials launched the lines of business initiatives in March 2004 as a way of saving money by moving agencies to adopt cross-agency service agreements for back office functions and shutting down individual agency administration of those functions. Federal analysts project potential savings of $5 billion over ten years for shared administration of financial and human resources management.

For the financial management, four agencies are eligible to become service centers are:

Interior Department's National Business Center

General Services Administration

Transportation Department

Treasury Department's Bureau of Public Debt

For human resources management, the five eligible agencies are:

Interior Department's National Business Center

Agriculture Department's National Finance Center

Treasury Department

Department of Health and Human Services

Department of Defense

Adoption by federal agencies of these common solutions is slated begin in fiscal 2005 through a competitive process.

Three other lines of business initiatives also began in March 2004. The case management line of business is moving forward to issue a request for proposal for a Federal Investigative Case Management System (FICMS), which will likely replace the FBI's Virtual Case File, a project FBI officials say has failed. FICMS will outline a common architecture for case management in all agencies with investigative functions, including the Justice and Homeland Security departments.

Officials on the federal health architecture line of business are likewise at work on a common framework for health information across the government.

The grants management line of business team is still at work on the mechanisms agencies will adopt in order to consolidate grants management while still taking into account differences between different parts of the federal government in administrating grants.