Career employee to lead competitive sourcing efforts
Position that has been vacant for four years will be filled by 15-year OMB veteran.
The Office of Management and Budget has promoted a career employee to lead efforts to let contractors bid on thousands of federal jobs.
Mathew Blum, a 15-year veteran of OMB's Office of Federal Procurement Policy, has been named associate administrator for competitive sourcing, according to a Sept. 28 internal announcement. The Senior Executive Service position has been vacant since 2001, said Alex Conant, an OMB spokesman.
"The title reflects competitive sourcing's importance in the President's Management Agenda," Conant said. Blum managed the program--one of five main management agenda initiatives-prior to his promotion. He joined OFPP in 1990 as a general attorney and before that worked as a staff attorney for the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals.
Blum's promotion has been "in the works for a very long time" and is unrelated to the recent resignation and arrest of OFPP administrator David Safavian, Conant said. Safavian's departure has left OMB without a permanent procurement chief at a time when Congress is completing fiscal 2006 appropriations bills.
Preliminary versions of the 2006 spending measures include a number of provisions that could undercut the administration's competitive sourcing efforts.
The search for Safavian's replacement is "under way," Conant said.
Meanwhile, six House Democrats have asked Comptroller General David M. Walker to open a broad investigation into potential misconduct during Safavian's tenure at OFPP and the General Services Administration, where he served as chief of staff prior to his OMB appointment.
Safavian was arrested on charges of making false statements and obstructing a federal investigation. While the allegations relate to Safavian's interactions with prominent Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, they erode confidence in the former procurement chief's general integrity, the lawmakers argued.
At both GSA and OMB, "Mr. Safavian was in a position to engage in other transactions that could greatly compromise government assets in exchange for personal or political favors, thereby violating federal statutes, regulations and/or ethics requirements that govern conflicts of interest," Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., wrote in a Sept. 27 letter to Walker.
Reps. Steny Hoyer, D-Md.; Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; Lane Evans, D-Ill.; William Delahunt, D-Mass.; and Gene Taylor, D-Miss., also signed the letter.
Conant declined to comment on the lawmakers' request.