GovernmentExecutive.com

In October, NASA will combine a variety of financial management, personnel, procurement and information technology functions in a facility similar to those now operated by 70 percent of the Fortune 500.

The countdown to centralization began this week, with site selection and a $230-million, 10-year contract award for the NASA Shared Services Center. It is expected to create about 500 jobs paying an average of $55,000 a year by the time it is fully up and running in 2007. On May 9, NASA chose Computer Sciences Corp. of Falls Church, Va., over Las Vegas-based Trax International and IBM of White Plains, N.Y., as the prime contractor. The agency said CSC chose Bay St. Louis, Miss., over the cities of Huntsville, Ala. and Brook Park, Ohio, to reap the economic benefit of a brand new government facility.

Executive Director Richard Arbuthnot, the NASA official guiding the procurement, declined requests for interviews. But he said in a statement, "We look forward to establishing a world-class organization to provide the kind of timely, efficient and effective support so important to NASA operations."

Employees can expect travel reimbursements in just two days instead of the usual five to 13, according to NASA, offering an example of the faster, more efficient service the new facility will promote. Establishment of a shared services center will "shadow" NASA's implementation of an integrated financial management program,..

The jobs NASA is consolidating-high-volume transactional services and specialty areas that require the skills and knowledge of experts-are duplicated at 10 field installations across the country. Targeted work will migrate to the shared services center, leaving each NASA installation with about 50 fewer positions.

That knowledge has heightened anxiety among civil servants and contractor employees, but NASA said it is "committed to minimizing the stress and uncertainty of transition . . . by promoting discussions with supervisors and employees to review options and create individualized transition plans." The options include targeted buyouts, reassignments at their facilities, transfers to other centers, and the right of first refusal for competitively sourced jobs with the new service provider.

NASA will staff 159 inherently governmental positions during a three-year transition ending in 2008. The agency began posting the job openings on its Web site in March. The contractor also could elect to recruit qualified NASA employees, the agency said.