Guidelines floated for financial management consolidation
Public-private competitions expected under project to move agencies to a handful of back-office systems providers.
The General Services Administration and the Office of Management and Budget are seeking input on draft guidelines designed to sort out unanswered questions about streamlining financial management systems across government.
The effort is part of the OMB-initiated lines of business project, aimed at moving agencies' back-office information technology systems in several areas, including financial management, to a handful of designated federal entities or private sector providers. The concept is that shared-service providers could present more efficient alternatives to in-house systems.
The proposed guidance, released earlier this week, is intended to help agencies find the most suitable service provider.
In keeping with information provided to lawmakers in April, OMB officials said in a May 22 memorandum that competition will be critical to agencies' selection processes.
"The routine use of competition as part of the migration process will help agencies to maximize value by considering alternative solutions in a reasoned and structured manner to select the best available public or private provider of financial management," the memo to agency chief financial, information and acquisition officers stated.
OMB strongly favors public-private competition as a means of selecting service providers when the work involved is commercial in nature, the draft guidance stated. Agencies would need to prepare a justification to make a choice using a noncompetitive process, or to consider solely private sector, or solely government, providers.
For agencies using the favored public-private competitions to transfer financial work performed by more than 10 full-time employees, the guidance would require adherence to Circular A-76, the document governing OMB's competitive sourcing initiative to open federal jobs to bids from contractors. Alternatives would be available when the work of 10 or fewer full-time employees is involved.
GSA's Financial Systems Integration Office is co-leading the financial line of business project with OMB.
Mary Mitchell, GSA's deputy assistant administrator for technology and strategy, and the financial management line of business program manager, said in a separate document that the draft guidance incorporates many agency comments, particularly related to clarity. But a number of policy-related suggestions continue to be under review.
Comments on the proposal are due June 12.