Subscribe to the Free Print Edition!
Celebrating 25 Years

GCN Home > 05/15/06 issue

OMB to spell out financial LOB process

Accountability questions remain unanswered

By Mary Mosquera, GCN Staff

If competition is the foundation of the Office of Management and Budget’s Financial Management Line of Business Consolidation initiative, the administration’s migration planning guidance will be the blueprint agencies need to really understand how to assemble it.

OMB later this month will release the guidance, accept public comment for about three weeks, and finalize it by the end of June, according to Mary Mitchell, the General Services Administration’s deputy associate administrator for e-government and technology. GSA is the FMLOB managing agency.

“We do view that this migration planning guidance is a living document, so ... we will republish as we gain experience,” she said.

The guidance includes an updated due diligence checklist, a service level agreement template, and information on compliance and accountability. It also will contain sample draft RFP language that is not part of the current guidance to assist agencies as they put out requests for proposals to the public and private sector, Mitchell said.

OMB has already sought comments from agencies and 12 vendors on at least parts of the draft and has been meeting with selected vendors over the past month to gain a better understanding of how competition would work.

“It (the migration planning guidance) applies to what the federal agency must comply with when acquiring support from a shared-services provider. OMB will work with each agency to ensure that it complies with the framework,” an OMB spokesman said.

OMB is shaping the initiative to encourage agencies to provide more transparency and standardization in financial management.

The Environmental Protection Agency, which is in the process of procuring a financial management provider, used OMB’s guidance. It provides a framework for evaluating offers, helps standardize the process for customers and service providers, and keeps agencies from having to reinvent the wheel, said Sue Arnold, EPA’s acting director for systems planning and integration in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer.

“The template eliminates the need for each customer to develop its SLA from scratch and helps service providers design their offerings to meet governmentwide needs,” Arnold said.

But challenges remain in the road map—in particular, accountability in enforcing agreements—said Mari-Ellen Testa, a senior associate at Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. of McLean, Va., which provided comments on the draft SLA and overview guidance.

“I’m not quite sure they’ve reached a level playing field yet in terms of holding the different types of providers accountable. I believe that there are varying levels of risks for customer agencies, depending upon the type of provider that is selected,” Testa said.

More news on related topics: Business Process Management, Lines of Business, Management, IT Management



GCN Popup