Postal Service launching digital enterprise
May 15th, 2012 | Postal Service | Posted by Sean Reilly
The U.S. Postal Service, an organization inextricably associated with the delivery of lots and lots of paper, is creating a new enterprise focused on the online sphere, according to a memorandum today from Postmaster General Pat Donahoe. The “digital solutions” group is intended “to better explore growth opportunities in the digital space, and to translate those opportunities into new streams of revenue, enhance the value of our current offerings, and improve customer experiences,” Donahoe told Postal Service officers in the memo obtained by Federal Times.
The venture comes as the agency is under pressure from Congress and postal employee unions to explore alternatives to service cutbacks. “We are convinced there is growth potential in this dynamic digital environment,” Donahoe said.
Heading the group will be Paul Vogel, who has been USPS president and chief marketing/sales officer. Vogel, who started with the Postal Service as a clerk and letter carrier in 1969 while working his way through college, later left for consulting work on international business and business strategies, according to his official bio. He returned to the Postal Service two years ago.
“Paul has a great track record of driving successful new initiatives within the Postal Service,” Donahoe wrote. “In addition to his excellent recent service as chief marketing/sales officer, he was instrumental in establishing our transportation partnership with FedEx, he stood up and launched our global business, and he played a vital role in early efforts to realign our operational network.”
The digital solutions group will begin “with a matrixed structure and will grow into a separate business unit over the coming year with the flexibility to explore, pursue and/or create quickly evolving digital technologies,” Donahoe continued. “Paul will be taking us into new waters in a number of ways that should generate a lot of external interest and excitement.”
Replacing Vogel as chief marketing/sales officer will be Coca-Cola executive Nagisa Manabe. At the soft drink giant, Manabe served as vice president of new growth platforms, according to Donahoe’s memo. Before that, she was vice president of marketing for Diageo Guinness USA Inc., part of the company that makes Johnnie Walker whiskey, Smirnoff vodka, and Guinness beer. Manabe “will lead our efforts to frame a new generation of ideas to better promote and grow our organization,” Donahoe said.
Tags: Nagisa Manabe, Pat Donahoe, Paul Vogel, Postal Service
Acting GSA administrator: Budget cuts make GSA more important than ever
May 15th, 2012 | General Services Administration | Posted by Andy Medici
Dan Tangherlini, acting administrator at the General Services Administration, said Tuesday that budget cuts has made the agency more important than ever.
“In this time of fiscal austerity and budget uncertainty, the role of the GSA and the expertise of our contracting officers have never been more vital,” Tangherlini said.
Tangherlini said in a video address at the kickoff to the GSA Training Conference and Expo inSan Antoniothat agencies must continue their critical operations while funding ways to scale back on overhead costs.
The White House tapped Tangherlini to replace Administrator Martha Johnson on April 2 and clean up the agency after GSA Inspector General Brian Miller released a scathing report documenting widespread waste and mismanagement, especially at GSA’s Region 9 office inSan Francisco.
The IG report detailed GSA’s spending on a lavish $822,000 2010 conference in Las Vegas and numerous other examples of waste. The report prompted not only Johnson’s resignation, but the firing of GSA Public Buildings Commissioner Bob Peck and Johnson’s senior counsel Stephen Leeds, and the placement of 10 employees on administrative leave.
He also condemned the actions of GSA employees who helped organize the conference and said the “misconduct was irresponsible, indefensible, and completely contrary to the way that GSA does business and delivers value to our customer agencies.”
“The circumstances of my arrival are well documented, and I won’t dwell on them, but I would like to say that the actions of those responsible for the Western Regions Conference cut to the heart of who we are and what we do,” Tangherlini said in the video.
Akaka introduces bill to automatically boost TSP contributions
May 15th, 2012 | Pay & Benefits | Posted by Stephen Losey
Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, today introduced a bill that would automatically increase the Thrift Savings Plan contributions of some new federal employees. The Save More Tomorrow Act would only apply to automatically-enrolled feds — that is, new employees who make no choice on TSP and are automatically enrolled in the G Fund at 3 percent — and would boost their contributions by 1 percent each year.
Akaka’s office said this would help push more feds to invest 5 percent of their paychecks in their TSP. That’s the amount federal employees have to contribute to get the maximum matching contribution from their employing agency. The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which governs TSP, has repeatedly expressed concern that many federal employees are leaving money on the table by not contributing 5 percent.
Said Akaka:
The Save More Tomorrow Act will make it easier for new TSP participants to save for retirement. Pairing automatic enrollment with automatic escalation in 401(k) plans has proven effective in increasing private sector savings rates. Congress should incorporate this best practice into the TSP.
Tags: Daniel Akaka, TSP
Your salary is (probably) now online
May 15th, 2012 | Pay & Benefits | Posted by Stephen Losey
The Asbury Park Press, which like Federal Times is owned by Gannett, this morning posted their latest database of federal salary and bonus information.
APP obtained 2011 salary data for most federal employees through a Freedom of Information Act request. A user can search by name, agency, job title, and location, and find out many feds’ grade levels, salaries, and bonuses for 2011. For example, a search for “Geithner,” “Treasury” and “District of Columbia” will reveal Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was paid $199,700 last year and received no bonus.
The list is not comprehensive, however. It doesn’t include FBI, CIA, Defense Department, or IRS employees, or employees involved in security work, nuclear materials or national security matters. A separate U.S. Postal Service database can be found here.
What do you think about this database? Will it spark conversations in your office about what your colleagues are making? Are you angry that federal salary data has been posted publicly? Sound off below.
GSA names FedRAMP third party assessment organizations
May 15th, 2012 | Cybersecurity General Services Administration Information Technology | Posted by Nicole Johnson
An initial group of nine organizations has been selected to provide independent security reviews of cloud products and services used in the federal government.
As part of the Federal Risk and Authorization program (FedRAMP), expected to launch June 6, vendors must work with an approved third party assessment organization, or 3PAO, to validate if they’ve implemented baseline security standards. For years, these security reviews have varied across government and have cost agencies millions of dollars each year.
Approved 3PAOs include (click here for contact information):
COACT, Inc.
Department of Transportation Enterprise Service Center
Dynamics Research Corporation
J.D. Biggs and Associates Inc.
Knowledge Consulting Group, Inc.
Logyx LLC
Lunarline, Inc.
SRA International, Inc.
Veris Group, LLC
A review board, comprised of officials from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and GSA, selected the first wave of 3PAOs. As part of the FedRAMP process, vendors must contract with a 3PAO to assess the security of their products and services.
“The accreditation process will eventually migrate to a board managed by private sector organizations,” according to FedRAMP concept of operations document. “After the private sector accreditation body has been established, the FedRAMP PMO (program management office) will establish a transition timeframe for all 3PAOs to be accredited by the privatized board.”
SSA’s CIO overhaul lacked adequate planning, GAO says
May 14th, 2012 | Information Technology Social Security Administration | Posted by Nicole Johnson
The Social Security Administration did not fully assess the impact of a major internal overhaul last June, which eliminated the chief information office and reassigned its functions, according to testimony from a Government Accountability Office official.
At the time, most of the responsibilities for managing information technology and the IT budget were reassigned to SSA’s Office of Systems. Two months later, then CIO Frank Baitman resigned. Kelly Croft, deputy commissioner for systems, assumed the CIO duties and oversight of those IT workers.
SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue said the effort would increase efficiency, but SSA did not develop a management plan that describes the challenges associated with the realignment or how to resolve them, time frames, resources, performance measures and accountability structures, according to written testimony from Valerie Melvin, GAO’s director of information management and technology resources issues. Melvin spoke on the issue at a House subcommittee hearing last week.
SSA also failed to analyze what roles and responsibilities were needed to support the new changes, Melvin said in her testimony.
She said the new structure should provide effective oversight and management of SSA’s systems and modernization if implemented properly, but it “cannot be determined whether the reassignment of staff that occurred as a result of the realignment represents an optimal allocation of resources.”
Tags: chief information officer, GAO, Kelly Croft
Will 5% pay cut change your retirement plans?
May 11th, 2012 | Pay & Benefits | Posted by Stephen Losey
The House yesterday passed a budget that hikes federal employees’ retirement contributions by 5 percent, which translates to an effective cut in take-home pay. If that becomes law, what would it mean for you? Would it change how much you invest in the Thrift Savings Plan? Or would you go so far as to bail out of the pension system — leave the federal service before retirement and get your FERS contributions refunded, with interest? (See “If You Leave Before Retirement Age” on this page for more details.)
Write me at slosey@federaltimes.com if you’d like to talk further. If you prefer to stay anonymous, that’s fine.
Tags: FERS, pay cut, what do you think?
Is your agency rolling back retention incentives?
May 11th, 2012 | Pay & Benefits | Posted by Stephen Losey
With agencies facing tight budgets and unprecedented scrutiny of their payroll costs, has your agency reined in its use of retention incentives? Have you recently lost a retention incentive, or are you offering your employees fewer such bonuses to hold on to them? If so, why?
E-mail me at slosey@federaltimes.com. I will keep your response anonymous if you like.
Tags: incentives, retention, what do you think?
Public Service Recognition Week: Tom Burger
May 11th, 2012 | Agencies IRS | Posted by Blair Tomlinson
Tom Burger has spent his life dedicated to public service. Burger said it started with President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address in 1961, when Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
“That stimulated me to look into public service,” Burger said.
As a young man, Burger served as a Marine in the Vietnam War during the Tet Offensive of 1968. After he left the Marines, Burger was still looking to serve. He turned to the federal government.
Burger looked into working at the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the Internal Revenue Service, but he ended up at the IRS, where he worked for 37 years. Burger rose to the rank of director of the employment tax. Working for the IRS, Burger helped ensure that the majority of the money that funds the federal government was collected. He was responsible for determining whether citizens received W-2 or 1099 tax forms.
“Basically are you an employee or independent contractor?” Burger said, ”It’s the IRS’s job is to ensure that everybody pays their fair share – no more, no less.”
Even though Burger is retired, you wouldn’t guess it. He’s the executive director of the Professional Managers Association and the treasurer of the Federal Employees Education Fund.
Listen to Burger’s views on public service.
Tags: Federal Employee Education Fund, FEEA, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, PMA, Professional Managers Association, public service, Public Service Recognition Week, taxes, Tom Burger
Mail processing plant cuts to proceed this summer, Postmaster General says.
May 9th, 2012 | Postal Service | Posted by Sean Reilly
U.S. Postal Service leaders gave members of Congress some of what they wanted with today’s announcement that widespread post office closures are off the table. But what about plans to shutter or consolidate almost half of some 460 mail processing plants?
Wait until next Thursday for word on that, Postmaster General Pat Donahoe said at a news conference this morning. That’s two days after the Postal Service’s voluntary freeze on any plant closings expires. Although many lawmakers want that moratorium to be extended, the Postal Service will go forward, Donahoe said in a brief interview after the conference.
Although no wholesale closures are immediately in the works, “we’ll have some consolidations in the summer, the majority after the first of the year.” Donahoe said. “From a fiscally responsible standpoint, we have to move ahead on this. We’ve lost too much [mail] volume and we have to address the infrastructure.”
The final plans, though, are still being hammered out, said Donahoe, who declined to say whether the Postal Service will offer buyouts or early retirement incentives to processing plant workers. The agency has scheduled an announcement for next Thursday, May 17.
Tomorrow, incidentally, the Postal Service will reveal its second quarter financial results covering the three-month period from January through March. Both operating revenues and expenses will show a little improvement, Donahoe said, “but we’re still losing volume.”
Tags: Pat Donahoe, Postmaster General