FY 2000
Budget Justification/Performance Plan
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U.S. Office of Personnel
Management FY 2000 |
(Last Page of Transfers From The Trust Funds information) |
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| Additional Information Available on the Next Page |  |
| RIS Goal 14 FY 1999/2000: |
Accelerated information technology solutions for a modernized retirement system are designed, developed, and implemented. |
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RIS will select potential modules from candidates such as a tracking system for benefits inquiries from employees, an expert system to augment benefits counseling to customers, or a secure web site which retirees could access to obtain information about their retirement benefits. RIS will develop detailed plans and delivery schedules for the selected modules. |
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Additional funding of $4 million will be used to finance the development and implementation of selected modules. | |
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RIS will involve agency partners and other stakeholders in all phases of technology development and implementation. | |
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RIS will work with BPR contractor, agency partners, and other stakeholders to develop a Balanced Scorecard performance measurement approach to evaluate the success of the modernization project and RIS’ business operations as a whole. The Balanced Scorecard provides a thorough approach to measuring program and organizational performance by developing performance measures and indicators based on four performance quadrants: customer service; business processes; financial management; and workforce competencies. | |
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A new business model for the retirement program
is selected and a business process reengineering effort is initiated to form the basis of
new technology solutions. The Retirement Systems Modernization Project lies at the heart of RIS efforts to improve the quality and timeliness of the services to civil service retirement beneficiaries. OPM initiated this project in FY 1997 by working in partnership with key Federal agencies and other stakeholders to identify the legal and regulatory requirements underlying the CSRS and FERS programs. After this process was completed, the group examined several alternative concepts of operation, culminating in the selection of a business model in FY 1998 and the initiation of a comprehensive business process reengineering (BPR) effort that will continue throughout FY 1999. The "framing" phase of BPR was completed by the end of October 1998, and at that point several "early win" projects –- work processes that can be successfully reengineered in the short-term –- to be completed by the end of the year were identified for consideration. This will serve two purposes: (1) it will quickly demonstrate the practicability of our business model, and (2) it will validate our decision to modernize by implementing discrete modules that result in immediate and tangible improvements in customer service. |
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In FY 2000, selected modules are delivered within the timeframes established in detailed plans and delivery schedules developed during FY 1999. | |
For the Retirement and Insurance Service, meeting the goals identified in the OPM Strategic Plan and this Annual Performance Plan means developing and maintaining a high quality work environment, making prudent investments in staff, suppliers, and technology, and continually measuring the results achieved against objectives linked to the Strategic Plan. These objectives are incorporated in RIS' Customer Service Standards, and in the annual work plans of each office. RIS maintains a comprehensive Management Information System to monitor and report output (business process) measures, and uses recurring customer satisfaction surveys as one means of measuring progress towards achieving established objectives from a customer perspective. To ensure the integrity of the performance information, RIS’ management information function operates independently of the Retirement and Insurance program Offices, reporting to the RIS Associate Director through the Assistant Director for Systems, Finance, and Administration. In addition, the identical performance information is reported in the Program Performance Overviews of OPM’s Annual Financial Statements and, therefore, is included in the independent audits of these statements.
Workload and Performance Tracking
RIS has a long history of tracking and evaluating the performance of the employee benefit programs. The RIS internal management information system monitors virtually all program inputs and outputs. For the Retirement Program, this involves outputs such as workload volumes for the full range of claims, customer service requests, and general inquiries received and processed each day, and the remaining balances of unprocessed work. It also involves outputs such as timing and aging data, and program inputs such as the human and other resources expended on these operations. Data supporting this tracking is collected by the OSFA’s Management Information Branch in weekly increments and accumulated during the fiscal year. These data are either downloaded from OPM mainframe databases and transaction systems, LAN-based databases, or are based on manual tracking performed by operations staff and reported each week in hard copy format. RIS currently has approximately 20 years of such data.
RIS also tracks the accuracy of its service delivery through periodic reviews of various program outputs. These reviews are conducted by the OSFA’s Quality Assurance Division and are based on statistically valid samples of those outputs.
Similar statistically valid samples of new and ongoing annuitant customers are used to evaluate program outcomes through RIS' customer satisfaction survey program and are focused on customers for whom RIS offices have recently processed a transaction. The surveys performed under this program are conducted on an annual basis and executed by the OSFA’s Management Information Branch.
For the Health Benefits (HB) and Life Insurance (LI) Programs, the quality, timeliness, and effectiveness of contract administration activities and the performance of the carriers under these contracts are evaluated through required carrier reports against established quality control/assurance standards. These reports are submitted by the carriers at the end of each contract year and are based on statistically valid samples of program customers whom the carriers have served and/or claims paid as a part of service delivery to those customers.
HB and LI Program outcomes are measured through annual surveys of customers comprised of statistically valid samples of both active employees and annuitants. These surveys are conducted by private contractors.
Virtually all of the data collected for the three earned benefit programs are used to support established families of performance indicators that measure program performance against annual and long-term goals.
Internal Performance Reporting
The current status on many RIS workloads and program performance indicators is available to RIS executives, program managers, supervisors, and analytical staff on an on-going basis through a LAN-based, on-line Management Information System. Data in the system is updated as frequently as weekly. The status on other program performance indicators, primarily related to quality assurance and customer satisfaction, is made available to key staff in written reports on an ad-hoc basis.
Externally Reported Program Evaluations
The earned benefit programs performance is reported externally in OPM's annual Congressional and Budget Justification/Annual Performance Plan, the Program Overviews in the OPM Annual Financial Statements, and in annual Customer Service Reports to the National Partnership for Reinventing Government. Also, the OPM Inspector General performs audits and reviews of the earned benefit programs' financial systems, program outputs, work processes, and performance measures and makes recommendations to OPM management to improve these areas as warranted.
A net decrease of $4,968,000 is composed of the following:
Annual:
An increase of $250,000 is requested to assist in the development of a model to serve as the Government’s new benefits platform.
No-Year:
An increase of $4,000,000 is requested for the Retirement Systems Modernization project and is to remain available until expended.
A net decrease of $5,218,000 in FY 2000 obligations for Retirement Systems Modernization results from the FY 1999 spend-out of $9,218,000 in unobligated balances of prior year no-year appropriations.
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Web Page Created 14 May 1999