Washington, D.C. -- The U.S. Office of Personnel Management today announced $10.4 million in savings and cost avoidances as a result of two public-private competitions, one of which will keep 52 information technology specialist jobs in-house at the agency's Macon, Georgia, facility.

The agency also said the work of 10 employees who repair elevators, service heating and cooling systems, and provide other maintenance functions in its Washington headquarters will be turned over to the private sector. A full range of transition services will be made available to these employees.

"The record of OPM in keeping jobs in-house in public-private competitions is excellent and confirms the fairness of the process," said Ron Flom, OPM Deputy Associate Director for Contracting, Facilities and Administrative Services. "However, when it becomes apparent that certain work can be performed as well and at lower cost by the private sector, we owe it to America's taxpayers to follow through. The results of the building operations and customer service activity competition in no way reflect the quality of work of these employees. It simply is a matter of economics and the need to provide taxpayers with quality, lower-cost service."

OPM employees have won 12 of 13 streamlined public-private competitions, and one of two standard competitions. In each of the contests announced today, streamlined competition procedures as prescribed by OMB Circular No. A-76 were used. Streamlined competitions condense the timeframe of the review and can be used when 65 or fewer employees are involved.

In the case of OPM's information technology specialists, employees at the Macon Technical Services Group developed a Most Efficient Organizations (MEO), which includes a 40 percent cut in projected overtime expenses. The estimated savings over five years is nearly $900,000. When compared to private sector prices available under the General Services Administration's Federal Supply Schedule, the OPM MEO can perform the function for $9 million less than the private sector over the five-year performance period.

The competition involving the building operations staff of the Facilities Services Group projects savings totaling more than $500,000 over five years. Savings are based on a comparison of actual OPM salary costs with private sector prices under the GSA Federal Supply Schedule.

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