Ohio Lawmakers Continue To Fight For Taxpayers And Wrongly Privatized DFAS Employees

(Washington, D.C.)—The Director of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) admits that his agency botched a major public-private competition at Cleveland, Ohio, wrongly privatizing work performed by federal employees related to military retired and annuitant pay functions. After a lengthy investigation, the Department of Defense Inspector General determined that “a $31.8 million error by a DFAS consultant in the public-private competition resulted in the award of an (OMB Circular) A-76 contract with a potential value of $346 million to the contractor rather than the lower in-house bid.”

At a recent hearing, the DFAS Director said he couldn’t bring the work back in-house without a public-private competition, and that he was disinclined to conduct such a competition because it might take too long.

“In other words, the Director thinks there’s no way to rectify the error done to taxpayers and the affected employees when their work was wrongly privatized,” states AFGE National President Bobby L. Harnage, Sr.

“Wrong, Mr. Director,” continues Harnage. “Your hands are not tied, a fact that a bipartisan group of Ohio lawmakers, led by the unstoppable Representative Dennis Kucinich (D), has brought to your attention. As the lawmakers point out in an April 14 letter (PDF), the Director can restore the work to its rightful place by using the waiver authority in OMB Circular A-76.”

“AFGE appreciates the leadership shown by Representative Kucinich, as well as the support of Representatives Steve LaTourette (R), Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D), Sherrod Brown (D), and Marcy Kaptur (D). Anyone who thinks that Representative Kucinich or AFGE is going away doesn’t know him and doesn’t know us. AFGE won’t stop until that work has been brought back in-house,” promises Harnage.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), is the largest union for government employees, representing 600,000 federal workers in the United States and overseas, as well as employees of the District of Columbia.

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The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 670,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia. For the latest AFGE news and information, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.