Evans: Service centers may bear transition costs

The Office of Management and Budget wants three major departments to migrate to a shared service provider for financial management during the next fiscal year, said Karen Evans, OMB’s administrator for e-government and information technology. Financial management is one of six administrative areas OMB is urging agencies to stop doing themselves. Instead, they should buy services from a third-party provider, whether from government or the private sector. Those consolidation efforts will save the government at least $5 billion dollars in coming years, Evans said. OMB is considering a policy that would require service providers to bear the costs of transition “if it’s based on a lack of performance issue,” Evans said.