GAO Report Supports Union Contention that Pentagon Understated Cost of NSPS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                     

Washington, DC – A new report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) supports Defense unions’ contention that the Department of Defense (DoD) has been underestimating the cost of implementing the National Security Personnel System (NSPS).

According to the report, GAO found that DoD’s November 2005 estimate that it will cost $158 million to implement NSPS “does not include the full cost that the department expects to incur as a result of implementing the new system.”

Not included in the estimate for implementing the NSPS from 2005 to 2008 are many of the direct costs associated with implementing the personnel system, such as the full salary costs of all the civilian and military that directly support NSPS activities department wide.  The estimate also excluded indirect costs of implementing NSPS, such as general administrative services, general research and technical support, rent, and other operating expenses.

“This report comes as no surprise to the unions,” said National Federation of Federal Employees president Richard N. Brown.  “We have been asking for a realistic estimate of the cost to implement NSPS since the plan’s inception, but the Department would not give it to us.”

The report also concluded that the total amount of funds the department spent on NSPS during fiscal years 2005 and 2006 cannot be determined because DoD has not established an effective oversight mechanism to ensure that all these costs are fully captured.

“Now we will never know how much money DoD spent trying to implement NSPS,” said Brown.  “It is unacceptable for the department to lose track of the costs the way they did.  This is either a deliberate attempt to hide the true cost of NSPS or gross incompetence.  This wasteful spending on NSPS needs to stop immediately.”

Link to GAO Report: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07851.pdf

Established in 1917, the National Federation of Federal Employees is the oldest union representing civil service federal employees.  NFFE currently represents 90,000 federal employees government-wide, including 45,000 in the Department of Defense.  NFFE is affiliated with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.