April 22, 2009
OPM Study by the GAO
by Rick Owens

A study by the GAO has found that efforts by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to modernize retirement planning for federal employees is at risk of complete failure. The saddest part of this is that OPM has been working on this plan for over 20 years now. OPM calls their plan RetireEZ – well, maybe it isn’t so EZ.

A few of the GAO study section headlines, starting on page 14 of the report, look like this:

• “OPM Does Not Have a Complete Plan for the Future of the RetireEZ Program”
• “OPM Is Not Positioned to Effectively Manage Its Retirement Modernization Initiative”
• “OPM Has Yet to Complete Key Steps in Developing a Reliable Cost Estimate for Retirement Modernization”
•  ”OPM Has Not Established Processes Needed to Effectively Develop and Manage Retirement Modernization Requirements”

The report states “OPM’s retirement modernization initiative is in transition from a program that was highly dependent on the success of a major contract that no longer exists, to a restructured program that has yet to be fully defined.”

As a CSRS retiree I am personally concerned about the failing efforts of OPM with regard to RetireEZ simply because OPM manages my retirement services. If 20 years of study and trials has not proven successful for their RetireEZ program then what am I to expect when my family needs their services?

You may find this GAO report here.