OMB has issued a memo establishing common guidelines for agencies to use when identifying and documenting costs related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Agencies should track expenses whether or not they currently believe them to be recoverable, according to OMB memo, M-10-29.
The memo provides guidelines on the kinds of costs that agencies should be tracking; establishes the need to coordinate federal cost information collection efforts in order to reduce duplicate reporting, minimize administrative burden, and comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act; and instructs agencies to continue close coordination with their state, local and tribal counterparts to implement the guidance and support them in their efforts to collect and track information.
The guidance is limited to tracking federal agency costs and suggesting approaches for classifying certain benefit payments, and while it does not request any reports from agencies, OMB said agencies should anticipate having to prepare reports in the future on the types, costs and period of performance for oil spill related activities.
Air Force Food Service Privatization Pilot Worries Union
A food service privatization pilot being carried out by the Air Force at bases in Alaska, California, Arkansas, Washington state, and Florida has the American Federation of Government Employees worried that food services throughout DoD could be turned over to the private sector.
AFGE said over 300 federal employees could be affected by a “food transformation initiative,” and alleged that the pilot is being carried out without a public-private competition to demonstrate before hand that using contractors would be less expensive.
"This action by the Air Force to by-pass the A-76 process, gives you no cost comparison to prove this contracting out action saves the taxpayer money," said AFGE president John Gage.
He said Congress has directed GAO to look into the matter and has prohibited the Air Force from expanding on the pilot until the investigation is complete.
