OMB has said that in fiscal 2008 agencies used a special hiring authority to place federal retirees into acquisition-related positions for just 57 jobs, with nearly half of those, 21, in the Army.
The authority was created by a GSA-related measure to address the shortage of well qualified procurement specialists at a time when the government faced criticisms of contract oversight, in particular military contracts related to combat operations. The authority allows agencies to bring back retirees in certain acquisition-related positions without the usual offset between salary and annuity that applies to rehired annuitants.
Besides branches of the military, only seven agencies used the authority, none of them for more than six employees.
OMB noted in a letter to Congress that it recently called new attention to the authority in a memo to agencies regarding contract awards under the recently enacted economic stimulus law.
