The Office of Personnel Management plans to fix the government's outdated, sluggish retirement systems through a series of "incremental and definable changes" over the next few years, Director John Berry said last week.

In a Feb. 22 letter to Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., Berry said he has directed his deputy, Christine Griffin, to make retirement modernization her top priority in 2010 and 2011. The modernization effort has two core components, Berry said: Updating the computer systems OPM uses to handle retirement benefits, and moving away from a paper-based system toward electronic records.

Berry said OPM is currently upgrading its computers to handle complex calculations more efficiently and effectively. New retirees often receive smaller annuities than they deserve for several months while OPM calculates the correct benefit. But Berry said much more remains to be done to fully automate those calculations.

Berry said OPM wants to build a system to efficiently use electronic retirement-related data from all agencies.

"Not only will OPM and other federal agencies have access to this retirement information, but active employees, retirees and annuitants will have the ability to retrieve their personnel data, apply for benefits and receive planning advice," Berry said.

OPM is still working on setting up accurate data feeds from the government's payroll centers and scanning paper records.

"Transitioning to electronic records will eliminate a great deal of inefficiency inherent in the use of paper documents on such a large scale and would significantly decrease costs," Berry said. "Of course, these fixes will not take place overnight. They will take more than a year or more to be fully functional. Nonetheless, once they are in place, I expect that they will noticeably improve our efficiency and customer service."

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