GSA officials appeared before a House subcommittee on Jan. 6 to show how the agency is fixing the bungled management of an Army childcare subsidy program.
The hearing, held by the House Subcommittee on Government Operations, was convened to evaluate the agency's progress in cleaving down a backlog of nearly 26,000 service requests made as a result of the agency's management of the Army Fee Assistance Program.
GSA officials said that as of Dec. 21, the agency has whittled the backlog down to 1,600 unprocessed actions and 1,200 unpaid invoices.
"By standardizing work, expanding resources, and fully implementing GSA's improved Information Technology system, GSA has eliminated the significant family actions backlog," said GSA chief financial officer Gerard Badorrek.
"GSA is now responding to most phone calls and emails within 24 hours, reviewing family requests for enrollment changes within days and completing these family requests, in most cases, within a few weeks."
GSA took over program administration for the Army childcare subsidy program from contractor Child Care Aware of America in 2014, in an Army bid to save $4 million in operational costs. It also expanded eligibility for subsidy recipients and childcare centers that same year.
But the IT system for the program was quickly overwhelmed by the expanded demand. By July 2015, a backlog of requests of service had logjammed the program and 9,100 invoices for subsidies had gone unpaid.
GSA eventually appropriated another $4.4 million above its original budget to handle the backlog. On Dec. 23, Army officials announced that it had rehired Child Care Aware of America to take over program administration by October 2016.
Congressional leaders seemed pleased with the progress, but expressed cautious optimism moving forward, given prior mistakes.
"While the work done so far deserves recognition, including the paying completely of the 9,100 unpaid invoices that existed, it does not mean this program is out of the woods yet," said subcommittee chair Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C.
"As of Dec. 21, the family action system backlog stood at some 1,600. This is unacceptable and something we have to address."
Badorrek testified that GSA is processing claims within 10 days, and CCAOA executive director Lynette Fraga testified that the contractor would be able process claims in five days and new applications within 10 days, once it takes over operations.
When asked why the Army had decided to drop CCAOA to save $4 million when it actually ended up costing another $4.4 million on top of the original budget, Stephanie Hoehne, director of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation for the Army's G9, Installation Management Command said that "the decision itself was a good decision at the time."
"The problem was in the execution and the oversight of the transfer and the oversight that GSA was prepared to take on the full volume of the work," she said.
CCAOA will begin accepting new applications for the AFA program on Feb. 22 and serve the remaining application and service issues on a phased approach. Fraga said the contractor would be fully operational on the AFA program by Oct. 28.
