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Pension program blasted

N.O. finance center blames computer

By Bruce Alpert

The Times-Picayune Friday July 18, 2003

WASHINGTON -- When the Thrift Savings Plan, the 401(k)-style pension program for federal employees, launched a new computerized system last month, its 3 million customers were promised quick access to the kind of detailed financial information usually available only from private brokerage firms.

But the transition to the multimillion-dollar record-keeping system has been anything but smooth, with enrollees complaining about an inability to complete online transactions, delays in processing loans and repayments, and a customer service phone line that is constantly busy. The House Government Reform Committee is investigating and plans hearings on the problem Thursday.

Workers at the National Finance Center in New Orleans, which administers the system for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board in Washington, say the program isn't working and they are besieged with complaints. They say they often have to enter data as many as 10 times before the system will accept it.

"People there are stressed out because they can't get the system to work and they are getting lots of angry calls from people who can't complete their transactions or access their accounts," said Devona Dolliole, spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, whose office has been studying problems with the savings plan, which holds more than $112 billion in investments.

Tom Trabucco, spokesman for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, would not comment on the causes of the problems since the system was put in place June 16. But he said the board is working with National Finance Center administrators to resolve the problems. He apologized to federal workers and retirees who have had problems with the system.

Employees at the center declined to comment, some saying they feared they would lose their jobs. Workers said they received e-mail in the past week from the Thrift Savings Plan instructing them not to discuss the problems with anyone outside the agency.

A switchboard operator, who asked that her name not be used, estimated the center is getting 300 calls a day from pensioners and other system users. She said they complain that they cannot access their online portfolios and tell the operators they are not receiving checks.

"My hair is gray but it's turning grayer after working through all of this," the operator said. "The stress from this problem is just unbelievable. Everyone feels it."

Finance Center officials wouldn't comment, but Dolliole said workers have told Jefferson's office that the long ballyhooed record-keeping system was put into operation before it had been adequately tested and before major kinks had been worked out.

The system has been controversial almost since its development in 1997, and the Thrift board, which committed more than $33 million for the project, dropped the original contractor, American Management Systems Inc. of Virginia, in 2001 and replaced it with Materials Communications and Computers Inc., another Virginia firm.

Gary Brown, an attorney for National Finance Center employees in a class-action lawsuit alleging racial discrimination in promotions, said the system was tested with current portfolios, without parallel use of the old system to check for errors.

Brown said the New Orleans center faced pressure from the national board to implement the new system. When kinks were reported, nothing was done to halt the installation of the system, he said.

"I don't know who is to blame, but I've been calling over there five or six times a day to try access my account," said Sherita Simon, 33, a federal baggage screener at Hopkins International Airport in Cleveland. "Usually, you can't get through, and the one or two times that I did, nobody called me back. I'm going to pull my money out as soon as I can reach somebody because I don't want it in a system that is so badly run."

U.S. Rep. David Vitter, R-Metairie, said he isn't concerned that the controversy will make it more difficult for him and other Louisiana lawmakers to push for continued expansion of the Finance Center. The center lists 1,700 workers and processes payroll for the Department of Agriculture and direct-deposit checks for other government agencies, along with its work for the Thrift Savings plan. Vitter said the center received high marks during a government evaluation of the direct-deposit system.

"I think everybody recognizes that the problem rests with the board in Washington," Vitter said. An indication of that, he said, is that U.S. Rep. Thomas Davis, R-Va., who will preside over next week's House Government Reform Committee meeting, has asked officials from the Thrift Plan to testify, but nobody from the National Finance Center.

"It's clear Tom Davis' staff realizes that the problem isn't in New Orleans," he said.