Help for Privatizers

hough the sale of the U.S. Enrichment Corp. has the potential to be the most lucrative spinoff in U.S. history, its legacy, the General Accounting Office has noted, may be that it paves the way for future privatization efforts. Officials in the Clinton administration and on Capitol Hill are taking notice.

Last year, Congress created an Office of Privatization within the Treasury Department to act as an outside financial adviser to departments that are considering selling off part of their operations. In his fiscal 1998 budget, President Clinton earmarked $300,000 for the newly created office's operating budget.

"One of the things that struck us was that there was need for concentrated expertise [when] looking at important questions surrounding the selling off of government assets," says Mozelle W. Thompson, principal Treasury deputy assistant secretary for government financial policy. "That's something that's done on a regular basis in the private sector as corporations look to spin off a subsidiary or create one. But that's something that's not done in the federal government."

The Office of Privatization will be housed in the office of the undersecretary of the Treasury for domestic finance and will work closely with the Office of Management and Budget. It will provide assistance in evaluating performance, possible compensation and-most of all-looking out for the taxpayers, because sale proceeds go to the U.S. Treasury.

The USEC sale is being handled by an ad hoc transaction team made up of representatives from the administration's economic agencies-Treasury, Office of Management and Budget and the National Economic Council-as well as from the Energy Department, the National Security Council and the Defense Department.

Down the road, the proposed office of privatization could help the sales of the Naval Petroleum Reserve, the Energy Department's Power Marketing Administrations, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the Federal Aviation Administration's air traffic control operations.