New federal jobs site delayed by legal snags

A revamped federal jobs Web site designed by Monster.com has run into legal delays that may force Uncle Sam to give other companies a chance to work on the site.

The new USAJobs Web site, which promised an easier-to-use job hunt for applicants seeking federal jobs, was set to debut this spring. But the General Accounting Office is pushing the Office of Personnel Management to reconsider other contractors' bids for the $62 million, 10-year deal with Monster.com.

OPM awarded the contract in January, hiring Monster.com to perform a number of services, including a redesign of the USAJobs site, a redesign of Studentjobs.gov (a site for college students and graduates seeking federal internships and jobs), a job information phone system, computer hosting for the jobs site and development of a resume database and tracking system.

Symplicity, an Arlington, Va.-based firm, protested the decision to award the contract to Monster.com. In April, the General Accounting Office upheld Symplicity's complaints, recommending that OPM review the contract and open it up again for competition.

In part, GAO said that OPM did not evaluate offers on an equal basis. "OPM's evaluation approach here created a situation where OPM was in effect comparing 'apples and oranges,'" GAO said.

OPM then asked the General Accounting Office to reconsider its recommendation. OPM officials told GAO that a day after GAO issued its decision, Monster.com's contract was modified to resolve the issues GAO had with it.

But GAO General Counsel Anthony Gamboa suggested in a May 19 decision that OPM should not give Monster.com preferential treatment.

"The fact that one vendor, TMP [Monster.com's parent company], has been permitted to make a change affecting the acceptability of its quotation only underscores the need to treat competing vendors comparably," Gamboa said.

Federal agencies follow 98 percent of GAO's contract recommendations, said Daniel Gordon, associate general counsel at GAO. OPM can ignore GAO's recommendation, but OPM officials would have to report such a decision to GAO in about 60 days. GAO would inform Congress that OPM had decided to ignore the recommendation.

Office of Personnel Management spokesman Michael Orenstein said the agency is reviewing its options. He said work on the contract hasn't been affected by the actions at GAO because Monster.com's work has reached a "natural milestone" at which the agency can "take a breather." OPM officials are "looking at the deliverables," Orenstein said. He said that progress on the new Web site is not on hold.

OPM's original contract plan called for a new recruitment system to be rolled out by the end of January. The date of the new system's debut has been pushed back several times. Now no date has been set for the new system's debut. In the meantime, OPM will continue to operate its existing USAJobs job announcement site.

In addition to the legal challenge, the USAJobs revamp faces some technological challenges, including developing interfaces with agencies' recruitment and staffing systems, security issues affecting those interfaces and intellectual property concerns among some vendors that would have to develop the interfaces with Monster.com's system.

The USAJobs project, called Recruitment One-Stop by OPM, is one of the Bush administration's specially designated e-government projects. That designation puts extra pressure on OPM to develop the system quickly.