Navy civilian benefits Web site remains offline

The Navy's civilian benefits information system has been taken offline because of technical difficulties that have persisted for about a month.

Mary Foley, manager of policy and operations at the Navy's Civilian Benefits Center in Portsmouth, Va., would not comment on the nature of the technical difficulties, which have plagued the Employee Benefits Information System since mid-August. She could not say when the site will be available again.

The EBIS system is used by civilian Navy employees to make retirement benefit transactions, view Thrift Savings Plan contributions and access other general benefits information. There are about 180,000 civilian Navy employees, according to Foley.

A Sept. 8 pop-up system notice on the site stated, "We regret to report that we have been unable to resolve the issues with EBIS as of this date." In addition to inability to access the site, reported issues include a failure to update pending transactions.

Employees who have experienced these problems are discouraged from leaving messages on the Navy's benefits line since it already has received hundreds of reports of interrupted service. The benefits line does have counselors available to answer questions from employees who want to make benefits transactions.

But until the system is put back online, changes to Navy civilian employees' benefits information will be put on hold.

A message posted on the Web site Tuesday afternoon reiterated that EBIS remains unavailable and said those calling the benefits line for assistance may have to wait for more than an hour. It urged callers to wait until next week if possible.

Earlier this year the Navy's civilian job search Web site was disabled for an unexpectedly long time while the system's server was being moved to a new location.