The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has agreed to investigate the problems experienced by Thrift Savings Plan participants on the TSP.gov website since the rollout of new features in June.
In July, a group of House Democrats called for a comprehensive review by the GAO after hearing from constituents about difficulties accessing accounts, discrepancies in account balances, missing or incomplete information, and hours-long wait times to reach customer service.
On August 3, the GAO agreed to examine the planning, contract award and implementation, as well as oversight by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board and is expected to begin the review in November.
“GAO accepts your request as work that is within the scope of its authority. At the current time we anticipate that staff with the required skills will be available to initiate an engagement in about three months,” wrote A. Nicole Clowers, the GAO’s Congressional Relations Managing Director.
Representatives Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) led the request for the GAO’s investigation.
“I am deeply concerned about the widespread problems with the new TSP online system,” Norton said. “I continue to hear daily from constituents about the many problems with the new system. I will continue to demand immediate fixes to the problems, but we need to understand how this debacle occurred, which is why I am requesting a comprehensive examination of the new system itself, its planning, and its implementation.”
“Over the last month, many of Virginia’s dedicated federal employees and retirees have reached out to my office about challenges they are experiencing with the TSP system,” said Spanberger. “We need to know more about what’s going wrong, why it’s happening, and how TSP’s Board intends to fix these problems.”
The letter requesting the GAO review was also signed by Representatives Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Don Beyer (D-VA) and Jennifer Wexton (D-VA).