The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently named The Army's Residential Communities Initiative program as one of four winners for the 2008 President's Quality Award. The Residential Communities Initiative (RCI) is being honored for its innovative and exemplary performance in the area of Competitive Sourcing.

"The U.S. Army is honored to receive this recognition which further demonstrates our commitment to making our Army installations safe, attractive, and modern for our Soldiers and their Families to live" Hon. Keith Eastin, Assistant Secretary of the Army, Installations & Environment said. "We have shown that the RCI processes are effective in attracting world-class development and management firms to help us reach our goals of eliminating deficits and inadequate Army Family Housing in the U.S."

Currently, the RCI program is comprised of 45 installations (combined into 35 projects) with over 90,000 homes - 98 percent of the Army's family housing inventory in the United States. As of 1 October 2008, there are closed projects at 38 of the 45 installations, and 85,558 of the 90,272 homes in the plan have been privatized. There have been 16,560 new homes built and 12,473 homes renovated.

The Army has invested $1.3 billion but has received $11.2 billion in initial development - a leverage of funds of 8.6 to 1. Further, RCI has provided 62% ($2.5 billion) of its subcontract work ($4.1 billion) to small and disadvantaged businesses.

Awardees were announced at an awards ceremony held Dec. 4 at the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. OPM hosts the award each year to focus on the President's Management Agenda which enhances service to the American people and recognizes accomplishments of organizations that further the Administrations' objectives. Award winners are recognized for their performance and results and serve as role models and benchmarks for others to attain similar successes.

- 30 -