Office of Personnel Management CFO, who manages more than $1 trillion in funds, pushed out of role

February 5, 2025

Originally Published: 05 FEB 25 19:48 ET

By Hadas Gold, CNN

(CNN) — The Office of Personnel Management’s chief financial officer, who manages more than $1 trillion in funds, was pushed out this week, two sources with knowledge of the situation told CNN.

Her departure is the latest in a series of top career officials who have been removed from their jobs atop federal agencies by President Donald Trump’s political appointees working in coordination with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency effort.

The CFO, Erica Roach, was asked last week in a meeting with a Trump political appointee if she was someone they could “trust” and if she was “loyal,” according to one of the sources.

The source said Roach responded that she “always” does “the right thing.” Roach was not given a reason for why she was removed from her role but rather offered another position that would have been a demotion, the source said. She chose to resign instead.

Musk and his team have been focused on federal cash flows in the government as they look to streamline agencies and slash spending. At the Treasury Department, the top civil servant, David Lebryk, left unexpectedly last week after Trump-affiliated officials expressed interest in stopping certain payments made by the federal government, according to three people familiar with the situation.

“The only way to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money is to follow the payment flows and pause suspicious transactions for review. Obviously,” Musk posted on his social media platform X on Monday.

OPM did not respond to a request for comment.

The OPM CFO and its team manage more than $1 trillion in what’s known as the Earned Benefits Trust Funds, among the largest trust funds held by the federal government. The funds finance federal employees’ retirement programs and benefits; health insurance for more than 8 million employees, retirees and eligible family; and life insurance coverage for more than 4 million employees and retirees, according to OPM. As of last year, its net assets totaled $1.2 trillion.

The funds, which generate returns through investments, are also often used by the Treasury Department when the nation has hit its debt ceiling and can no longer borrow to pay its bills in full and on time until Congress lifts or suspends the limit.

The US is currently in this situation, having reached the cap on January 21, the day after Trump’s inauguration. In one of her final acts, former Biden administration Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen informed Congress that the department will redeem a portion of the investments held by one of the funds – the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund – and suspend additional investments in it. Likewise, Treasury will suspend investments in the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund, another of the funds.

The funds will be made whole once Congress acts, so workers’ and retirees’ benefits will not be affected. Yellen said at the time she expected this so-called “debt suspension period” would last through March 14.

Musk and his associates have in recent weeks asserted significant influence at OPM, the closest equivalent to the federal government’s human resources agency that has historically been an operation run by career officials who have worked across administrations of both parties.

Under the Trump administration, OPM has been the source of mass emails sent to all federal employees in recent days, urging them to resign and be paid through September.

Many of the political appointees at OPM have deep ties to Musk and have been cleaning house, freezing career staff out of internal systems and advising them to make preparations to cut as much as 70% of the agency’s workforce.

Some of the most senior-level career employees at federal agencies believe Musk’s DOGE teams are aiming to wipe out as many career level “chiefs” as possible, to replace them with political appointees or career employees who will not resist the massive cuts and changes planned.

Roach spent years in the private sector at consulting firms like Deloitte and Booz Allen Hamilton, before joining OPM as director of system planning and development in 2017. She rose through the ranks before being named CFO last year. She also holds multiple degrees, including a master’s of business administration and master’s of public management from Johns Hopkins University and University of Maryland, respectively.

She is being replaced as CFO by Melissa Ford, one of the sources said, who has been with the agency as an associate chief financial officer since 2022, according to her LinkedIn page. Two sources at the agency said she is a logical person to take over for Roach.