Merit Systems Protection Board

GAO began examining the Merit Systems Protection Board's (MSPB) performance, employee protections, and working environment four months after the swearing in of the Board's current chairman. With regard to mission performance and employee protections, GAO found that MSPB's new management is pursuing policies and initiatives that are in accord with relevant standards and with the needs of its customers and employees. Management has taken several steps to provide employee protections and to promote a working environment based on trust, respect, and fairness. However, MSPB employees had mixed views on the impartiality of the workplace and of management's success in improving the work environment. GAO believes that the eventual impact of management's actions will become clearer after the current chairman has been on the job longer and after the ongoing reorganization and reengineering of agency operations is completed.

GAO found that: (1) the practitioner groups surveyed generally felt that MSPB has been fair in processing employee appeals of agency personnel actions and MSPB is accomplishing its statutory mission; (2) during the 4-year period ending September 1994, 91 percent of the final MSPB decisions appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals were upheld; (3) MSPB regional offices met their 120-day case processing guideline 96 percent of the time during the same period, while MSPB headquarters met its 110-day guideline 61 percent of the time; (4) the differences in the timeliness in processing appeals has been due to the complexity of headquarters' cases; (5) MSPB has established accountability mechanisms and an equal employment opportunity (EEO) policy to protect its employees against workplace discrimination, mismanagement, abuse, and improper personnel practices; (6) two-fifths of MSPB employees surveyed said they would be reluctant to become involved in the processing of EEO complaints; and (7) although MSPB has taken a variety of actions to foster an environment of trust, respect, and fairness, only 29 percent of survey respondents felt that MSPB has been successful.