Federal Personnel Management

Because of reduced staff and resources, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has, for the last decade, been depending on federal agencies to shoulder much of the oversight of the civil service system. Personnel Management Evaluations (PME)--often on-site evaluations of personnel activities at an agency to ensure compliance with applicable requirements--are the main method of oversight used by OPM and the agencies. This approach would be reasonable if appropriate PME standards existed, if all agencies did PMEs regularly, and if the standards were followed. Due to weaknesses in the implementation of this approach, GAO does not believe that OPM should rely on current PME programs as heavily as it does. GAO recognizes that agency budget squeezes may limit the frequency and staffing of PMEs. GAO also realizes that OPM may be lacking a practical way of forcing agencies to do PMEs or to follow standards that are issued. Yet PMEs can be a useful source of information on the internal controls in place in agency personnel programs and, under certain conditions, can be used as alternative internal control reviews. Until recently, OPM saw no connection between PME programs and internal control programs. OPM needs to exercise greater leadership to strengthen PME programs if the risks of improper personnel actions--such as questionable appointments or promotions--are to be avoided.

GAO found that: (1) because of reduced staffing levels and resources, OPM increasingly relied on agencies and PME to oversee the civil service system; (2) larger agencies administered more PME than smaller agencies, and PME did not address many important personnel issues; (3) because of sporadic evaluation administration, a lack of updated evaluation standards, and the questionable quality of evaluation results, OPM should not rely on PME for oversight assistance; (4) agencies' ability to ensure adequate PME staffing, evaluation frequency, enforcement of standards were limited by budget constraints and a lack of legal authority; and (5) PME information can be used for evaluating agency internal controls and an alternative agency internal control review.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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