The Public Service

A quality workforce is essential if Americans are to have an efficient and responsive federal government. Over the years, GAO has repeatedly cited problems affecting the quality and effectiveness of the federal workforce. In the future, traditional approaches to recruiting, hiring, training, and managing federal workers will grow increasingly outmoded. Major economic, demographic, and political changes are occurring that could significantly reshape the environment in which the workforce operated. This report summarizes some of the major improvements in federal human resource management that have occurred since 1991 and key open recommendations that GAO made to Congress, the Office of Personnel Management, and other agencies.

GAO found that: (1) since 1991, OPM has made significant improvements in federal human resource management; (2) in response to the 1991 recommendations, OPM provided greater assurance that career appointments granted political appointees would be on the basis of merit principles, reduced the risk of fraud and abuse and administrative costs in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program by developing minimum internal control and quality assurance standards for financial claims, improved the services offered at its Federal Job Information Centers, reduced drug testing program costs by reducing the rate of blind proficiency testing, and revised its guidance on the appointment of government experts and consultants; and (3) OPM has not acted upon some significant recommendations for developing a more flexible performance management system, improving the collection of gender, race, and ethnic origin data, improving federal recruiting, hiring, and information dissemination practices, and developing a new framework for merit system accountability.