Federal Daily - September 23, 2008

GAO: Army Should Improve Evaluations of Bonus Programs

The Army needs to improve the way it evaluates the effectiveness of three new recruiting incentive plans that pay bonuses to recruiters and recruits, said a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. The report, released Sept. 18, looked at three programs: the Recruiter Incentive Pay Pilot Program, which pays bonuses to recruiters who exceed their recruitment goals; the Army Advantage Fund Pilot Program, which pay for some home ownership or business development; and the Officer Accession Pilot Program, which offers bonuses to Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadets and certain qualified medical professionals and chaplains. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2007, the Army spent approximately $473 million on enlistment bonuses for active Army recruits and for Army Reserve and Army National Guard recruits who were mobilized. Two of the Army’s three recruitment incentive plans do not include anticipated outcomes and none describes an evaluation methodology, the report said. The report also said information on anticipated outcomes is limited for all three incentives, because none describes the assumptions behind the numbers. For example, the Army Accessions Command’s Center for Accessions Research recommended that the Army stop offering the Recruiter Incentive Pay Pilot Program based on its assessment of the incentive’s effect on the active Army and Army Reserve. At the same time, the National Guard Bureau recommended that the Army continue to offer it based on its own assessment of the incentive’s effect on the Army National Guard, the report said. “Because information on this incentive’s anticipated outcomes is limited, Army officials continue to lack the information they need to make informed, objective decisions regarding the extent to which—and the reasons why—the program did or did not meet its intended goals,” the report said. The bonus programs are key to helping the Army meet its human capital needs—the Army annually must recruit and retain more than twice the number of uniformed personnel needed by any other military service. In FY 2008, the Army’s recruiting mission was over 167,000. To see more, go to: www.gao.gov/new.items/d081037r.pdf.

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GSA Names Two New Top Deputies

General Services Administration (GSA) Acting Administrator James A. Williams last week named Barnaby (Barney) L. Brasseux as GSA’s deputy administrator and Tyree Varnado as head of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS). Both appointments became effective Sept. 21. Brasseux has served as deputy FAS commissioner since May 30, 2007, and briefly assumed the role of acting FAS Commissioner when Williams became GSA’s acting administrator Aug. 30. Varnado served as assistant FAS regional administrator in GSA’s Greater Southwest Region and will fill the vacancy left by Brasseux’s promotion. Brasseux has served GSA since 1993, and received a Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive in 2007. As a GSA field executive, Varnado managed regional FAS operations. To see more go to: www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentView.do?pageTypeId=8199&
channelId=-13259&P=&contentId=24944&contentType=GSA_BASIC or www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentView.do?pageTypeId=8199&
channelId=-13259&P=&contentId=24946&contentType=GSA_BASIC.

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VA Sees Significant Increase in Loan Volume over Past Year

Amid turmoil in the nation’s financial sector, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on Sept. 19 announced that the volume of its home loan guaranty benefit program has grown by 31 percent this year as more servicemembers and vets take advantage of the no-down-payment program. More than 162,000 home loan guaranties were provided this year, VA said in a statement. No-down-payment loans are increasingly difficult to obtain with conventional financing, and the VA program one of the few remaining such programs in the market, VA said. The agency now uses a locality-based approach in determining ceilings on the loans, which are available for as much as $729,000. Large VA loans may be obtained with relatively small down payments, VA said. “VA attributes this increase to the favorable terms traditionally offered with VA loans and the elimination of many no-down-payment products in the conventional mortgage market,” said VA Secretary James Peake. To see more, go to: http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1573.

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