Federal Daily - February 13, 2009

NSPS Promotes Higher Performance, OPM Says

DoD’s National Security Personnel System (NSPS) seems to be making headway toward promoting a high-performance workforce, said a new Office of Personnel Management (OPM) analysis released Feb. 11. OPM said DoD has made continued progress in implementing the pay-for-performance system, which currently covers about 187,000 civilian DoD workers. DoD demonstrated progress on 83 percent of the indicators OPM used to evaluate the system. However, NSPS got a “did not demonstrate” rating on one of two indicators under the Differentiating Performance element—which deals with employee perception of differences in performance evaluations. Employee perception decreased slightly when asked if they believed differences in performance were recognized in a meaningful way. But OPM also found that NSPS employees believe their pay raises depend on how well they perform their jobs to a much greater extent than DoD employees as a whole (43 percent and 25 percent, respectively). And, the report noted that employee perception that awards are dependent on how well an employee does his or her job is slightly more positive among NSPS employees than among DoD employees overall. “The evidence suggests NSPS promotes a high performance workforce by differentiating between high and low performers by rewarding employees on the basis of performance while effectively managing payroll costs,” the report said. To see more, go to: www.opm.gov/aps/reports/2008_dod_nsps.pdf.

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GAO: Staffing Constraints Hurt Delivery of Some SSA Field Services

Social Security Administration (SSA) staffing and funding reductions have made it harder for field offices to serve customers, increased waiting times and left many telephone calls for service unanswered, said a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The report, released Feb. 9, noted that the number of SSA staff in field offices dropped 4.4 percent from 2005 to 2008, while at about the same time field offices were serving a growing volume of visitors—from 41.9 million in 2006 to 44.4 million in 2008, a 5.97 percent increase. SSA managers told GAO they were coping with the increased workloads in various ways, such as by using claims-processing personnel to perform the duties typically conducted by lower-graded employees. Such duties include answering the telephone, providing initial services to arriving customers, processing requests for new or replacement Social Security cards and conducting some administrative duties. “While all field office personnel recognize the need to serve visitors, many also told us that such work is taking away from time spent processing claims and managing the office,” the report said. GAO also noted that SSA’s push for an “eService” program to handle the influx of baby boomer claims was not really helping. Field office staff and managers told GAO that relatively few customers use the Internet-based tools and—due to erroneous or missing information in online forms—field staff can lose time having to contact the customers for clarification or more information, the report said. The new study was welcomed by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which has been critical of the lack of funding and staffing at the agency. “The agency basically has been starved of funding,” said Witold Skwierczynski, president of AFGE’s Social Security Council. “Understaffing and under-budgeting, as well as agency’s drive to have the American public file their claims over the Internet, have created a dire situation at the Social Security Administration.” To see more, go to: www.gao.gov/highlights/d0924high.pdf or www.afge.org/index.cfm?page=PressReleases&PressReleaseID=940.

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Whistleblower Protections Stripped From Stimulus Package

Federal whistleblower protections were deleted from the final $789-billion economic recovery package compromise worked out by House and Senate negotiators, according to documents posted Feb. 11 on the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) Web site. The protections, contained in an amendment to H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, were introduced by Reps. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Todd R. Platts, R-Pa. The language was part of the House bill that was reconciled by negotiators, who came up with the final package. The Platts/Van Hollen amendment would have rolled back a series of judicial rulings that have weakened existing whistleblower rights, given whistleblowers new rights to fight reprisals and expanded protection to employees not covered by current statute. However, the final compromise bill—which still must be approved by the House and Senate before being sent to President Obama—deleted the protections. “Accountability got mugged today when congressional leaders stripped federal whistleblower protections from their compromise ‘stimulus’ bill,” POGO said in a statement. To see more, go to: www.pogo.org/pogo-files/alerts/whistleblower-issues/wi-wp-20090211.html.

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