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Federal Workforce: Selected Sites Cannot Show Fair and Open Competition for Temporary Jobs

GGD-90-106 Published: Sep 05, 1990. Publicly Released: Oct 09, 1990.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed six federal agencies' use of their authority to hire temporary employees without the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) approval, to determine whether: (1) selected agencies complied with merit selection requirements; and (2) those agencies made temporary appointments for appropriate reasons.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Personnel Management To better ensure that agencies comply with temporary appointment statutes and OPM instructions, the Director, OPM, should revise Federal Personnel Manual (FPM) instructions to specify that agencies must maintain documentation to show that vacancy announcements were sent to OPM and state job service offices.
Closed – Implemented
Final regulations were issued on December 10, 1991. FPM implementing instructions are in clearance in OPM.
Office of Personnel Management To better ensure that agencies comply with temporary appointment statutes and OPM instructions, the Director, OPM, should continue to review, on a regular basis, agencies' use of and documentation for the temporary appointment authority and consider revoking the authority from noncomplying agencies.
Closed – Implemented
Both fiscal years 1989 and 1990 included a governmentwide review of temporary appointments. These reviews examined a sample of temporary cases from a regulatory perspective, as well as a review of procedural requirements. OPM also reviews temporary appointments in agency-level and Targeted Installation Reviews as part of the review agenda.

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Topics

Civil service jobsFederal agenciesFederal employeesHiring policiesStaff utilizationPersonnel managementPersonnel recordsTemporary employmentGovernment employeesCompliance oversight