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OPM's Central Personnel Data File: Data Appear Sufficiently Reliable to Meet Most Customer Needs

GGD-98-199 Published: Sep 30, 1998. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 1998.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) database of federal civilian employees, the Central Personnel Data File (CPDF), focusing on: (1) the extent to which selected CPDF data elements are accurate, including the data elements used by OPM's Office of the Actuaries for estimating the government's liability for future payments of federal retirement programs; (2) whether selected users of CPDF data believed that CPDF products met their needs, including whether the products were current, accurate, and complete and whether the cautions OPM provided to them on the limitations associated with using the data were sufficient for them to present the CPDF data correctly; and (3) whether OPM has documented changes to the Central Personnel Data System and verified the System's acceptance of those changes, as recommended in applicable federal guidance, and whether the System would implement CPDF edits as intended.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Personnel Management The Director, OPM, should document any changes to the Civilian Personnel Data File (CPDF) before OPM adopts an agencywide system development life cycle approach as specified in the Capability Maturity Model guidelines and that such changes be independently verified to ensure that they still work as intended.
Closed – Implemented
GAO's September 30, 1998 report on OPM's Central Personnel Data File (CPDF) recommended that OPM document any changes to the CPDF before OPM adopts an agency-wide system development life cycle approach as specified in the Capability Maturity Model guidelines and that such changes be independently verified to ensure that they still work as intended. OPM has implemented this recommendation through its phased implementation of the Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI) which essentially replaces the CPDF. The phased implementation of the EHRI began in April 2007 and will enable OPM to collect, integrate, and publish data regarding the 1.8 million Executive Branch employees on a bi-weekly basis. EHRI will also store workforce information sent from Executive Branch agencies and has three enhancements - a central data repository for all Executive Branch employee records; an electronic Official Employee Record, and a set of analytical tools for human capital forecasting and trend analysis, which OPM has reported will be discontinued as of Sept. 30, 2010. OPM's Project Management Office (PMO) is responsible for ensuring that standard system development processes and procedures are followed when changes are made to the system. EHRI uses BluePrint Requirement Center to document and track requirements that enable EHRI to have a central requirements repository for better requirements management, tracking and traceability. Also, EHRI is using the OPM standard System Development Lifecycle documentation. Furthermore, EHRI has a Change Management/Configuration Management process in place and a Change Control Board that meets bi-weekly to review/evaluate enhancement requests and keep track of progress. OPM has retained Richard Carson & Associates to conduct an independent review that changes made to the EHRI are working as intended.
Office of Personnel Management The Director, OPM, should make the results of OPM's measurements of historical accuracy available to all users. To make this information available OPM could post the results of its accuracy measurements on its Internet web site including cautionary language indicating that the accuracy of CPDF data elements may vary by agency. OPM could also inform users of the availability of this information whenever it distributes CPDF data or reports.
Closed – Implemented
OPM has added CPDF accuracy study results to the OPM Internet site.
Office of Personnel Management The Director, OPM, should ensure that OPM make all 28 caution statements about limitations associated with CPDF data available to all users. In addition, it may be useful for OPM to continue its practice of highlighting cautions on the data limitations of the CPDF that are most likely to be applicable to the interests of a particular requester of CPDF data. To make this information available to all users, OPM could: (1) post, on its Internet web site, a complete listing of the 28 caution statements about limitations associated with CPDF data; (2) appraise all recipients of CPDF data of the availability of the caution statements; and (3) implement its proposal to bundle specific cautions on limitations associated with specific sets of data.
Closed – Implemented
OPM has added comprehensive CPDF data limitation information to its OPM Internet site.

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Topics

Civilian employeesData integrityFederal employeesManagement information systemsPersonnel managementPersonnel recordsSystems development life cycleDatabasesData errorsVeterans