Defense Transformation:
DOD's Proposed Civilian Personnel System and Governmentwide Human Capital Reform
GAO-03-741T: Published: May 1, 2003. Publicly Released: May 1, 2003.
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DOD is in the midst of a major transformation effort including a number of initiatives to transform its forces and improve its business operations. DOD's legislative initiative would provide for major changes in civilian and military human capital management, make major adjustments in the DOD acquisition process, affect DOD's organization structure, and change DOD's reporting requirements to Congress, among other things. DOD's proposed National Security Personnel System (NSPS) would provide for wide-ranging changes in DOD's civilian personnel pay and performance management, collective bargaining, rightsizing, and a variety of other human capital areas. The NSPS would enable DOD to develop and implement a consistent DOD-wide civilian personnel system. This testimony provides GAO's preliminary observations on aspects of DOD's legislative proposal to make changes to its civilian personnel system and discusses the implications of such changes for governmentwide human capital reform. This testimony summarizes many of the issues discussed in detail before the Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Organization, Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives on April 29, 2003.
Many of the basic principles underlying DOD's civilian human capital proposal have merit and deserve serious consideration. The federal personnel system is clearly broken in critical respects--designed for a time and workforce of an earlier era and not able to meet the needs and challenges of our current rapidly changing and knowledge-based environment. DOD's proposal recognizes that, as GAO has stated and the experiences of leading public sector organizations here and abroad have found, strategic human capital management must be the centerpiece of any serious government transformation effort. More generally, from a conceptual standpoint, GAO strongly supports the need to expand broad banding and pay for performance-based systems in the federal government. However, moving too quickly or prematurely at DOD or elsewhere, can significantly raise the risk of doing it wrong. This could also serve to severely set back the legitimate need to move to a more performance- and results-based system for the federal government as a whole. Thus, while it is imperative that we take steps to better link employee pay and other personnel decisions to performance across the federal government, how it is done, when it is done, and the basis on which it is done, can make all the difference in whether or not we are successful. One key need is to modernize performance management systems in executive agencies so that they are capable of supporting more performance-based pay and other personnel decisions. Unfortunately, based on GAO's past work, most existing federal performance appraisal systems, including a vast majority of DOD's systems, are not currently designed to support a meaningful performance-based pay system. The critical questions to consider are: should DOD and/or other agencies be granted broad-based exemptions from existing law, and if so, on what basis? Do DOD and other agencies have the institutional infrastructure in place to make effective use of any new authorities? This institutional infrastructure includes, at a minimum, a human capital planning process that integrates the agency's human capital policies, strategies, and programs with its program goals and mission, and desired outcomes; the capabilities to effectively develop and implement a new human capital system; and, importantly, a set of adequate safeguards, including reasonable transparency and appropriate accountability mechanisms to ensure the fair, effective, and credible implementation of a new system. In GAO's view, as an alternative to DOD's proposed approach, Congress should consider providing governmentwide broad banding and pay for performance authorities that DOD and other federal agencies can use provided they can demonstrate that they have a performance management system in place that meets certain statutory standards, that can be certified to by a qualified and independent party, such as OPM, within prescribed timeframes. Congress should also consider establishing a governmentwide fund whereby agencies, based on a sound business case, could apply for funding to modernize their performance management systems and ensure that those systems have adequate safeguards to prevent abuse. This approach would serve as a positive step to promote high-performing organizations throughout the federal government while avoiding further human capital policy fragmentation.
Feb 26, 2021
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Defense Transportation:
DOD Can Better Leverage Existing Contested Mobility Studies and Improve TrainingGAO-21-125: Published: Feb 26, 2021. Publicly Released: Feb 26, 2021.
Feb 25, 2021
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Military Service Uniforms:
DOD Could Better Identify and Address Out-of-Pocket Cost InequitiesGAO-21-120: Published: Feb 25, 2021. Publicly Released: Feb 25, 2021.
Feb 24, 2021
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Defense Budget:
Opportunities Exist to Improve DOD's Management of Defense SpendingGAO-21-415T: Published: Feb 24, 2021. Publicly Released: Feb 24, 2021.
Feb 22, 2021
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Service Acquisitions:
DOD's Report to Congress Identifies Steps Taken to Improve Management, But Does Not Address Some Key Planning IssuesGAO-21-267R: Published: Feb 22, 2021. Publicly Released: Feb 22, 2021.
Jan 21, 2021
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Close Air Support:
Actions Needed to Enhance Friendly Force Tracking Capabilities and Fully Evaluate TrainingGAO-21-99: Published: Jan 21, 2021. Publicly Released: Jan 21, 2021.
Jan 19, 2021
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GPS Modernization:
DOD Continuing to Develop New Jam-Resistant Capability, But Widespread Use Remains Years AwayGAO-21-145: Published: Jan 19, 2021. Publicly Released: Jan 19, 2021.
Jan 14, 2021
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Columbia Class Submarine:
Delivery Hinges on Timely and Quality Materials from an Atrophied Supplier BaseGAO-21-257: Published: Jan 14, 2021. Publicly Released: Jan 14, 2021. -
Department of Defense:
Actions Needed to Improve Accounting of Intradepartmental TransactionsGAO-21-84: Published: Jan 14, 2021. Publicly Released: Jan 14, 2021.
Jan 12, 2021
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DOD Critical Technologies:
Plans for Communicating, Assessing, and Overseeing Protection Efforts Should Be CompletedGAO-21-158: Published: Jan 12, 2021. Publicly Released: Jan 12, 2021.
Dec 10, 2020
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Climate Resilience:
DOD Coordinates with Communities, but Needs to Assess the Performance of Related Grant ProgramsGAO-21-46: Published: Dec 10, 2020. Publicly Released: Dec 10, 2020.
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