AID Management: EEO Issues and Protected Group Underrepresentation Require Management Attention

Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Agency for International Development's (AID) compliance with equal employment opportunity (EEO) and affirmative action requirements, focusing on: (1) women and minority representation by job category, major occupation, and grade level; (2) an AID recruitment strategy to ensure women and minorities were hired at representative rates; (3) AID assignment and promotion practices' impact on EEO groups; and (4) AID development of EEO and affirmative action monitoring processes.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
U.S. Agency for International Development	The Administrator, AID, should develop a detailed Federal Equal Opportunity Recruitment Program plan that focuses the agency's attention on underrepresented groups and integrates the agency's external and internal recruitment efforts.	Closed – Implemented AID issued a Federal Equal Opportunity Recruitment Program plan on October 7, 1993.
U.S. Agency for International Development	The Administrator, AID, should ensure that external and internal recruitment activities are coordinated with the agency's affirmative action plan.	Closed – Implemented As detailed in a 1995 implementation plan developed by AID's Office of Human Resources, the agency has revised and revamped its selection criteria for its International Development Intern and mid-level hire programs to better link internal and external recruitment efforts with the agency's annual analysis of representation levels.
U.S. Agency for International Development	The Administrator, AID, should prepare analyses of PATCO categories with substantially elevated protected group representation levels to determine how better balance might be achieved across job series.	Closed – Implemented AID's affirmative action plan includes an analysis of PATCO categories that identifies both deficient and elevated levels of representation. AID's Office of Equal Opportunity Programs is actively coordinating with the Office of Recruitment to ensure that these representation levels are incorporated into the agency's outreach programs.
U.S. Agency for International Development	The Administrator, AID, should routinely collect and analyze selection data for evidence of adverse impact at each step in the hiring process and determine whether any actual adverse impact is related to bona fide affirmative action efforts.	Closed – Implemented AID has instituted a tracking system to collect uniform hiring data for both its Civil and the Foreign Service. AID has agreed to prepare an adverse impact analysis of hiring data when a sufficient mass of data (that is, 100 or more persons for each assessed action) has been collected through its new tracking system. This amount of data will be required before a meaningful analysis can be conducted. Given current hiring levels, this point may not be reached for several years.
U.S. Agency for International Development	The Administrator, AID, should modify or validate those selection procedures where adverse impact not related to bona fide affirmative action efforts is found.	Closed – Implemented AID has instituted a tracking system to collect uniform hiring data for both its Civil and the Foreign Service. AID has agreed to prepare an adverse impact analysis of hiring data when a sufficient mass of data (that is, 100 or more persons for each assessed action) has been collected through its new tracking system. This amount of data will be required before a meaningful analysis can be conducted. Given current hiring levels, this point may not be reached for several years.
U.S. Agency for International Development	The Administrator, AID, should routinely collect and analyze assignment and promotion data for evidence of adverse impact and determine whether any actual adverse impact is related to bona fide affirmative action efforts.	Closed – Implemented AID has launched a data collection effort which will culminate in an adverse impact analysis being prepared for both assignments and promotions.
U.S. Agency for International Development	The Administrator, AID, should modify or validate those selection procedures where adverse impact not related to bona fide affirmative action efforts is found.	Closed – Implemented AID has asserted that it fully intends to review selection procedures that show evidence of adverse impact.
U.S. Agency for International Development	The Administrator, AID, should restrict the use of limited career extensions as AID officials have indicated they would be.	Closed – Implemented The agency has revised its Senior Foreign Service Handbook chapter to cap LCE at a 5-year maximum. Each year since 1991, LCE approval rates have dropped significantly.
U.S. Agency for International Development	The Administrator, AID, should require that EEO briefings emphasize that selection panel members must only consider merit-based factors in their deliberations.	Closed – Implemented AID's promotion precepts have been revised to explicitly state that review panels must assess employess on the basis of merit alone.
U.S. Agency for International Development	The Administrator, AID, should incorporate specific action items from the agency's affirmative action plan in senior managers' performance contracts.	Closed – Implemented AID issued a directive to senior managers in November 1993 which called for the inclusion of specific EEO actions and objectives in managers' performance contracts. Recent performance contracts already include such language.
U.S. Agency for International Development	The Administrator, AID, should develop a work force profile format that uses representation indexes and tables showing the extent of underrepresentation by PATCO category, major occupation, and grade level.	Closed – Implemented AID has begun to prepare simplified representation analyses for senior manager use. These analyses do not utilize a representation index, however, they do compare agency representation levels with civilian labor force data in a manner that can be readily understood.
U.S. Agency for International Development	The Administrator, AID, should ensure that senior- and mid-level managers are informed of EEOC criteria for setting representation goals and the current benchmark data being used by AID.	Closed – Implemented AID has developed a brochure for distribution to all employees describing the agency's EEO process. This brochure should be available for distribution late in the year.

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Equal Opportunity

Employee promotionsEmployment of minoritiesFair employment programsFederal employeesHiring policiesJob classificationPersonnel managementPersonnel recruitingWomen's rightsAffirmative action