Employee Drug Testing: A Single Agency Is Needed To Manage Federal Employee Drug Testing

GAO discussed how 18 federal agencies implemented their drug testing programs and whether centralized management could improve the administration of such programs. GAO noted that: (1) federal employees were not always being treated equitably because each agency had different implementation guidelines; (2) agencies had significantly different drug testing costs due to wide variations in the amounts they paid for testing-related services; (3) agencies failed to identify and deal with some operational problems associated with drug testing; (4) although the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Justice helped design federal employee drug testing programs, no single agency was responsible for overseeing implementation efforts; and (5) OPM was in the best position to be designated with overall responsibility for the design, implementation, and oversight of the program.