Benefits and allowances offered by the United Nations (UN) and the U.S. government are generally similar, and GAO found that each provided certain benefits or allowances with greater monetary value than the other. Similar UN and U.S. benefits include retirement plans and health insurance, while similar allowances include hardship and danger pay. Where comparable data were available, GAO found tha

The proposed human capital system is designed to be aligned with the department's mission requirements and is intended to protect the civil service rights of DHS employees. Many of the basic principles underlying the DHS regulations are consistent with proven approaches to strategic human capital management, including several approaches pioneered by GAO, and deserve serious consideration. However

GAO discussed the impact of the President's economic plan on federal employees. GAO noted that: (1) the government needs to attract and retain employees of high caliber to meet the challenges facing the government; (2) it has identified the importance of federal pay reform to attract and retain quality employees; (3) the President's proposals represent a reversal of positive steps taken to addres

GAO noted that: (1) to attract and retain a high-quality work force, the government must sustain the initiatives begun in the last 4 years and respond to other emerging issues; (2) federal managers do not always have the flexibility, systems, or processes they need to downsize the federal work force effectively; and (3) issues facing the federal government include modernizing employment practices

GAO found that: (1) OIG reasons for deleting the expert appointment references stemmed from concerns about premature reporting and misunderstandings among OIG staff; (2) the evidence did not indicate that OIG omitted the reference to deliberately conceal internal problems; (3) in the future, OIG plans to not include an assessment of its own operations when auditing State; (4) State's Bureau of Pe

GAO found that much has been accomplished by the foreign affairs agencies in implementing the act's new provisions in the areas of Senior Foreign Service, labor-management relations and Foreign Service grievances, personnel management, pay, worldwide assignment availability, family-oriented provisions, revised and new allowances for Foreign Service members, new congressional reporting requirement