On the basis of data submitted by the 41 departments and agencies and our discussions with them, 77 individuals holding noncareer positions were converted to career positions during the 32 months from May 1, 2001, through December 31, 2003. These conversions were reported by 18 of the 41 departments and agencies we surveyed. The other 23 departments and agencies reported no conversions during thi

Congress, the Department of Defense, and GAO have expressed concerns about the readiness of U.S. forces to carry out combat missions. To ensure that Army units can fulfill their missions, the Army decided to staff all active units at 100 percent with personnel at authorized grades and skills over fiscal years 2000-2003. The initiative has had mixed results. On the positive side, some combat divis

GAO noted that: (1) the excepted service is not really a coherent "service" so much as a residual category covering all the many federal entities and groups of employees that are not part of the competitive service or the Senior Executive Service; (2) based on available data, this study portrays the distribution of excepted service employees across government, but with some significant omissions-

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the staffing practices and availability of training for the Coast Guard Marine Safety Program. GAO noted that: (1) while Congress provided funding for 875 additional positions for the Marine Safety Program, the program's authorized staffing level only increased to 706 positions because the Coast Guard reduced the program size and allocated some po

GAO reviewed the Department of the Navy's implementation of total quality management (TQM). GAO found that: (1) as the Navy invested more time and effort in TQM activities, TQM implementation matured, barriers became less difficult, and greater benefits could be achieved; (2) 68 percent of the Navy's facilities have implemented various phases of TQM and most Navy personnel believed the TQM progra

GAO reviewed the Department of the Army's implementation of total quality management (TQM). GAO found that: (1) as the Army invested more time and effort in TQM activities, TQM implementation matured, barriers became less difficult, and greater benefits could be achieved; (2) 67 percent of the Army's facilities had implemented various phases of TQM and nearly two-thirds of Army personnel believed

GAO discussed its ongoing review of the Department of Defense's (DOD) military strength management, focusing on: (1) the magnitude of force reductions; (2) programs designed to foster force reduction; (3) the extent of such reductions; and (4) funding for two special separation incentive programs. GAO noted that: (1) DOD plans to reduce 561,000 active duty positions by 1995; (2) the National Defe

GAO found that: (1) the Department of Defense developed and implemented general policies that affected the aviator assignment process in certain general areas, but was not involved in making specific assignments; (2) the services generally followed their own aviator assignment policies and procedures; (3) aviator-specific requirements affected aviator assignments; (4) the services considered avia

GAO found that: (1) the Army and Air Force did not monitor civilian substitution practices or routinely keep records on substitutions or the disposition of military positions freed as a result of substitutions; (2) due to the lack of records, it could not compare budgeted to actual substitutions or determine whether the services had reallocated freed military positions to higher-priority missions