Recommendation: The Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management should use OPM's oversight authority to monitor career SES reassignments to ensure that federal agencies meet requirements contained in statute or regulation, and follow OPM's related guidance. In situations where OPM finds that an agency has taken a career SES reassignment action contrary to these requirements, it should use its authority to require the agency to take corrective action, as appropriate. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: OPM did not concur with our recommendation. In its comment on a draft of the report, OPM said it relies on federal agencies to comply with provisions governing SES reassignments. OPM further stated that it has chosen not to make reassignments a focus of its enforcement efforts, in light of scarce resources and other mandates OPM is required to meet. However, for reasons discussed in the report, we maintain that OPM should use its oversight authority to ensure agencies' reassignments of SES staff are consistent with requirements. We will continue to monitor OPM's progress.

Recommendation: The Director of the Office of Personnel Management should assist the 24 CFO Act agencies by using OPM FEVS data to analyze the key drivers of retention for veterans in the agencies' workforces to identify strategies for improving veteran retention. OPM should also be available to non-CFO Act agencies that request assistance with the veteran retention analysis.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Director of OPM should routinely track and report retention data for employees with disabilities and make such data available to federal agencies, including EEOC, through a centralized web portal—such as MAX.gov. For example, OPM could track and report such data by General Schedule level pay groupings, which could help pinpoint root causes that contribute to retention rates, inform assessments of government-wide progress on employee retention, and identify needed improvements. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Office of Special Counsel should require federal employees who are filing whistleblower disclosures or retaliation complaints to identify on their complaint forms their status as a permanent or probationary employee.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management: Office of Special Counsel
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Director of the Office of Personnel Management should establish a time frame to ensure that all records schedules are up-to-date and submitted to NARA. The schedules should include all required information, including when eligible temporary records must be destroyed or deleted and when permanent records are to be transferred to NARA. (Recommendation 30)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management: Office of the Director
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of Personnel Management concurred with this recommendation. As of June 2020, we had not received information pertaining to planned actions for this recommendation. Once the agency states that it has taken action, we plan to verify whether implementation has occurred.

Recommendation: The Director of the Office of Personnel Management should establish a time frame to develop an inventory of electronic information systems used to store agency records that includes all of the required elements. (Recommendation 31)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management: Office of the Director
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of Personnel Management concurred with this recommendation. As of June 2020, we had not received information pertaining to planned actions for this recommendation. Once the agency states that it has taken action, we plan to verify whether implementation has occurred.

Recommendation: The Director of the Office of Personnel Management should establish a time frame to develop a plan to manage permanent electronic records. (Recommendation 32)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management: Office of the Director
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of Personnel Management concurred with this recommendation. As of June 2020, we had not received information pertaining to planned actions for this recommendation. Once the agency states that it has taken action, we plan to verify whether implementation has occurred.

Recommendation: The Director of the Office of Personnel Management should establish a time frame to update its policies and procedures to include all of the required electronic information system functionalities for recordkeeping systems. (Recommendation 33)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management: Office of the Director
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of Personnel Management concurred with this recommendation. As of June 2020, we had not received information pertaining to planned actions for this recommendation. Once the agency states that it has taken action, we plan to verify whether implementation has occurred.

Recommendation: The Director of the Office of Personnel Management should establish a time frame to update the agency's policies and procedures on retention and management for email to include retaining electronic calendars and draft documents. (Recommendation 34)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management: Office of the Director
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of Personnel Management concurred with this recommendation. As of June 2020, we had not received information pertaining to planned actions for this recommendation. Once the agency states that it has taken action, we plan to verify whether implementation has occurred.

Recommendation: The Director of the Office of Personnel Management should ensure that the agency fully implements each of the eight key IT workforce planning activities it did not fully implement. (Recommendation 15)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: In December 2019, OPM stated that it had partnered with the General Services Administration's IT Modernization Center of Excellence to assess the current state of its IT workforce planning activities, but had not yet implemented any of the eight key planning activities we recommended. We will continue to monitor OPM's efforts to implement the recommendation.

Recommendation: The Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) should update the agency's policies to require (1) an organization-wide cybersecurity risk assessment and (2) the use of risk assessments to inform control tailoring. (Recommendation 53)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: OPM concurred with this recommendation. As of January 2020, OPM stated that it planned to update its policies to address the missing elements. Once OPM has provided evidence of these actions, we plan to verify whether implementation has occurred.

Recommendation: The Director of OPM should establish a process for conducting an organization-wide cybersecurity risk assessment. (Recommendation 54)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OPM concurred with this recommendation. As of January 2020, the office stated that it planned to formalize its process for an organization-wide cybersecurity assessment. Once OPM has provided evidence of these actions, we plan to verify whether implementation has occurred.

Recommendation: The Associate Director of OPM's Retirement Services, working in coordination with the Chief Information Officer, should develop, document, and implement a Retirement Services IT modernization plan for initial project phases that is consistent with key aspects of IT project management, such as determining objectives, costs, and time frames for each initial phase. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OPM partially concurred with the recommendation. OPM stated that it has established initial high-level funding estimates for each of its five key IT initiatives. OPM cited that its ability to implement the modernization plan depends on the availability of funding and coordination with the agency's top leadership. In December 2019, OPM stated that it was evaluating what corrective actions it plans to take. In April 2020, GAO contacted OPM about the status of this recommendation and we are awaiting a response.

Recommendation: The Associate Director of OPM's Retirement Services should adopt management practices to enhance the use of performance information on processing timeliness to inform how OPM manages operations, identifies problem areas, and allocates resources. For example, OPM could enhance use of performance measures at the operational level or establish a timeliness performance goal for reviewing disability retirement eligibility. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: OPM partially concurred with the recommendation and responded that it measures overtime spending, reviews daily work level in each work unit, and assesses employee productivity in these units. Collecting and reviewing such operational-level data contributes to monitoring efforts; however the recommendation emphasizes the importance of using performance information to better manage operations to align with organizational goals. In April 2020, GAO contacted OPM about the status of this recommendation and we are awaiting a response.

Recommendation: The Associate Director of OPM's Retirement Services should provide explanatory information, such as the range of processing times and the exclusion of disability retirement eligibility determinations, as part of the performance measure on processing timeliness. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: OPM partially concurred with the recommendation. OPM agreed to add an explanation about disability retirement eligibility determinations to its public reports. OPM disagreed that reporting data on the range of processing times would be beneficial because, according to OPM, it provides processing information through other means, such as through applicants' online accounts and agency benefit officers. OPM also acknowledged that it already collects and shares such data. In April 2020, GAO contacted OPM about the status of this recommendation and we are awaiting a response.

Recommendation: The Associate Director of OPM's Retirement Services should develop and implement policies and procedures for assessing strategies intended to improve processing times, including collecting and improving data needed to support those strategies, such as collecting better productivity data or staffing data and linking them to processing outcomes. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: OPM partially concurred with the recommendation. OPM stated that a new case management system could provide better productivity and staffing data with which to assess effectiveness, but is dependent on funding and IT support. In April 2020, GAO contacted OPM about the status of this recommendation and we are awaiting a response.

Recommendation: The Associate Director of OPM's Retirement Services should examine its process for assessing its assistance to agencies on retirement applications. For example, OPM could incorporate into its assessment process more agency feedback or documentation of assessment results, which could improve its partnership with agencies to strengthen the assistance provided. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: OPM concurred with the recommendation. In April 2020, GAO contacted OPM about the status of this recommendation and we are awaiting a response.

Recommendation: The Associate Director of OPM's Retirement Services should work with agencies to determine if there are cost-effective ways to make the retirement application error report that it sends to agencies more user-friendly. For example, explore whether there are cost-effective ways to provide the error report in a format that could be manipulated (e.g., Excel spreadsheet), or to include additional information, such as incorporating disability retirement applications or providing clearer descriptions of errors or trend data, some of which OPM already collects. (Recommendation 6)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: OPM partially concurred with the recommendation. OPM stated that it will explore using MS Excel spreadsheets and incorporating clearer descriptions of errors and data trends. OPM also stated that collecting disability application error information is not an inexpensive or simple process change. In April 2020, GAO contacted OPM about the status of this recommendation and we are awaiting a response.

Recommendation: The Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) should take action to meet the data center-related cost savings established under DCOI by OMB. (Recommendation 31)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: In comments on our report, The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) agreed with our recommendation and began taking action to implement it. After the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released the updated Data Center Optimization Initiative policy in June 2019, the agency established a new data center-related cost savings target. Subsequently, the agency reported meeting its fiscal year 2019 target of $7.65 million and planned to save an additional $7.65 million in fiscal year 2020. However, given the short time to evaluate implementation efforts between when OMB released the updated policy in June 2019 and the end of fiscal year 2019, we will continue to monitor OPM's progress in implementing this recommendation through fiscal year 2020.

Recommendation: The Director of OPM should take action to meet the data center optimization metric targets established under DCOI by OMB. (Recommendation 32)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: In comments on our report, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) agreed with our recommendation and began taking action to implement it. After the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released the updated Data Center Optimization Initiative policy in June 2019, the agency established new data center optimization targets. The agency subsequently reported meeting its targets for the virtualization and server utilization metrics. However, it had not met its target for advanced energy metering. We will continue to monitor OPM's progress in implementing this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Director of OPM, in consultation with the Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) Council, should establish and implement a process for regularly updating the performance management website to include all available guidance and resources, making this information easily accessible, and providing links to other related websites. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OPM agreed with this recommendation. As of January 2020, OPM stated that they had identified available guidance and resources and updated the OPM Performance Management website. Additionally, OPM stated that they were establishing and documenting a process, which will be documented via standard operating procedures, to regularly update the performance management website with available guidance and resources. To fully address this recommendation, OPM needs to implement that process, which it indicated it plans to do by the end of fiscal year 2020.

Recommendation: The Director of OPM, in consultation with the CHCO Council, should develop and implement a mechanism for agencies to routinely and independently share promising practices and lessons learned, such as through allowing agencies to post such information on OPM's Performance Management portal. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OPM agreed with this recommendation. As of January 2020, OPM stated that they had developed and implemented a mechanism for agencies to routinely and independently share promising practices and lessons learned on OPM's Performance Management Portal and would evaluate its effectiveness moving forward. To fully implement the recommendation. OPM stated they are continuing to engage agency stakeholders and evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts. OPM stated they plan to be able to to close this recommendation during fiscal year 2020.

Recommendation: The Director of OPM, in consultation with the CHCO Council, should develop a strategic approach for identifying and sharing emerging research and innovations in performance management. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OPM agreed with this recommendation. As of January 2020, OPM stated that it is working with OMB, Cross-Agency Priority Goal Leaders, and other representatives from across government to develop a comprehensive strategic approach for identifying and sharing emerging research and innovations. According to OPM, the next working group meeting is scheduled for the summer of 2020. As of January 2020, OPM stated they are implementing certain strategic approaches for identifying and sharing emerging research and innovations in performance management. OPM stated they are also developing a white paper on agency reskilling efforts, likely focusing on engagement and retention, which would better position supervisors to engage in innovative performance management practices on a routine basis. OPM stated they aim to to close this recommendation by the end of the calendar year.

Recommendation: The Director of the Office of Personnel Management should ensure that the agency's IT management policies address the role of the CIO for key responsibilities in the five areas we identified. (Recommendation 24)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: OPM agreed with our recommendation. When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Director of OPM, after consultation with the chief human capital officer (CHCO) Council, should explore the feasibility of improving the quality of data on employee misconduct by providing additional guidance to agencies on how to record instances of misconduct in OPM's databases. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: OPM disagreed with this recommendation and cautioned against creating a comprehensive catalog of forms of misconduct because such an approach could expose agencies to the argument that any conduct that was not captured by OPM is not a permissible basis for discipline. In January 2020, OPM stated they are compiling disciplinary data collected from agencies under Executive Order 13839 and anticipate the data will be posted in the near future on OPM.gov.

Recommendation: The Director of OPM, after consultation with the CHCO Council, should broadly disseminate to agencies the promising practices and lessons learned, such as those described in this report, as well as work with agencies through such vehicles as the CHCO Council, to identify any additional practices. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OPM partially agreed with this recommendation. In December 2018, OPM stated that it plans to continue to use promising practices and to issue guidance on progressive discipline and tables of penalties. On July 2, 2019, OPM restated it partially concurs with this recommendation. OPM stated that it issued a guidance memorandum to Federal agencies on October 10, 2018, to aid in the implementation of Executive Order 13839, section 5, Ensuring Integrity of Personnel Files. As of January, 2020, OPM stated they are finalizing compiling disciplinary data collected from agencies under that Executive Order and anticipates it will be posted in the near future on OPM.gov. OPM also stated they are in the process of updating online employee relations training to be made available to human resources practitioners and managers later this year.

Recommendation: The Director of OPM, after consultation with the CHCO Council, should provide guidance to agencies to enhance the training received by managers/supervisors and human capital staff to ensure that they have the guidance and technical assistance they need to effectively address misconduct and maximize the productivity of their workforces. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OPM partially agreed with this recommendation. On September 17, 2019, OPM published a proposed rule pertaining to probationary periods, performance-based actions, and adverse actions. The public comment period for this proposed rule closed on October 17, 2019. As of January 2020, OPM said they received comments from 1,199 individuals. OPM stated that they are reviewing, analyzing, and adjudicating all comments received in order to prepare a final rule later in 2020. Once the final rule is published, OPM stated they will work with the CHCO Council to educate supervisors on the new rule in accordance with Executive Order 13839.

Recommendation: The Director of OPM should assess the processes to estimate Retirement improper payments to determine whether they effectively address key risks of improper payments--including eligibility and whether older claims face different risks of improper payments than new claims--and take steps to update the processes to incorporate key risks that are not currently addressed. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) partially concurred with this recommendation. Prior to 2006, the improper payment estimate sampling methodology used by OPM included both new and old adjudicated claims. After analyzing several years of data using this methodology, OPM found that including older claims in the sample could result in claimant's records being sampled multiple times. In addition, OPM also found that the variance in the number of errors detected in new claims versus old claims was very low. OPM also looked at the resources used in performing the audit of old and new claims and based on these factors, management determined that it was not an efficient use of resources to include both old and new claims in the review. The methodology was updated to make the process more efficient. By using new claims only, OPM was able to provide feedback to program managers more timely. As a result, management can address issues negatively impacting the improper payment rate and prevent improper payments promptly. OPM agrees with the intent of our recommendation; however, OPM does not agree with our recommendation regarding a risk assessment on eligibility. Eligibility is determined before annuity/survivor benefits are fully adjudicated. As part of its correction plan, OPM stated that it will conduct an audit of older claims to determine if there are different risks to new claims. In February 2020, OPM indicated that it is currently in the process of pulling/gathering the cases that should be in the universe of this audit. OPM plans to complete the corrective action by end of 4th quarter of fiscal year 2020. We will continue to monitor the agency's actions to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Director of the Office of Personnel Management should ensure that IT acquisition plans or strategies are reviewed and approved according to OMB's guidance. (Recommendation 34)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: The agency concurred with the recommendation and in an April 2020 updated stated that OPM has contracted with a third-party vendor to evaluate the OPM IT human capital, architecture, and governance processes from planning to acquisition to implementation. The agency further stated that it is working to fully implement an IT governance process where the OPM CIO fully reviews and approves IT acquisition plans and processes. We will continue to monitor the implementation of this recommendation.

Recommendation: The Director of OPM, together with the CHCO Council, should track government-wide data to establish a baseline and analyze the extent to which the seven Title 5 special payment authorities are effective in improving employee recruitment and retention, and determine what potential changes may be needed to improve the seven authorities' effectiveness. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OPM partially concurred with the recommendation and said that by August 2018, OPM would (1) track Governmentwide data to establish a baseline of agency use of the seven Title 5 special payment authorities by occupation with a focus on mission-critical occupations; and (2) work with the CHCO Council to determine what changes may be needed to improve the seven authorities' effectiveness. OPM said agencies are in the best position to analyze the extent to which special pay authorities, when used in conjunction with other human resources flexibilities, improve their ability to recruit and retain their employees. However, we noted that by working with the agencies through the CHCO Council, OPM would be better positioned to track government-wide data to analyze the extent to which Title 5 special payment authorities improve employee recruitment and retention. In December 2018, OPM told us that it established a baseline to measure changes over time, on an annual basis, regarding the use of the seven special payment authorities. OPM also stated that it is working with the CHCO Council to administer a survey to obtain agency input on how to improve the authorities' effectiveness. In May 2019, OPM provided documented analyses of the extent agencies use special payment authorities for various occupations, but provided no information on actions taken with the CHCO council as we recommended. More specifically, to fully implement the recommendation OPM needs to work with the CHCO Council to analyze changes in government-wide data and the extent to which the seven special payment authorities are effective. We will update the status of actions to implement this recommendation as OPM provides any documentation responsive to it, as we requested in September 2019 and further coordinated with OPM in June 2020.

Recommendation: The Director of OPM, together with the CHCO Council, should provide guidance on assessing effectiveness and tools--such as best practices or frequently asked questions--for the range of Title 5 special payment authorities. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: OPM concurred with recommendation and said that by February 2019, it would (1) develop guidance on assessing the effectiveness for the range of Title 5 special payment authorities, and (2) work on any guidance or tools that the CHCO Council identifies that would improve their use of the special payment authorities. After our report was issued in December 2017, OPM also posted new templates on its website to help agencies provide required information and facilitate the request and approval process for waivers of the normal payment limitations on recruitment, relocation, and retention incentives. We will update the status of actions to implement this recommendation as OPM provides any documentation responsive to it, as we requested in September 2019 and further coordinated with OPM in June 2020.

Recommendation: The Director of OPM should establish documented procedures to assess special payment authority requests requiring OPM approval and periodically review approval procedures to consider ways to streamline them. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: OPM concurred with the recommendation and, in December 2018, provided documented procedures for reviewing agency requests to waive the normal payment limitations on recruitment, relocation, and retention incentives; and for reviewing agency requests for special rates and critical position pay. However, the procedures generally restated the types of information that agencies must submit and did not provide criteria to assess the information supporting requests. For example, the procedures for assessing special rates and critical position pay requests only referred to lists of required information items. Furthermore, the guidance on assessing agency requests to waive the normal payment limitations on recruitment, relocation, and retention incentives did not provide criteria, such as to assess the soundness of the methodology or reliability of underlying data for calculating payment amounts or the sufficiency of prior agency efforts to recruit and retain employees without having to resort to additional pay. Although the procedures documents OPM provided referred to periodic annual reviews of the procedures beginning in May 2019, the documents did not provide information on whether and how such reviews were to consider and identify ways to streamline the procedures. We will update the status of actions to implement this recommendation as OPM provides any additional documentation responsive to it, as we requested in September 2019 and further coordinated with OPM in June 2020.

Recommendation: The Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) should ensure that the CIO of OPM updates the agency's policy and process for the CIO's certification of major IT investments' adequate use of incremental development, in accordance with OMB's guidance on the implementation of FITARA, and confirm that it includes a description of the CIO's role in the certification process and a description of how CIO certification will be documented. (Recommendation 16)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) concurred with our recommendation and stated that it would update its policies and processes to include the elements we recommended. Specifically, OPM officials reported in November 2019 that guidance on CIO certification was being developed but the agency had not yet determined a time frame for finalizing the policy. We will continue to monitor OPM's progress on these efforts.

Recommendation: The Associate Director of Merit System Accountability and Compliance should ensure that OPM's finalized records schedule on retaining conversion case files specifically lists all documentation that must be saved in its case files. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: In response to our recommendation, OPM drafted a retention schedule for its pre-appointment review case files. As of June 2019, according to OPM, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) was in the process of reviewing the draft retention schedule. Once NARA approves and OPM finalizes the schedule, OPM will be better able to maintain complete documentation to justify conversion request decisions and ensure such documentation is available for subsequent review. On July 8, 2020, OPM informed us it is getting closer to fully responding to this recommendation and providing us with appropriate documentation to support is efforts.

Recommendation: To address demonstrated noncompliance with section 15(k) of the Small Business Act, as amended, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management should comply with sections 15(k)(2), (k)(8), and (k)(17) or report to Congress on why the agency has not complied, including seeking any statutory flexibilities or exceptions believed appropriate.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security, Energy, HHS, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and VA; the Attorney General of the United States; the Administrators of EPA, GSA, and SBA; the Director of OPM; and the Chairman of NRC should take action to, within existing OMB reporting mechanisms, complete plans describing how the agency will achieve OMB's requirement to implement automated monitoring tools at all agency-owned data centers by the end of fiscal year 2018.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) stated that it partially concurred with our recommendation and described plans to address it. Specifically, the agency stated that it plans to consolidate its remaining data centers into two main locations by the end of fiscal year 2018. OPM further stated that this consolidation will obviate the need to implement automated monitoring tools at the data centers that are closing. Finally, the agency noted that it is implementing automated monitoring tools at the designated core data centers. In November 2019, OPM reported that it had two agency-owned data centers that the agency planned to keep open. However, of those two data centers, only one had implemented the advanced monitoring tools. As of January 2020, we have not received a more recent update from the agency about how it will meet the Data Center Optimization Initiative requirement to implement monitoring tools at the remaining agency-owned data center. We will continue to monitor the status of this recommendation.

Recommendation: To further improve security over personnel and other sensitive information at the agency, the Acting Director of OPM should improve the timeliness of validating evidence associated with actions taken to address the US-CERT recommendations.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OPM partially concurred with the recommendation. OPM has improved its POA&M management system. Using this system, the agency provided, on 08-27-19, milestones showing timely validation of evidence for closing one US-CERT recommendation. However, OPM has not provided support showing timely validation of 16 other US-CERT recommendations that it has closed. OPM needs to provide evidence of timely validation of these 16 completed recommendations, or evidence for the two US-CERT recommendations that remain open, once these two have been closed and validated. As of March 2020, OPM has not yet provided evidence of taking such actions.

Recommendation: To further improve security over personnel and other sensitive information at the agency, the Acting Director of OPM should develop and implement role-based training requirements for staff using Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation tools.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OPM concurred with the recommendation. In December 2018, OPM stated that it is working with its learning management system vendor to develop role-based training requirements for its continuous monitoring program, but had not yet targeted an expected completion date. To fully implement the recommendation, OPM needs to issue role-based training requirements for individuals who configure and maintain the deployed continuous diagnostics and mitigation tools. As of March 2020, OPM has not yet provided evidence of taking such actions.

Recommendation: To provide additional guidance to agencies and encourage the elimination of barriers to increased telework opportunities consistent with the act, and to ensure the accuracy of telework information OPM annually reports to Congress, the Director of OPM should strengthen controls for reviewing, validating, and reporting telework data in annual Status of Telework in the Federal Government reports. Specifically, OPM should follow up with agency officials on data outliers, including significant changes in year-to-year data.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: In a letter dated May 16, 2017, the acting director stated that OPM did not agree with the recommendation. While OPM recognizes the importance of data accuracy to effectively evaluate federal telework programs, OPM does not agree that the Telework Enhancement Act imposes any obligation on OPM to allocate significant resources necessary to validate telework data collected from agencies or that a year-over-year comparison of survey data is needed or advantageous to ensuring a reasonable and rigorous data analysis. We agree that OPM should not independently validate agency data, but OPM should take the steps necessary to identify and explain data outliers and limitations. Because OPM is the agency responsible for reporting telework data, OPM should ensure its annual reports to Congress include a clear discussion of data reliability limitations. Following up on data outliers and large year-to-year changes can help OPM identify data errors that could be corrected by agencies and provide OPM with the opportunity to discuss data limitations with agencies. Including such information clearly in the annual telework reports to Congress can make them more useful to Congress and to others. As of January 2020, OPM has not taken action on this recommendation. If we confirm that OPM does take action in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: To support its strategic and open data goals, the Director of OPM should improve the availability of the EHRI payroll data--for example, by preparing the data for analytics, making them available through online tools such as FedScope, and including them among the EHRI data sources on the OPM website and Data.gov.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OPM agreed with the recommendation. In December 2018, OPM told us it will establish a plan to make payroll data available through analytical tools such as FedScope no later than the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2019. To fully implement the recommendation, OPM will need to improve the availability of payroll data-either from the existing EHRI system or the new employee digital record-by ensuring the data are prepared and made available for analytics research.

Recommendation: To improve internal controls for data quality, the Director of OPM should consistently monitor system-generated error and edit check reports and ensure that timely action is taken to address identified issues.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OPM agreed with the recommendation. In December 2018, OPM reported that it plans to begin follow-up efforts with agencies and shared service providers on payroll data errors and anomalies and to notify data providers of problems. To fully implement the recommendation, OPM will need to follow up with shared services centers and agencies regarding issues identified with the payroll data they submit to EHRI. These steps will help ensure the quality of historical and current payroll data. They will also ensure that system detected errors are resolved and do not compound over time.

Recommendation: To integrate the payroll data into the larger suite of EHRI databases, the Director of OPM should develop a schedule for executing these plans.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: OPM concurred with our recommendation, but has not yet developed a plan for integrating payroll into the larger suite of EHRI databases.

Recommendation: To integrate the payroll data into the larger suite of EHRI databases, the Director of OPM should evaluate existing internal control activities and develop new control activities for EHRI payroll data, such as implementing transactional edit checks that leverage the information in the other EHRI datasets.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: While OPM concurred with our recommendation, the agency has not evaluated or implemented, for Payroll data, the control activities and edit checks that are currently used to support the reliability of the other EHRI datasets.

Recommendation: To improve federal agencies' efforts to rationalize their portfolio of applications, the heads of the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, the Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, the Treasury, and Veterans Affairs; and heads of the Environmental Protection Agency; National Aeronautics and Space Administration; National Science Foundation; Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Office of Personnel Management; Small Business Administration; Social Security Administration; and U.S. Agency for International Development should direct their Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and other responsible officials to improve their inventories by taking steps to fully address the practices we identified as being partially met or not met.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: We reported that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) partially met the software application inventory practice to regularly update the inventory with quality controls to ensure reliability. In November 2016, OPM officials stated that they were validating the data in the application inventory. In addition, officials stated that they were making progress in using automated scanning tools to update the inventory, including coordinating with the General Services Administration's Software Management Group which is working to standardize the use of automated inventory tools across the government. In June 2017, November 2018, and November 2019, we followed up with OPM to obtain documentation of these reported actions; however, as of January 2020, the agency had not yet provided supporting documentation. We are continuing to follow up with OPM to obtain documentation of its reported actions.

Recommendation: To help strengthen the government's ability to compete in the labor market for top talent, and to improve the federal hiring process, the Director of OPM, in conjunction with the CHCO Council, should use this information to determine whether opportunities exist to refine, consolidate, eliminate, or expand agency-specific authorities to other agencies and implement changes where OPM is authorized, including seeking presidential authorization (as necessary) in order to do so. In cases where legislation would be necessary to implement changes, OPM should work with the CHCO Council to develop legislative proposals.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OPM agreed with this recommendation and has taken actions to address it since GAO's August 2016 report. In April 2019, OPM issued final regulations implementing changes to direct hire authority to provide certain agencies with the ability to hire urgently needed information technology professionals more quickly. It also plans to provide in-person support to the Chief Human Capital Office council, Chief Information Officers Council, and human resources professionals and managers on how to use this new authority. In its fiscal year 2021 Congressional Budget Justification released on February 10, 2020, OPM noted that it was seeking to improve hiring by using flexibilities that exist within current authority. These include, for example, noncompetitive term-limited appointments of highly qualified experts, expansion of term/temporary hiring authorities, and limited noncompetitive hiring of students and recent graduates. However, some of these plans were initially introduced in the prior year's justification and progress continues to be unclear. Additionally, OPM said that it is currently reassessing administration priorities and was unable to provide further updates. While OPM has made some progress in this area, it will be important for the agency to prioritize and follow through on its planned actions to streamline hiring authorities. Expanding access to hiring authorities found to be highly efficient and effective while eliminating those found to be less effective would help simplify and improve the federal hiring process.

Recommendation: To improve agency information security programs, Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management should provide and track specialized training for all individuals, including contractors, who have significant security responsibilities.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OPM partially agreed with this recommendation. In December 2018, OPM stated that it is working with its learning management system vendor to develop requirements, but had not yet targeted an expected completion date. To fully implement the recommendation, OPM needs to complete its efforts to ensure that it provides and tracks training for individuals with significant security responsibilities. As of March 2020, OPM has not provided evidence that it has completed these actions.

Recommendation: To provide greater assurance that the Interagency Rotation Program for national security personnel will be implemented as provided in section 1107 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, in collaboration with the Committee on National Security Personnel, should establish a clear leadership and oversight structure to guide future implementation efforts.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: OPM generally concurred with the recommendations, but raised issues primarily about the roles and responsibilities that GAO addresses in the report. As of November 2019, OPM has not taken any action on this recommendation.

Recommendation: To provide greater assurance that the Interagency Rotation Program for national security personnel will be implemented as provided in section 1107 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, in collaboration with the Committee on National Security Personnel, should work with the departments and agencies to identify and take action on necessary next steps to proceed with the program's implementation, including developing and issuing required guidance for implementation within identified timeframes.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: OPM generally concurred with the recommendations, but raised issues primarily about the roles and responsibilities that GAO addresses in the report. As of November 2019, OPM has not taken any action on this recommendation.

Recommendation: To improve the agency's IT savings reinvestment plans, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management should direct the CIO, as part of any future update to the agency's IRM strategic plan or equivalent document, to include information regarding the approach to reinvesting savings from the consolidation of commodity IT resources (including data centers) in accordance with OMB's guidance.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) agreed with our recommendation, but has not yet taken action to implement it. Specifically, in November 2015, OPM's Acting Director stated that information regarding the approach to reinvesting savings from the consolidation of commodity IT resources (including data centers) would be included in future updates to OPM's Strategic IT Plan. In August 2019, OPM's GAO liaison stated that the agency intended to update its Strategic IT Plan in fiscal year 2020 and intended to include reinvestment language as part of the update. However, as of May 2020, the agency had not yet updated its strategic plan to include this information. The agency expects to provide an update in June 2020. We will continue to evaluate the OPM's progress in implementing this recommendation.

Recommendation: To ensure that OPM builds the predictive capacity to identify emerging skills gaps across the government--including the ability to collect and use reliable information on the competencies of the federal workforce for government-wide workforce analysis--the Director of OPM should (1) establish a schedule specifying when OPM will modify its Enterprise Human Resources Integration database to capture staffing data that it currently collects from agencies through its annual workforce data reporting process; and (2) work with agency CHCOs to bolster the ability of agencies to assess workforce competencies by sharing competency surveys, lessons learned, and other tools and resources.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: Although OPM did not initially concur with this recommendation, OPM has taken actions towards addressing it by using the EHRI database, in combination with other sources, to generate workforce data to assist agencies in their efforts to identify skills gaps. In March 2019, OPM reported that it believed that collecting staffing gap targets through an alternative system, MAX Collect, would provide a more efficient and accurate means to collect workforce data than EHRI. In February 2020, OPM officials reported that it has used MAX Collect to address a portion of the recommendation by sharing lessons learned to close skills gaps. MAX Collect also stores and makes relevant tools and training available to users. However, OPM still needs to collect and store a consistent set of staffing and competency data. Without the collection and sharing of this data, OPM cannot perform valuable government-wide analysis to predict and address skills gaps in occupations affecting multiple agencies.

Recommendation: To help ensure that agencies report comparable and reliable data to Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI), the Director of OPM, in coordination with agencies and payroll service providers, should develop guidance for agencies on which activities to enter, or not enter, as paid administrative leave in agency time and attendance systems.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: To address agency use of paid administrative leave that may exceed reasonable amounts as well as discrepancies in recording and reporting paid administrative leave, in December 2016, Congress passed the "Administrative Leave Act of 2016." The act mandates new categories of paid leave, including "investigative leave," "notice leave," and "weather and safety leave" and sets limitations on the duration of paid administrative leave as well as the new categories of investigative and notice leave. The Act also requires OPM to establish regulations on (1) when to grant administrative leave and the other new categories of paid leave, and (2) the proper recording and reporting of these types of paid leave. In July 2017, OPM proposed new rules to regulate paid administrative leave, but has not finalized all these rules. In April 2018, OPM issued final regulations for "weather and safety leave" and announced that it would issue separate final regulations for "administrative leave," "investigative leave," and "notice leave" at a later date. In July 2019, OPM officials told us that they have not finalized the remaining regulations due to legal and practical concerns related to employees serving overseas. For example, the proposed rules could conflict with overseas personnel observing local holidays for security, diplomatic, and practical reasons. OPM also announced that it is reconvening its interagency working group for dismissal and closure procedures to update its "DC Dismissal and Closure Procedures" guidance to reflect the new "weather and safety leave" procedures. In addition, in response to our recommendation, in May 2015, OPM issued a fact sheet on administrative leave, which discusses the appropriate use of an agency's administrative leave authority, including a definition of administrative leave as well as applicable government-wide, individual agency, and emergency policies on the use of administrative leave. However, this fact sheet will need to be revised to reflect the newly issued regulations for "weather and safety leave" in addition to the regulations for the other categories of paid leave when they are in effect. Once all regulations are finalized, the proposed rules, along with updated fact sheet guidance, should help agencies and federal employees appropriately use, record, and report administrative leave. We will be contacting OPM to receive an update on the status of this recommendation once all the regulations are finalized and the fact sheet guidance is revised.

Recommendation: To help ensure that agencies report comparable and reliable data to EHRI, the Director of OPM, in coordination with agencies and payroll service providers, should provide updated and specific guidance to payroll service providers on which activities to report, or not report, to the paid administrative leave data element in EHRI.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: To address agency use of paid administrative leave that may exceed reasonable amounts as well as discrepancies in recording and reporting paid administrative leave, in December 2016, Congress passed the "Administrative Leave Act of 2016." The act mandates new categories of paid leave, including "investigative leave," "notice leave," and "weather and safety leave" and sets limitations on the duration of paid administrative leave as well as the new categories of investigative and notice leave. The Act also requires OPM to establish regulations on (1) when to grant administrative leave and the other new categories of paid leave, and (2) the proper recording and reporting of these types of paid leave. In July 2017, OPM proposed new rules to regulate paid administrative leave, but has not finalized all these rules. In April 2018, OPM issued final regulations for "weather and safety leave" and announced that it would issue separate final regulations for "administrative leave," "investigative leave," and "notice leave" at a later date. To accompany the final regulations for "weather and safety leave," OPM issued two new data standards for agencies to report Paid Holiday Time Off and Weather and Safety Leave Hours Used that became effective in May 2018. Also, in November 2018, OPM released an update to its "DC Dismissal and Closure Procedures" guidance to reflect the new "weather and safety leave" procedures. Once all regulations are finalized, the proposed rules, along with updated guidance to payroll providers for reporting paid administrative leave and the new leave categories, should help agencies report comparable and reliable data to EHRI. We will be contacting OPM to receive an update on the status of this recommendation once the regulations are finalized and the guidance is revised.

Recommendation: To improve the classification system and to strengthen OPM's management and oversight, the Director of OPM, working through the Chief Human Capital Officer Council, and in conjunction with key stakeholders such as the Office of Management and Budget, unions, and others, should use prior studies and lessons learned from demonstration projects and alternative systems to examine ways to make the GS system's design and implementation more consistent with the attributes of a modern, effective classification system. To the extent warranted, develop a legislative proposal for congressional consideration.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: In January 2020, OPM told us that it continues to concur with GAO's recommendation, however, in order to pursue examining such changes, OPM would need to be appropriately resourced. OPM reported that during 2019, it began studies to identify challenges agencies may experience with implementing OPM-issued classification standards. OPM believe this information, in addition to other prior studies and lessons learned, would help inform the examination going forward at a point in time OPM is resourced to do so. OPM reported it has continued to review and update individual series, despite broader efforts to evaluate the GS system as a whole. To fully implement the recommendation, OPM still needs to work in conjunction with key stakeholders such as OMB and unions; complete its review of studies and lessons learned; and if warranted, develop a legislative proposal to make the GS system's design and implementation more consistent with the attributes of a modern, effective classification system.

Recommendation: To improve the classification system and to strengthen OPM's management and oversight, the Director of OPM should develop cost-effective mechanisms to oversee agency implementation of the classification system as required by law, and develop a strategy that will enable OPM to more effectively and routinely monitor agencies' implementation of classification standards.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: In September 2018, OPM reported that it is active in monitoring oversight of classification policy and in issuing classification appeals decisions. However, OPM has experienced staff turnover in the past several months, resulting in the need for key subject matter experts to reconsider the actions proposed in this recommendation. OPM plans to provide GAO with an additional status update at the end of 2018. We will continue to monitor the steps OPM is taking to address this recommendation. GAO reached out to the agency in November 2019 and January 2020 and have yet to receive an update. GAO will continue to monitor the progress.

Recommendation: To ensure the effective management of software licenses, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management should develop an agency-wide comprehensive policy for the management of software licenses that addresses the weaknesses we identified

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of Personnel Management concurred with this recommendation and in September 2015, reported that it had developed a guide to capture enterprise architecture lifecycle activities including software licensing management, acquisition, and requirements during several points of the project lifecycle. In April 2018, the office reported they have no changes to the status of this recommendation, but expect substantive updates later this year. We will continue to monitor its progress in implementing this recommendation.

Recommendation: To ensure the effective management of software licenses, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management should employ a centralized software license management approach that is coordinated and integrated with key personnel for the majority of agency software license spending and/or enterprise-wide licenses.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) concurred with this recommendation and in September 2015 reported that it is finalizing a revised Life Cycle Management draft policy which will use stage gate reviews to evaluate the progress of projects including software licenses throughout the agency. According to OPM, once the new policy is approved, OPM subject matter experts will review project documentation during stage gates reviews to make written recommendations on whether projects should continue. OPM's Investment Review Board will then review that recommendation and other procurement documentation to make a final recommendation to the OPM Director. In April 2018, OPM reported they have no changes to the status of this recommendation, but expect substantive updates later this year. We plan to continue to monitor its progress in implementing this recommendation.

Recommendation: To ensure the effective management of software licenses, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management should establish a comprehensive inventory of software licenses using automated tools for the majority of agency software license spending and/or enterprise-wide licenses.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) concurred with this recommendation and in September 2015 OPM reported that it acquired an enterprise architecture repository tool and is collecting information on its software applications. OPM also reported that it is assembling and performing quality reviews on hardware and software lists currently maintained in spreadsheets, in its enterprise architecture systems database, and Remedy database in order to consolidate the entire hardware and software asset inventory. In April 2018, OPM reported they have no changes to the status of this recommendation, but expect substantive updates later this year. We will continue to monitor its progress in implementing this recommendation.

Recommendation: To ensure the effective management of software licenses, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management should regularly track and maintain a comprehensive inventory of software licenses using automated tools and metrics.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) concurred with this recommendation and in September 2015 OPM reported that it acquired an enterprise architecture repository tool and is collecting information on its software applications. In April 2018, OPM reported they have no changes to the status of this recommendation. We will continue to monitor its progress in implementing this recommendation.

Recommendation: To ensure the effective management of software licenses, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management should analyze agency-wide software license data, such as costs, benefits, usage, and trending data, to identify opportunities to reduce costs and better inform investment decision making.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) concurred with our recommendations and noted actions the agency plans to take. In April 2018, OPM reported they have no changes to the status of this recommendation. We will continue to monitor its progress in implementing this recommendation.

Recommendation: To ensure the effective management of software licenses, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management should provide software license management training to appropriate agency personnel addressing contract terms and conditions, negotiations, laws and regulations, acquisition, security planning, and configuration management.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of Personnel Management concurred with our recommendations and noted actions the agency plans to take. In April 2018, OPM reported they have no changes to the status of this recommendation. We will continue to monitor its progress in implementing this recommendation.

Recommendation: To improve the agency's implementation of PortfolioStat, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management should direct the CIO to develop a complete commodity IT baseline.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: In February 2020, OPM stated that it was developing a service catalog with cost information and allocation components which together with the agency's software inventory would be used for cost avoidance moving forward. However, OPM did not provide supporting documentation. In addition, it was not clear whether the service catalog and software inventory would together include enterprise IT, IT infrastructure, and business systems, the three categories of IT assets that comprise a commodity IT baseline. We will continue to monitor OPM's efforts to address the recommendation.

Recommendation: To improve the agency's implementation of PortfolioStat, in future reporting to OMB, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management should direct the CIO to fully describe the following PortfolioStat action plan elements: (1) move at least two commodity IT areas to shared services and (2) target duplicative systems or contracts that support common business functions for consolidation.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: In October 2018, OPM provided evidence that it had addressed the action plan element regarding the migration of two commodity IT areas to shared services. Specifically, OPM provided an August 2016 interagency agreement showing plans to migrate its financial management system to a shared service and a May 2018 interagency agreement showing plans to migrate its human resources and time and attendance system to a shared service. However, the interagency agreements were not signed. Regarding the action plan element to target duplicative systems or contracts that support common business functions for consolidation, OPM stated did that it had targeted laptops and mobile phones for consolidation. In addition, OPM did not provide any evidence of reporting to OMB for either action plan element. In February 2020, OPM stated that, in addition to entering into an interagency agreement for its financial management system and consolidating the procurement of agency-wide laptops and cellphones using an enterprise wide contract, it was also working to close two of its five major data centers to consolidate to three. OPM said that it was gathering the documentation to support its claims.

Recommendation: To improve the agency's implementation of PortfolioStat, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management should direct the CIO to report on the agency's progress in consolidating the help desk consolidation and IT asset inventory to shared services as part of the OMB integrated data collection quarterly reporting until completed.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: In February 2020, OPM stated that its IT help desk function had become a shared service starting in October 2019. However, OPM did not provide supporting documentation. In addition, OPM stated it did not have any updates on the IT asset inventory. We will continue to monitor the agency's efforts to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: To enhance federal agencies' ability to realize enterprise architecture benefits, the Secretaries of the Departments of Agriculture, the Air Force, the Army, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Homeland Security, the Interior, Labor, the Navy, State, Transportation, the Treasury, and Veterans Affairs; the Attorney General; the Administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency, General Services Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Small Business Administration; the Commissioners of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Social Security Administration; and the Directors of the National Science Foundation and the Office of Personnel Management should fully establish an approach for measuring enterprise architecture outcomes, including a documented method (i.e., steps to be followed) and metrics that are measurable, meaningful, repeatable, consistent, actionable, and aligned with the agency's enterprise architecture's strategic goals and intended purpose.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: In February 2020, a Senior Analyst in the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) Office of Internal Oversight and Compliance stated that, as of January 2020, OPM's Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) had established an approach for developing an enterprise architecture. The liaison also stated that, since May 2019, the office of the CIO had established bi-weekly checkpoints with leadership and stakeholders to monitor and report progress and to document established metrics. However, the agency has not demonstrated that it has established a documented method and metrics for measuring enterprise architecture outcomes.

Recommendation: To enhance federal agencies' ability to realize enterprise architecture benefits, the Secretaries of the Departments of Agriculture, the Air Force, the Army, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Homeland Security, the Interior, Labor, the Navy, State, Transportation, the Treasury, and Veterans Affairs; the Attorney General; the Administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency, General Services Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Small Business Administration; the Commissioners of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Social Security Administration; and the Directors of the National Science Foundation and the Office of Personnel Management should periodically measure and report enterprise architecture outcomes and benefits to top agency officials (i.e., executives with authority to commit resources or make changes to the program) and to OMB.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: In February 2020, a Senior Analyst in the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) Office of Internal Oversight and Compliance stated that, as of January 2020, OPM's Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) had established an approach for developing an enterprise architecture. The liaison also stated that, since May 2019, the office of the CIO had established bi-weekly checkpoints with leadership and stakeholders to monitor and report progress and to document established metrics. However, the agency has not provided documentation demonstrating that it has measured and reported enterprise architecture outcomes.

Recommendation: To improve federal training investment decision-making processes, the Director of OPM should include in existing or new OPM guidance or technical assistance additional information in the following areas: (1) Steps agencies should take and factors they should consider when prioritizing federal training investments agency-wide, including developing a process to rank training using criteria, such as expected demand for the investment from internal sources, availability of resources to support the effort, potential for increased revenue, and risk of unfavorable consequences if investments are not made. (2) Steps agencies should take and factors they should consider for comparing the merits of different delivery mechanisms and determining the mix of mechanisms to use, in order to ensure efficient and cost-effective delivery of federal training. Such guidance could include requesting that agencies consistently utilize Standard Form-182 to document and report training costs associated with the different delivery mechanisms employed.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: On July 19, 2017, OPM officials provided a document that summarized efforts that are underway to address the recommendation. According to the document, proposed changes/recommendations to training elements and to the SF-182 were presented to the Chief Learning Officers Council at their monthly meeting on June 19, 2017. According to OPM, its ongoing connection with the CLO Council will include gathering information through focus groups in the Fall of 2017 on agencies' talent development processes, tools, and procedures. Questions on how an agency prioritizes training and tools used to do so will be included. OPM says it will use information gathered to develop criteria for ranking training. OPM provided a sample training summary it prepares for each agency. The summary contains a section on utilization of learning by source type and utilization of learning by delivery method. These sections also contain data that can be used when comparing the merits of different delivery mechanisms and determining future use. On June 11, 2020, OPM told us that program officials are gathering support for its implementation of the recommendation and would soon provide that information to GAO.

Recommendation: To improve federal training investment decision-making processes, the Director of OPM should, in line with statutory and regulatory provisions on maintenance and reporting of training information, work with the CHCO Council to improve the reliability of agency training investment information by: (1) ensuring that agencies are familiar with and follow guidance outlined in OPM's Guide for the Collection and Management of Training Information regarding which training events should be documented as training and reported to OPM; (2) developing policies to strengthen the utilization of Standard Form- 182 to document and report training costs; (3) encouraging agencies through guidance and technical assistance, to develop policies that require consistent reporting of training data to their learning management systems; and (4) encouraging each agency to assess its existing training information system(s) and identify whether it is providing complete and reliable data and, if not, to develop approaches to improve the system(s), in order to do so.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: On July 19, 2017 OPM provided a document that summarized efforts that are underway to address the recommendation. According to the document, OPM provided a refresher to the Chief Learning Officers Council on OPM's guidance on Reporting of Training Data. This included reviewing OPM's and agencies' responsibilities for the collection and reporting of data and reviewing the process of how agency data is transmitted to EHRI. Further, OPM says it highlighted the Guide to Human Resources Reporting as the source for the required format for reporting training data to EHRI and provided the Guide for Collection and Management of Training Information. Both guides are also located on OPM's website. OPM's training data report summaries encourage agencies to review their data, to check for submission errors and consistencies in reporting, and to validate that all training events are included. OPM reported that 3 CHCO agencies that did not submit any data for FY 14 submitted data for FY 15 and that EHRI is assisting agencies with data quality transmission and PII issues. On June 11, 2020, OPM told us that program officials are gathering support for its implementation of the recommendation and would soon provide that information to GAO.