Recommendation: The Director of BOP should conduct an analysis, using available incident and cost data, and other information as appropriate, to determine if the current decision to not issue pepper spray to minimum security prisons should remain in effect. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Justice: Bureau of Prisons
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 IHS should obtain, on an agency-wide basis, information on temporary provider contractors, including their associated cost and number of full-time equivalents, and use this information to inform decisions about resource allocation and provider staffing. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Indian Health Service
Status: Open

Comments: In February 2020, IHS reported that challenges in rolling-up contractor information on a national level stem from the fact that the agency often uses single contract vehicles, such as staffing companies, to hire multiple providers for temporary periods of time. IHS's contract databases do not centrally track the numbers of individual providers through such staffing contracts. The ability to analyze and compare detailed actual costs of federal hires vs. contract hires is currently limited to local information sources and on a narrow area of focus, such as one provider category or one facility at a time. IHS reported that the agency is implementing a monthly reporting requirement for IHS Areas and plans to use this information to inform decisions about resource allocation and provider staffing. We will review these reporting requirements when they have been fully implemented.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Commandant of the Marine Corps develops and implements mechanisms to consistently capture information on pilots' post-service employment, including the number of those going to the commercial airlines, such as through revising existing exit surveys, or working in coordination with the National Pilot Sourcing Forum specifically to monitor commercial airline hiring to supplement the information DOD collects. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation. As of April 2020, this recommendation remains open.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Secretary of the Air Force analyzes staffing levels by officer grade for each pilot community as part of its annual business case for aviation retention bonus payments to help ensure that aviation retention bonuses are targeted to the appropriate pilot communities. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: DOD concurred with this recommendation. As of April 2020, DOD officials stated that the Air Force plans to make changes to its upcoming business case analysis to break out control grade from field grade officers to better delineate the staffing challenges it faces as well as the targeted effect of aviation bonus offerings. Officials stated that this change is part of an ongoing study with RAND that should be completed in early summer 2020.

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.