Personnel Practices: Monetary Awards Provided to Political	 
Appointees (14-SEP-01, GAO-01-1081R).				 
								 
The federal government runs an incentive awards program,	 
consisting of monetary and nonmonetary awards, to recognize	 
individual employees or teams for outstanding contributions that 
enhance government operations. Congress has placed prohibitions  
on cash awards to political appointees. Overall, 32 of the 46	 
agencies reported that 297 political appointees received 373	 
monetary awards from September 1999 through April 2001. The	 
remaining 14 agencies reported that they did not provide any	 
awards to political appointees during that period. Political	 
appointees in each of the government's pay groups received both  
monetary and time-off awards less frequently than did regular	 
federal employees, but at a larger mean dollar value. The mean	 
dollar value of all monetary awards to political appointees	 
exceeded that of awards to regular federal employees. The number,
rates, and mean dollar value of awards to political and regular  
federal employees also varied by type of award. Individual	 
political appointees and regular federal employees often received
more than one award. Agencies reported that 46 political	 
appointees, or about 17 percent of the appointees who received	 
monetary awards, received multiple awards from September 1999,	 
through May 2000. Six departments--the Departments of		 
Agriculture, Energy, Labor, State, Treasury, and Veterans	 
Affairs--gave out 15 cash awards totaling $38,149 to 14 political
appointees during the moratorium. Agency officials said that	 
these awards were made in error and that they had rescinded all  
of them and had recovered, or were in the process of recovering, 
the money. GAO did not identify any instances that violated the  
prohibition of cash awards to presidential appointees.		 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-01-1081R					        
    ACCNO:   A01845						        
  TITLE:     Personnel Practices: Monetary Awards Provided to	      
Political Appointees						 
     DATE:   09/14/2001 
  SUBJECT:   Government job appointments			 
	     Awards						 
	     Employee incentives				 
	     Federal Incentive Awards Program			 

******************************************************************
** This file contains an ASCII representation of the text of a  **
** GAO Testimony.                                               **
**                                                              **
** No attempt has been made to display graphic images, although **
** figure captions are reproduced.  Tables are included, but    **
** may not resemble those in the printed version.               **
**                                                              **
** Please see the PDF (Portable Document Format) file, when     **
** available, for a complete electronic file of the printed     **
** document's contents.                                         **
**                                                              **
******************************************************************
GAO-01-1081R

Monetary Awards for Political Appointees

United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548

September 14, 2001 The Honorable Christopher S. Bond Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Small Business

and Entrepreneurship United States Senate

The Honorable Dave Weldon Chairman, Subcommittee on Civil Service

and Agency Organization Committee on Government Reform House of
Representatives

Subject: Personnel Practices: Monetary Awards Provided to Political
Appointees As part of its human capital management, the federal government
administers an incentive awards program, consisting of monetary and
nonmonetary (letters of appreciation, for example) awards, to recognize
individual employees or groups of employees for especially significant
performance and contributions that enhance government operations and
programs. However, Congress has placed various prohibitions on cash awards
to political appointees, in contrast to regular federal employees. 1 A 1994
law, for example, prohibits certain appointees, such as political appointees
in Senior Executive Service (noncareer SES) and Schedule C positions, from
receiving cash and time- off awards during presidential election periods for
superior accomplishments. 2 The law defines a presidential election period
as beginning on June 1 of the election year and ending on the following
January 20. Federal law also prohibits the payment of cash awards at any
time to presidential appointees who are confirmed by the Senate and who are
paid either under the Executive Schedule pay plan or occupy a position for
which the compensation is set by reference to the Executive Schedule pay
rates. 3

You asked us to monitor selected types of awards given to political
appointees and provide information about two topics. One, you asked us to
provide information on the number and types of monetary and time- off awards
provided to political appointees during the period September 1, 1999,
through April 30, 2001, and how that compared to awards provided to

1 As used in this report, political appointees are defined as those who
obtained noncareer appointments to the Senior Executive Service (SES);
limited term and limited emergency SES appointments; and presidential
appointees, including executive- level appointees and noncareer ambassadors.
We also included appointees serving under Schedule C appointments. 2 5 U. S.
C. 4508

3 5 U. S. C. 4509

GAO- 01- 1081R Monetary Awards for Political Appointees Page 2 regular
federal employees. And two, you asked us to report any violation of the
prohibitions

against awarding cash awards to political and other noncareer employees.
This report responds to your request. In doing this work, we asked 46
agencies to report on awards given to political appointees for the period
September 1, 1999, through April 30, 2001. From the Office of Personnel
Management?s (OPM) Central Personnel Data File (CPDF) we obtained data on
awards provided to regular federal employees from September 1, 1999, through
May 31, 2000, and we compared that data to political appointee award data
provided by the 46 agencies for the same time period. We restricted our
comparative analysis to this period in recognition of the moratorium on
awards to political appointees. Also, because the likelihood of receiving an
award and the dollar value of awards received varied for different pay
levels, we grouped and compared political appointees and regular federal
employees by pay levels. We combined executive- level employees, SES, and
Senior Level and equivalent employees in one group. We combined GS- 13
through GS- 15 and equivalent employees in a second group and employees and
equivalents at the GS- 12 level and below in a third group. Employees below
GS- 4 were excluded because there were no political appointees for
comparison below GS- 4.

The type of incentive awards we included were (1) performance awards, (2)
suggestion awards, (3) special act or service awards, (4) time- off awards,
(5) gainsharing awards, and (6) quality step increases. We also asked
agencies to report on retention allowances (i. e., an allowance of up to 25
percent of base pay used to retain employees that have unusually high or
unique qualifications). A more detailed description of our scope and
methodology is presented later in this letter.

Results

In total, 32 of the 46 agencies reported that 297 political appointees
received 373 monetary awards during the 20- month period of September 1,
1999, through April 30, 2001. The remaining 14 agencies reported that they
did not provide any awards to political appointees during that period. On
average, about 12 out of every 100 political appointees in the 46 agencies
received one or more awards during the period, with the mean dollar value of
$2,252. Enclosure I provides a list of the number of political appointees
who received awards and the number of awards they received, as reported by
the agencies, and their mean dollar value.

The table below shows a comparison of the number of awards, rate per 100
employees, and mean dollar value of awards granted to political appointees
and to regular federal employees during the 9- month period September 1,
1999, through May 31, 2000, grouped by grade ranges. We limited our analysis
to this period (rather than the full 20- month period covered by our review)
in recognition of the moratorium on providing certain cash awards to
political appointees and other noncareer employees during the presidential
election period of June 1, 2000, through January 20, 2001.

GAO- 01- 1081R Monetary Awards for Political Appointees Page 3

Table 1: Total Number, Rates, and Mean Dollar Value of Awards Given to
Political Appointees and Regular Federal Employees from September 1999
Through May 2000 in 46 Agencies

Number of awards Rate of awards per 100 Mean dollar value of awards Type of
award Political

appointees a Regular

federal employees a

Political appointees b

Regular federal employees b

Political appointees

Regular federal employees

32 4,017 3.5 41.3 $5,153 $2,643 124 296,610 15.1 114.0 2, 316 1,119 88
787,245 34.2 84.2 1, 441 599 Monetary

SES- EX- SL GS13- GS15 GS4- GS12 All employees 244 1,087,872 12.3 90.3
$2,373 $748

6 629 .7 6.5 35 hrs $2,071 19

hrs $1,107 61 35,412 7.4 13.6 24

hrs 953 16 hrs 602

11 168,084 4.3 18.0 15 hrs 350 14

hrs 272 Time- off

SES- EX- SL GS13- GS15 GS4- GS12 All employees 78 204,125 3.9 16.9 23

hrs $954 14 hrs $331

38 4,646 4.2 47.8 $4,666 $2,435 185 332,022 22.5 127.6 1, 867 1,064 99
955,329 38.5 102.2 1, 320 541 All awards

SES- EX- SL GS13- GS15 GS4- GS12 All employees 322 1,291,997 16.2 107.2
$2,029 $682

a The number of awards granted include multiple awards to some employees
during the period. b The rate of awards per 100 employees includes multiple
awards granted to some employees during the period. Because

multiple awards to the same individual are included, the rate per 100
employees is not equivalent to the percentage of staff who received an
award; the rate per 100 is higher than the percentage that received an
award.

As shown, political appointees in each of the pay groups received both
monetary and time- off awards less frequently than regular federal
employees, but at a larger mean dollar value. For example, in total,
political appointees received monetary awards at the rate of about 12 per
100 political appointees compared to about 90 awards per every 100 regular
federal employees. The mean dollar value of all monetary awards to political
appointees ($ 2, 373) exceeded that of awards to regular federal employees
($ 748). The frequency and rate of awards, as well as mean dollar value, for
both political and regular federal employees varied across the grade- level
groupings of employees.

The number, rates, and mean dollar value of awards to political and regular
federal employees also varied by type of award. (See enclosure II.) With the
exception of quality step increases, the pattern of political appointees
receiving awards less frequently than regular federal employees also appears
in this breakdown. In total, political appointees received quality step
increases at more than twice the rate for regular federal employees. OPM
officials suggested that a reason for this is most likely the fact that the
previous Administration issued guidance that agencies should ?refrain from
giving cash awards to political appointees paid a salary level that exceeds
that of a GS- 12 . . . .? Quality step

GAO- 01- 1081R Monetary Awards for Political Appointees Page 4 increases are
not lump- sum cash awards, but rather additions to basic pay. For each type
of

award, however, the mean dollar value of awards to political appointees was
higher than that for regular federal employees.

Individual political appointees and regular federal employees often received
more than one award. Agencies reported that 46 political appointees, or
about 17 percent of the appointees who received monetary awards, received
multiple awards during the period September 1, 1999, through May 31, 2000.
According to CPDF data, 410,000 individuals, or about 42 percent of regular
federal employees who received an award, received more than one award during
fiscal year 2000.

We also asked agencies to report retention allowances provided to political
appointees during the period September 1, 1999, through April 30, 2001.
Three agencies reported initiating three retention allowances worth an
annual mean dollar value of $22,028 during this period. Comparable data for
regular federal employees are not readily available from the CPDF because
that database does not distinguish whether the personnel action was for an
initial retention allowance or a change in the amount of an existing
allowance. Governmentwide CPDF data show, however, that 4,136 regular
federal employees were receiving retention allowances worth an annual mean
dollar value of $10,040 as of September 30, 2000.

In February 2000, OPM reminded agencies that they could not give cash or
time- off awards to noncareer SES, Schedule C, and certain other employees
during a presidential election period, which is defined as the period from
June 1 of any year with a presidential election through the following
January 20. We found that six departments- the Departments of Agriculture,
Energy, Labor, State, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs- gave out 15 cash
awards totaling $38,149 to 14 political appointees during the moratorium.
Agency officials reported that these awards were made in error and that they
had rescinded all of the awards and recovered the money or were in the
process of recovering it. We did not identify any instances that violated
the prohibition of cash awards to presidential appointees. 4

Background

The federal government?s Incentive Awards Program was established to provide
employees with special recognition for performance excellence and
creativity. Individual employees or groups of employees may earn a cash or
noncash award for overall high- level performance, a suggestion, an
invention, or a special act or service. An employee may be named ?employee

of the month? for example, or a group of employees may be honored for
suggesting ways to simplify procedures or processes.

Awards can take several forms. The heads of agencies may approve cash awards
of up to $10,000. Cash awards over $10,000 are generally subject to OPM
approval, and cash awards over $25,000 require approval by the President.
Types of cash awards include:

Performance Rating- Based Cash Awards- Cash awards based on overall high-
level performance as evidenced by a current performance rating of record.

4 The Department of Labor reported giving an SES performance award to a
presidential appointee in December 2000. The individual had been a career
SES employee at the time of his appointment and had elected to be paid at
the SES rate of pay and to continue to be covered by the SES Performance
Award system. He was eligible to make this election based upon 5 U. S. C.
3392 (c).

GAO- 01- 1081R Monetary Awards for Political Appointees Page 5 Special Act
or Service Award- Cash awards for contributions such as work on a special

project, performance exceeding job requirements on a particular assignment
or task, or a scientific achievement.

Suggestion awards- Cash or other forms of recognition to employees for ideas
that improve operations and services to the public.

Gainsharing awards- any of a variety of wage payment methods in which the
worker receives additional earnings due to increases in agency productivity.

Agencies also use other types of award incentives. Agencies may award an
employee with a quality step increase (i. e., a one- step increase to base
pay within a General Schedule grade) to recognize an employee in the General
Schedule who received a performance rating of record at the highest summary
level. Also, agencies can grant time off from work without charge to leave
or loss of pay to recognize some aspect of good job performance. Other types
of incentive awards include nonmonetary items such as plaques, certificates
of appreciation, and trophies.

Although not part of the incentive awards program, agencies may also pay a
retention allowance of up to 25 percent of base pay to an employee who has
unusually high or unique qualifications or where the special needs of the
agency for that person?s services make it essential that the employee be
retained.

While incentive awards may generally be given to any employee, there are
some exceptions to the availability of monetary awards to political
appointees. Because political SES appointees are not career employees, they
are not eligible to receive performance ratingbased cash awards. In
contrast, a career SES member whose annual job performance rating is ?fully
successful? or better may receive a performance rating- based cash award in
a lumpsum payment of between 5 percent and 20 percent of base pay. Agency
discretion regarding performance awards is exercised in accordance with 5 C.
F. R. 534.403( b). This section of the regulation establishes requirements
under which SES performance award (bonus) pools are established. The total
amount of performance awards paid by an agency in a fiscal year may not
exceed 10 percent of the aggregate SES base pay of career executives on the
rolls at the end of the previous fiscal year, or 20 percent of the average
rate of annual basic pay for career SES appointees at the end of the prior
fiscal year.

In addition, a 1994 act prohibits giving cash awards at any time to
individuals whom the President appoints with the advice and consent of the
Presidential Appointment with Senate confirmation (PAS) and who are paid
under the Executive Schedule pay plan. PAS employees who are career SES
employees at the time of their appointment may elect to be paid at the SES
rate of pay and continue to be covered by the SES performance award system.
Such employees may continue to get cash awards even during a Presidential
election period. Also, section 4508 of title 5, United States Code,
prohibits Senior Executive Service employees who are not career appointees,
and employees in confidential or policydetermining Schedule C positions,
from receiving awards - - either cash or time- off - - during a presidential
election period. The statute defines the presidential election period as,
?any

period beginning on June 1 in a calendar year in which the popular election
of the President occurs, and ending on January 20 following the date of such
election.? The latest presidential election period began on June 1, 2000,
and ended on January 20, 2001. The prohibition does not cover quality step
increases or retention allowances.

GAO- 01- 1081R Monetary Awards for Political Appointees Page 6

Agency Comments

The Director of OPM provided written comments on a draft of this report in a
letter dated September 7, 2001. (See enclosure III.) The Director expressed
concern that the report mixes different types of awards and data - - for
example that we mix awards granted under different chapters of title 5,
United States Code; that we use cash basis reporting for awards given in the
form of both cash and time off; and that we include awards given in lump
sums as well as quality step increases - - and that this may result in
readers reaching inappropriate conclusions.

We do not agree. One of our objectives, as agreed with our requesters, was
to report on selected types of awards. Further, the report clearly specifies
the types of awards discussed and identifies them by category, as well as in
the aggregate. In discussing our methodology, we explain how the dollar
value of quality step increases and time off awards was calculated. Further,
in the case of time- off awards, we identify both the mean number of hours
granted and the mean dollar value of those hours based on the employees?
reported salaries. We did not draw any conclusions in the report and it is
not clear from the Director?s letter what inappropriate conclusions a reader
might draw.

The Director also said that it was inappropriate for us to characterize SES
limited term and limited emergency appointees as political appointees,
because most SES limited appointees are appointed from career or career-
type appointments and are serving on special short- term projects.

We recognize that OPM has not traditionally viewed such appointments as
being political appointments. However, as the Director recognizes in her
letter, both SES limited term and limited emergency appointees are included
in the definition under section 4508 of title 5,

United States Code, which prohibits awards during a presidential election
period to any

?senior politically appointed officer.? Because our requesters specifically
asked that our report indicate whether we found any violations of this
statutory provision, we believe it was necessary and appropriate to include
both SES limited term appointments and limited emergency appointees.

Scope and Methodology

To determine the number and types of monetary and other awards provided to
political appointees from September 1, 1999, through April 30, 2001, we sent
a form we had developed to collect information on each award to the
personnel offices of 46 federal agencies. We asked them to send us a
completed form each month for each political appointee who received a (1)
performance award, (2) suggestion award, (3) special act or service award,
(4) time- off award, (5) gainsharing award, or (6) quality step increase. We
also asked agencies to report on retention allowances awarded during this
time period. While retention allowances are discussed in the text, those
amounts are not included in our tables. We also asked each agency to submit
a negative report for the month if no awards had been made to political
appointees. We selected the agencies on the following bases: (1) all
cabinet- level departments and agencies, (2) departments and agencies that
had at least 50 political appointees on their roles as of September 30,
1999, (3) agencies that had oversight or other regulatory responsibilities
for federal workforce issues, and (4) agencies of particular interest to the
congressional requesters of this review. (See enclosure I.)

In completing the data collection form, we asked personnel offices to
provide information such as the name of the political appointee who received
the award, the appointee?s grade and salary at the time of the award, and
the type of award and date given. We also asked the

GAO- 01- 1081R Monetary Awards for Political Appointees Page 7 personnel
offices to provide the dollar value of all cash awards and retention
allowances.

For time- off awards, we asked that the number of hours off be reported. We
then calculated the dollar value based on the appointee?s salary. We also
calculated the dollar value of quality step increase awards based on the
appointee?s basic pay provided by the agencies. We also instructed agencies
to submit a copy of the completed personnel action form used to make the
award.

For the purposes of our work we defined political appointees as those
appointees who were serving under the following appointments at the time
they received an award:

! Schedule C appointments;

! noncareer SES, including limited term SES and limited emergency SES
appointments; and

! presidential appointees, including executive level appointees and
noncareer ambassadors. Our review included agencies with about 85 percent of
political appointees in OPM?s CPDF. As of September 30, 1999, there were
over 3,000 political appointees governmentwide.

Schedule C, noncareer SES, and presidential appointees are appointed by an
administration to support and advocate the President?s goals and policies.
Schedule C appointees generally receive noncompetitive appointments to
excepted service positions graded GS- 15 and below that involve determining
policy or that require a close, confidential relationship with the agency
head or other key officials of the agency. Noncareer SES appointees are
noncompetitively appointed to SES positions that normally involve
advocating, formulating, and directing the programs and policies of the
Administration. Limited term SES appointments are time- limited,
nonrenewable appointments for up to 3 years. These appointments can be made
noncompetitively. Limited emergency SES appointments are also made
noncompetitively and the appointees serve at the pleasure of the agency
head. We included limited term and limited emergency SES appointments
because they are noncareer appointments and are also subject to the
moratorium on monetary awards during a presidential election year.

To analyze the frequency rate per 100 employees and mean dollar values of
awards granted to political appointees in comparison with regular federal
employees, we developed comparable information from OPM?s CPDF for the
regular employees. We restricted our definition of

?regular federal employee? to mean those employees in the 46 agencies
covered by this review who were in the competitive, excepted, or Senior
Executive services who were not political appointees. We included career,
term, and temporary employees in any work schedule provided they were
salaried employees (thus excluding wage scale employees). We included term
and temporary employees because they are eligible to receive, and did
receive, the types of awards we reviewed.

Our analysis covered the period September 1, 1999, through May 31, 2000. We
excluded the June 1, 2000, through January 20, 2001, time frame because that
was the period of the presidential election year moratorium on granting cash
awards to certain political and other noncareer employees (15 awards were
made to 14 political appointees during this period). Further, CPDF data were
not available through April 30, 2001, when we performed our analyses. By
excluding the period January 21, 2001, through April 30, 2001, our analysis
excluded 15 awards granted to political appointees, as reported to us by the
agencies.

We compared the rate of awards and the mean dollar value of awards given
political appointees to those given regular federal employees in the 46
agencies included in this review. We further limited the career employees to
those in the same grades (there were no

GAO- 01- 1081R Monetary Awards for Political Appointees Page 8 political
appointees with a GS grade below GS- 4) as those for the political
appointees. 5 When

a person was in a pay plan that did not have a grade level, we used the
annual basic pay to classify them into a grade level.

For comparison, we divided the political appointees and regular federal
employees into three grade ranges:

! Executive level, SES, and Senior Level employees (EX- SES- SL),

! GS- 13 through GS- 15 and equivalent employees, and

! GS- 4 through GS- 12 and equivalent employees. We created these three
grade ranges to adjust for the significant difference in the pay structures
between the political appointees and regular federal employees as well as
differences in rules governing awards across these grade ranges. For
example, almost 46 percent of political appointees were in the top grade
range (EX- SES- SL) compared to almost one percent among regular federal
employees. 6 Because the likelihood of receiving an award and the dollar
value of awards received varied for different grade ranges, using the three
grade ranges allowed us to compare groups of employees with similar
likelihood of receiving awards and dollar values of awards received. We did
not, however, weight the results within a grade range to adjust for
differences in the percentages of staff at different grades within that
grade range (for example, GS- 4s through GS- 7s were about 9 percent of
political appointees in the GS- 4 through GS- 12 grade range compared to 41
percent of regular federal employees in this same grade range). Because we
did not do this weighting, differences between political appointees and
regular federal employees within a grade range could be due to differences
in the underlying distribution of employees within that grade range.

We did not independently verify the accuracy of awards data for political
appointees provided by the 46 agencies or the data for regular employees in
the CPDF. However, we previously found CPDF data to be generally accurate. 7

We monitored the awards to political appointees reported by the agencies to
identify any apparent violations of the presidential election period
moratorium or other prohibitions on granting monetary awards to political
appointees. We verified the facts concerning any potential violation
identified with the respective agency.

We did our work in Washington, D. C., from June 2000 through June 2001, in
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

- - - - As agreed with your committees, unless you publicly announce this
report?s contents earlier, we plan no further distribution of it until 30
days after the date of this letter. At that time we will send copies of this
report to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and
Entrepreneurship and the Ranking Minority Member of the House Subcommittee
on Civil Service and Agency Organization, the Chairmen and Ranking Minority
Members of the Senate Governmental Affairs and House Government Reform
Committees, other appropriate

5 Although there are political appointees in the wage scale system, we
excluded them from these analyses because there were so few of them. 6 We
did not include PAS (Presidential Appointment With Senate Confirmation)
appointees in the

percent of political appointees. 7 See OPM?s Central Personnel Data File:
Data Appear Sufficiently Reliable to Meet Most Customer

Needs (GAO/ GGD- 98- 199, Sept. 30, 1998).

GAO- 01- 1081R Monetary Awards for Political Appointees Page 9 congressional
committees, the Director of OPM, the heads of other agencies where we did

our work, and other interested parties. We will also make copies available
to others on request.

Major contributors to this report were Richard W. Caradine, Assistant
Director, and Domingo Nieves, Senior Human Capital Analyst. Please contact
Mr. Caradine or me on (202) 512- 6806 if you have any questions.

George Stalcup Director, Strategic Issues

Enclosures

GAO- 01- 1081R Monetary Awards for Political Appointees Page 10

Enclosure I: Number and Mean Dollar Value of Awards Made to Political
Appointees Reported by Selected Federal Agencies From September 1, 1999,
Through April 30, 2001

Agency Number of award recipients Number

of awards Mean dollar value

African Development Foundation 1 1 $4,000 Agency for International
Development 2 2 2, 294 Commission on Civil Rights 0 0 N/ A Consumer Product
Safety Commission 3 3 1, 666 Corporation for National Service 1 1 $910
Department of Agriculture 11 13 1,611 Department of Commerce 9 9 2, 431
Department of Defense 44 47 1,853 Department of Education 17 18 3,463
Department of Energy 53 64 2,282 Department of Health and Human Services 20
44 764 Department of Housing and Urban Development 16 16 2,360 Department of
Justice 2 2 3, 302 Department of Labor 21 22 3,530 Department of State 10 10
1,043 Department of the Interior 18 27 2,117 Department of the Treasury 10
15 2,850 Department of Transportation 7 7 2, 463 Department of Veterans
Affairs 1 2 1, 500 Environmental Protection Agency 5 5 8, 209 Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission 4 6 1, 865 Export- Import Bank of the U.
S. 0 0 N/ A Federal Aviation Administration 0 0 N/ A Federal Labor Relations
Authority 0 0 N/ A Federal Maritime Commission 0 0 N/ A Federal Mediation
and Conciliation Service 0 0 N/ A Federal Retirement and Thrift Investment
Board 0 0 N/ A Federal Trade Commission 1 1 2, 055 Inter- American
Foundation 0 0 N/ A Merit System Protection Board 5 12 2,652 National
Endowment for the Arts 1 1 600 National Endowment for the Humanities 4 4 2,
197 National Labor Relations Board 2 3 1, 878 National Mediation Board 2 4
1, 673 Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission 1 1 883 Office of
Government Ethics 0 0 N/ A Office of Management and Budget 0 0 N/ A Office
of Personnel Management 8 9 3, 137 Office of Special Counsel 2 3 1, 755
Office of the U. S. Trade Representative 0 0 N/ A Overseas Private
Investment Corporation 3 4 3, 547 Peace Corps 0 0 N/ A Pension Benefit
Guaranty Corporation 0 0 N/ A Small Business Administration 3 3 2, 589 U. S.
Institute of Peace 0 0 N/ A U. S. International Trade Commission 12 14 2,640

Total 297 373 $2,252

GAO- 01- 1081R Monetary Awards for Political Appointees Page 11

Enclosure II: Number, Rates, and Mean Dollar Value of Awards, by Type of
Award, Given to Political Appointees and Regular Federal Employees From
September 1999 Through May 2000 in 46 Agencies

Number of awards Rate of awards per 100 Mean dollar value of awards Type of
award a Political

appointees Regular

federal employees

Political appointees

Regular federal employees

Political appointees

Regular federal employees

Quality step increase b SES- EX- SL N/ A N/ A N/ A N/ A N/ A N/ A GS13- GS15
101 19,106 12.3 7. 7 $2,330 $1,961 GS4- GS12 17 39,240 6.6 4. 3 1,375 1,134
Total 118 58,346 10.9 4. 8 $2,192 $1,405

Performance award SES- EX- SL 5 c 2,134 .5 21.9 $8,948 $2,871 GS13- GS15 11
99,225 1.3 38.1 2, 654 1,455 GS4- GS12 46 266,812 17.9 28.5 1, 599 758 Total
62 368,171 3.1 30.6 $2,379 $958

Special act or service SES- EX- SL 26 1,815 2.9 18.7 $4,559 $2,449 GS13-
GS15 12 174,358 1.5 67.0 1, 892 834 GS4- GS12 25 476,703 9.7 51.0 1, 196 466
Total 63 652,876 3.2 54.2 $2,717 $570

Gainsharing SES- EX- SL 1 68 .1 .7 $1,603 $683 GS13- GS15 0 3, 921 0 1. 5 0
1, 150 GS4- GS12 0 4, 490 0 .5 0 621 Total 1 8,479 0 .7 $1,603 $866

Total monetary awards SES- EX- SL 32 4,017 3.5 41.3 $5,153 $2,643 GS13- GS15
124 296,610 15.1 114.0 2, 316 1,119 GS4- GS12 88 787,245 34.2 84.2 1, 441
599 Total 244 1,087,872 12.3 90.3 $2,373 $748

Time off award SES- EX- SL 6 629 .7 6. 5 35

hrs $2,071 19 hrs $1,107

GS13- GS15 61 35,412 7.4 13.6 24 hrs 953 16

hrs 602 GS4- GS12 11 168,084 4.3 18.0 15

hrs 350 14 hrs 272

Total 78 204,125 3.9 16.9 23 hrs $954 14

hrs $331 Total all awards

SES- EX- SL 38 4,646 4.2 47.8 $4,666 $2,435 GS13- GS15 185 332,022 22.5
127.6 1, 867 1,064 GS4- GS12 99 955,329 38.5 102.2 1, 320 541 Total 322
1,291,997 16.2 107.2 $2,029 $682

a Agencies did not report giving suggestion awards during this period. b The
moratorium on political appointees does not apply to quality step increases.
c The five employees included two limited term SES appointees, two
presidential appointees who were former career SES

members who opted to continue to be covered under the SES performance award
system, and one Schedule C employee in the Senior Level pay plan. The
prohibition against paying a performance rating- based award to political
appointees did not apply to these individuals.

Source: Data submitted by agencies and OPM?s Central Personnel Data File.

GAO- 01- 1081R Monetary Awards for Political Appointees Page 12

Enclosure III: Comments From the Office of Personnel Management

(410588)
*** End of document. ***