Review of Veterans' Preference and the "Rule of 3" (22-AUG-03,
GAO-03-966R).
The General Accounting Office has completed a review of selected
agencies' compliance with veterans' preference and the "Rule of
3" in federal hiring. This review was requested by Congressman
Lane Evans, Ranking Minority Member of the House Committee on
Veterans Affairs, and Senator Tom Daschle. As agreed with the
requesters, because of continuing oversight of agencies'
delegated examining units (DEU) and ongoing review of veterans'
preference, we are providing the results of our review for
possible follow-up. The requesters specifically asked us to
review the results of job announcements for fiscal year 2001 for
five selected agency personnel offices in the Washington
Metropolitan Area: the National Aeronautics Space Administration
(NASA) headquarters, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Defense
Logistics Agency (DLA) and the Broadcasting Board of Governors
(BBG). As agreed with the requesters, we reviewed: (1) advertised
full-time positions (both permanent and temporary) at the
GS-7,9,11,13, and 15 levels as identified by the selected agency,
(2) the use of multiple certificates in filling these positions,
(3) the resulting certificates of eligibilities, including how
often veterans headed these certificates and were selected, and
(4) the reported reasons why veterans were not selected if they
headed these certificates.
-------------------------Indexing Terms-------------------------
REPORTNUM: GAO-03-966R
ACCNO: A08195
TITLE: Review of Veterans' Preference and the "Rule of 3"
DATE: 08/22/2003
SUBJECT: Federal agencies
Personnel management
Veterans
Hiring policies
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GAO-03-966R
GAO- 03- 966R Veterans* Preference
United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548
August 22, 2003 The Honorable Kay Coles James Director Office of Personnel
Management
Subject: Review of Veterans* Preference and the *Rule of 3*
Dear Ms. James: This is to inform you that the General Accounting Office
has completed a review of selected agencies* compliance with veterans*
preference and the *Rule of 3* in federal hiring. This review was
requested by Congressman Lane Evans, Ranking Minority Member of the House
Committee on Veterans Affairs, and Senator Tom Daschle. As agreed with the
requesters, because of your continuing oversight of agencies* delegated
examining units (DEU) and
ongoing review of veterans* preference, we are providing you with the
results of our review for possible follow- up. The requesters specifically
asked us to review the results of job announcements for fiscal year 2001
for five selected agency personnel offices in the Washington Metropolitan
Area: the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) headquarters,
NASA*s Goddard
Space Flight Center, the Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD), the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) and the Broadcasting Board of
Governors (BBG). As agreed with the requesters, we reviewed: (1)
advertised full- time positions (both permanent and temporary) at the GS-
7,9,11,13, and 15 levels as identified by the selected agency, (2) the use
of multiple certificates in filling these positions, (3) the resulting
certificates of eligibilities, including how often veterans headed these
certificates and were selected, and (4) the reported reasons why veterans
were not selected if they headed these certificates.
Our observations may be useful to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
in following up on specific cases, as well as more generally in developing
and implementing governmentwide personnel oversight and evaluation
efforts. Moreover, based on our
understanding of OPM*s guidance to the agencies, OPM would consider the
type of issues included in our observations when deciding whether more
detailed assessments of agency actions by OPM oversight teams would be
warranted. We have the following specific observations about the cases
examined.
Multiple certificates were used extensively. Most of the 258 announcements
reviewed resulted in agencies issuing multiple certificates, including
multiple DEU certificates and certificates for merit promotion. Multiple
DEU certificates were typically issued for
GAO- 03- 966R Veterans* Preference Page 2 multiple vacancies at different
grades or locations. In a few cases, multiple DEU
certificates were issued for the same position at the same grade. In
general, agencies use of multiple certificates was consistent with OPM
guidance. See table 1 in the enclosure for total cases reviewed.
Selections were made more often from certificates without veterans listed.
Specifically, of the 214 announcements for which DEU certificates were
issued, selections occurred more often when the certificates included no
veterans than when veterans were on the certificates. (See table 2 in the
enclosure for results of cases with certificates issued.)
Out of 134 announcements reviewed with no veterans on the certificates of
eligibles, 90 (67 percent) nonveterans were selected. Out of 77
announcements reviewed with veterans on the certificates of eligibilities,
21 (27 percent) veterans were selected.
Agency files suggested a variety of reasons why veterans were not selected
from certificates. These include those listed below. (See table 2 in the
enclosure for more information on the reported reasons why veterans were
not selected.)
A nonveteran with a higher score on the DEU certificate was selected. A
nonveteran was selected from another source, for example, merit promotion,
noncompetitive appointment. The vacancy/ certificate was canceled. The
veteran withdrew his/ her name.
Many case files were incomplete. Of the 258 announcement cases reviewed,
there were 41 for which we could not determine the disposition of the
hiring action. At one agency, for 18 out of 78 case files we reviewed the
status of the vacancy announcements could not be determined. Further,
there were 11 additional cases where no case file could be located. (See
table 3 in the enclosure for more details.) Additionally, in at least one
location, all the application files fitting our criteria may not have been
provided for our review. We would suggest that as OPM*s evaluation efforts
go forward, the number of cases reported in agency case files be compared
with the relevant listings in USAJOBS.
A few cases may warrant further review by OPM. In cases in which
selections were made from a certificate listing a veteran on top, the
veteran was usually selected. However, in a few cases the top- ranked
veteran was not selected. For example, at one agency the top- ranked
veteran was not selected because officials said they were unable to
contact him. However, the telephone number that the agency noted as being
disconnected was not the veteran*s listed home number on the application.
In addition, a note in the file said that the agency tried to contact the
veteran with a letter sent via Federal Express. The letter was not in the
file. In another case, a nonveteran was chosen over a veteran with the
same score. There was no explanation in the file for this action.
GAO- 03- 966R Veterans* Preference Page 3 We performed our work on this
report from August 2002 through May 2003 in accordance
with generally accepted auditing standards. In addition, we sent this
report to the following agencies for comment: the NASA, HUD, BBG, and DLA.
The agencies generally agreed with our report but provided some technical
comments and suggestions that we incorporated where appropriate. We are
sending copies of this report to the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member
of the House Committee on Veterans* Affairs, the Chairman of the Senate
Committee on Veterans* Affairs, Senator Tom Daschle, the heads of the
agencies visited during this review, and other interested parties. This
report will also be available on GAO*s home page at http:// www. gao. gov.
I would appreciate your staff keeping me informed of any action they plan
to take in
response to this information. The major contributors to this review were
Edward Stephenson, Assistant Director; Charlesetta Bailey, Senior Analyst;
and Figen Gungor, Analyst. If you have any questions, please call me at
(202) 512- 6806.
Sincerely yours, J. Christopher Mihm Director, Strategic Issues
Enclosure
GAO- 03- 966R Veterans* Preference Page 4 Enclosure
Additional Information on Case Files
Table 1: Total Cases Reviewed
NASA HQ NASA
Goddard HUD BBG DLA Total
Number of cases reviewed 30 67 78 69 14 258
Cases with insufficient information before certificate was issued 2 0 90
012 Cases canceled before certificate was issued 2 3 11 6 0 22
Cases in which no DEU certificate issued 0 1 0 7 3 10
Cases resulting in certificate 26 63 58 56 11 214
Source: NASA headquarters, NASA Goddard, HUD, BBG, and DLA vacancy
announcement files for fiscal year 2001. Table 2: Comparison of
Certificates with Veterans and Nonveterans NASA HQ NASA
Goddard HUD BBG DLA Total
Number of announcements with certificate issued: Veteran is top candidate
6 10 26 16 6 64
Veteran is not the top candidate 1 2 5 4 1 13
No veterans on certificate 19 51 27 33 4 134 Total announcements with
certificate issued 26 63 58 56 a 11 214 a
Results of certificates with veterans: (7) (12) (31) (20) (7) (77) Top
veteran selected 0 6 5 3 3 17
Other veteran selected 0 1 1 2 0 4
Nonveteran selected from certificate 0 0 6 6 0 12
Selection from another source 5 0 6 6 3 20
Cases canceled 2 1 10 3 0 16
Veteran withdrew name 0 2 0 0 0 2
Cases with insufficient information 0 2 3 0 1 6
Results of certificates with nonveterans: (19) (51) (27) (33) (4) (134)
Nonveteran selected b 16 40 19 26 3 104
Cases canceled 0 6 2 3 0 11
Cases with insufficient information 3 5 6 4 1 19
Source: NASA headquarters, NASA Goddard, HUD, BBG, and DLA vacancy
announcement files for fiscal year 2001 and agency officials. a For three
vacancy announcements, candidates* status was not noted in files.
b Nonveterans selected included selections from other sources: NASA HQ, 7;
BBG, 6; and DLA, 1. Table 3: Total Cases with insufficient information
NASA HQ NASA
Goddard HUD BBG DLA Total
Total cases with insufficient information 7 7 18 7 2 41
Source: NASA headquarters, NASA Goddard, HUD, BBG, and DLA vacancy
announcement files for fiscal year 2001. (450141)
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