Federal Management and Workforce Issue Area Plan--Fiscal Year 1997
(Letter Report, 05/01/96, GAO/IAP-96-15).

GAO provided information on its Federal Management and Workforce issue
area plan for fiscal year 1997.

GAO plans to: (1) identify cost-effective alternatives for downsizing
the federal workforce; (2) identify alternatives to the federal
government's performance management system; (3) identify options for
streamlining the administrative appeals process; (4) examine
alternatives to the civil service system; (5) identify ways to improve
the integrity and efficiency of federal benefits programs; and (6)
identify opportunities for privatizing the U.S. statistical system.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  IAP-96-15
     TITLE:  Federal Management and Workforce Issue Area Plan--Fiscal 
             Year 1997
      DATE:  05/01/96
   SUBJECT:  Reengineering (management)
             Federal downsizing
             Privatization
             Federal employees
             Appellate procedure
             Personnel management
             Employee benefit plans
             Statistical data
             Data integrity
             Information dissemination operations
IDENTIFIER:  Senior Executive Service
             Federal Employees Health Benefits Program
             SES
             
******************************************************************
** This file contains an ASCII representation of the text of a  **
** GAO report.  Delineations within the text indicating chapter **
** titles, headings, and bullets are preserved.  Major          **
** divisions and subdivisions of the text, such as Chapters,    **
** Sections, and Appendixes, are identified by double and       **
** single lines.  The numbers on the right end of these lines   **
** indicate the position of each of the subsections in the      **
** document outline.  These numbers do NOT correspond with the  **
** page numbers of the printed product.                         **
**                                                              **
** 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.                                         **
**                                                              **
** A printed copy of this report may be obtained from the GAO   **
** Document Distribution Center.  For further details, please   **
** send an e-mail message to:                                   **
**                                                              **
**                                            **
**                                                              **
** with the message 'info' in the body.                         **
******************************************************************


Cover
================================================================ COVER


General Government Division

May 1996

FEDERAL MANAGEMENT AND WORKFORCE
ISSUE AREA PLAN - FISCAL YEAR 1997

GAO/IAP-96-15



Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV


FOREWORD
============================================================ Chapter 0

As the investigative arm of Congress and the nation's auditor, the
General Accounting Office is charged with following the federal
dollar wherever it goes.  Reflecting stringent standards of
objectivity and independence, GAO's audits, evaluations, and
investigations promote a more efficient and cost-effective
government; expose waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in federal
programs; help Congress target budget reductions; assess financial
information management; and alert Congress to developing trends that
may have significant fiscal or budgetary consequences.  In fulfilling
its responsibilities, GAO performs original research and uses
hundreds of databases or creates its own when information is
unavailable elsewhere. 

To ensure that GAO's resources are directed toward the most important
issues facing Congress, each of GAO's 32 issue areas develops a
strategic plan that describes the significance of the issues it
addresses, its objectives, and the focus of its work.  Each issue
area relies heavily on input from congressional committees, agency
officials, and subject-matter experts in developing its strategic
plan. 

The Federal Management and Workforce issue area (FMWI) focuses on the
analysis and evaluation of a broad range of cross-cutting management,
workforce, and statistical issues.  These include the Government
Performance and Results Act, the National Performance Review,
regulatory reform, downsizing and privatization, oversight of the
civil service, human resource management practices at specific
agencies, as well as the quality, reliability, and usefulness of
leading social and economic statistical data. 

The issue area specifically covers the Executive Office of the
President, the Office of Management and Budget, Office of Personnel
Management, Merit Systems Protection Board, Office of Special
Counsel, Federal Labor Relations Authority, Office of Government
Ethics, Federal Sector Programs at the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission, the Department of Commerce, Government Printing Office,
Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Library of Congress, and the National
Archives.  However, managerial, personnel, and
statistical/information issues bridge into virtually all other
agencies as well. 

Through consultation with key congressional committees, agency
officials, and subject-matter experts, FMWI has developed this
strategic plan to ensure that its resources are directed toward the
most important management, workforce, and statistical issues facing
Congress. 

On the pages that follow, we outline FMWI's most significant planned
work on these issues: 

  -- managing a government in transition,

  -- managing for results and accountability,

  -- reevaluating the merit system,

  -- redesigning compensation and benefits,

  -- collecting and disseminating information,

  -- improving federal regulatory management. 

Because events may significantly affect even the most foresighted of
plans and because periodic measurement of performance against any
plan is essential, our planning process allows for updating the plan
and responding quickly to emerging issues.  If you have any questions
or suggestions about this plan, please call me at (202) 512-8676. 

Nye Stevens
Director
Federal Management and Workforce Issues


CONTENTS
============================================================ Chapter 1


   FOREWORD
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:1

1


   TABLE I:  KEY ISSUES
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:2

4


   TABLE II:  PLANNED MAJOR WORK
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:3

8


   TABLE III:  GAO CONTACTS
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:4

10


TABLE I:  KEY ISSUES
============================================================ Chapter 2

Issue                          Significance
-----------------------------  -------------------------------------------------
Managing a government in       Financial constraints and public expectations are
transition: What strategies    leading Congress to reconsider the government's
are appropriate for managing   scope and structure. Federal agencies are
a government undergoing        undergoing streamlining and restructuring to
fundamental change?            better meet the public's needs, while limiting
                               costs. Further, proposals are under consideration
                               to bring more market-like mechanisms into the
                               federal sector, ranging from outright
                               privatization, to incentives for agencies to be
                               more efficient, to creating performance-based
                               organizations (PBO) akin to those used in foreign
                               countries. Several agency reorganization or
                               elimination proposals are moving forward in
                               Congress. To be effective, any significant change
                               will require corresponding adjustments in the
                               civil service as well. Rightsizing government,
                               for example, will move strategic workforce
                               planning to the forefront of civil service
                               issues; staffing levels, productivity, and
                               mission goals must be met while maintaining
                               fairness to federal employees, minimizing
                               disruption and expense to the agencies, and
                               ensuring a workforce that reflects the American
                               population.


Managing for results and       In crafting the Government Performance and
accountability: How can        Results Act (GPRA), Congress's intent was to
agencies and their employees   shift the focus of federal management,
better focus on achieving      accountability, and oversight away from agencies'
results and ensuring           activities and products and toward the results
accountability?                they achieve. Among steps taken so far are goal
                               setting, performance measurement, and performance
                               reporting by GPRA pilot agencies, and related
                               results-oriented management initiatives--such as
                               the National Performance Review's (NPR) customer
                               service standards and the Office of Management
                               and Budget's (OMB) request for performance
                               information to consider in making resource
                               allocation decisions. GPRA requires GAO to report
                               by June 1, 1997, on the act's implementation. In
                               the human resource management (HRM) area, the
                               means of creating corresponding performance
                               management and accountability requirements at the
                               team or individual employee level are just
                               beginning to be explored. Private sector models
                               may also prove useful, as may the experiences of
                               NPR labs, GPRA pilots, and other government
                               entities in the forefront of the shift toward
                               results-oriented management.








Reevaluating the merit         The emerging emphasis on a results-oriented
system: How can the merit      government--as evidenced in particular by the
system effectively integrate   passage of GPRA--raises the challenge of creating
emerging principles of         a federal workforce equipped to operate in an
results-oriented management?   environment focused on mission accomplishment.
                               Decisions over what sort of civil service can
                               respond to these changing demands will determine
                               the eventual direction of civil service reform.
                               Deliberations over broad-based civil service
                               reform will entail reexamining the rationales
                               underlying the current system; determining areas
                               in which the system is outdated or ineffective;
                               examining alternative models, both from the
                               private sector, other government entities (such
                               as the new FAA personnel system), NPR reinvention
                               labs, and GPRA pilots; helping identify key
                               principles to guide federal HRM in the future;
                               and addressing the issues of delegation,
                               decentralization, oversight, and accountability.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Objectives                     Focus of work
-----------------------------  -------------------------------------------------
 Identify fair and cost-       Determine effectiveness of federal approaches
effective alternatives for     to downsizing.
downsizing the federal          Evaluate the pros, cons, and impediments to
workforce, while raising       privatizing and/or contracting out services and
productivity.                  functions currently performed by the federal
                               government.
 Assess the issues related     Align HRM systems with broader management
to determining the proper      goals.
public/private sector mix in    Identify implementation actions needed to
providing federal services to  capture anticipated savings from reorganizations
the public, and how best to    and dismantlements.
manage the performance of
these services.

 Review strategies to align
HRM systems with goals and
mission accomplishment.

 Contribute to effective
implementation of agency
reorganizations.

 Identify changes needed in    Assist selected authorizing and appropriating
congressional oversight and    committees in applying information on program
resource allocation practices  results to the legislative process.
in a results-oriented           Assess federal experiences with results-
environment.                   oriented management in such areas as
                               intergovernmental programs, defense, regulatory
 Examine the feasibility and  programs, business-like operations, and science
utility of results-oriented    and research and development (R&D).
management in a broad array     Assess the applicability to the civil service
of federal activities.         of private sector incentive and rewards systems.
                                Identify successful public and private sector
 Identify alternatives to     strategies for dealing with poor performers.
the federal government's        Identify and evaluate options and legislative
performance management         proposals for streamlining and/or consolidating
system.                        the administrative appeal process.
                                Examine the development of the Senior Executive
 Examine the means available  Service (SES) since passage of the Civil Service
for dealing with poor          Reform Act (CSRA).
performers and assess
alternatives to the current
system.

 Identify opportunities for
reforming the administrative
redress system.

 Assess the changing role of
leadership positions within
the federal workplace.

 Analyze need and              Work with sources in government, industry, and
alternative strategies for     academia to explore alternatives to the current
fundamentally reshaping the    civil service system.
public service.                 Determine how OPM and agency oversight could be
                               accomplished in a more decentralized, results-
 Examine the role of OPM and  oriented environment.
its oversight of agency HRM     Assess applicability of private sector HRM
systems in a results-          models to the civil service.
oriented environment.           Assess the implementation of FAA's new
                               decentralized personnel system.
 Identify alternatives for     Assess methods and measurements that could be
streamlining and               used to ensure agency accountability.
decentralizing federal HRM.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Issue                          Significance
-----------------------------  -------------------------------------------------
Redesigning compensation and   This year the executive branch (excluding the
benefits: What employee        Postal Service) expects to spend over $114
compensation and benefit       billion on current employee compensation and
programs will best serve the   benefits, and another $44 billion in payments to
changing needs of the          retirees. To maintain a quality workforce and
workforce?                     compete for talent with private sector employers
                               while keeping such costs under control, the civil
                               service will need to examine its compensation and
                               benefits package as a whole. The concept of a
                               career government workforce is being called into
                               question by rapid change in government
                               responsibilities and the skills needed to carry
                               them out. In addition, issues of fairness and
                               cutting costs in the federal employee retirement,
                               workers' compensation, and health benefits
                               programs will be of special concern. These
                               programs are expected to be considered by
                               Congress in the coming sessions.






Collecting and disseminating   Decisionmakers in the public and private sectors
information: How can accurate  rely on federal statistics to understand current
statistical data be gathered   economic and social conditions, estimate the
and disseminated cost-         likely effects of their decisions, and forecast
effectively?                   future trends. Inaccurate or incomplete data
                               limit the ability of decisionmakers to plan,
                               evaluate, and improve programs. The
                               implementation of GPRA will increase the demand
                               for statistical agencies to produce the data
                               needed to assess the outcomes of federal
                               programs. However, the government's ability to
                               produce needed information in a cost-effective
                               manner has been the subject of considerable
                               concern. The private sector uses government
                               information heavily, pays little for it, and adds
                               value to it. Furthermore, emerging electronic
                               technologies have generated debate over the cost-
                               effectiveness of traditional methods for
                               disseminating government information of all
                               types.










Improving federal regulatory   Regulation, along with taxing and spending, is a
management: What improvements  principal tool used by the federal government to
are possible in federal        achieve federal goals. Balancing the benefits to
regulatory management?         be gained through regulation with the cost and
                               other burdens imposed is a long-standing
                               regulatory issue. Congress is rethinking the
                               established approach of delegating regulatory
                               authority to the executive branch. Recently, both
                               Congress and the executive branch have renewed
                               their emphasis on regulation to better ensure
                               that (1) the federal government only promulgates
                               regulations for which a substantial, well-
                               documented need exists and (2) once a decision is
                               made to regulate, the regulation minimizes the
                               cost and other burdens in relation to the
                               anticipated benefits. Prominent regulatory
                               management initiatives under consideration
                               include cost/benefit analyses, risk analyses,
                               burden measurement improvements, enhancements to
                               regulatory flexibility, congressional review and
                               approval of final rules, and regulations that are
                               focused on desired outcomes as opposed to
                               mandated processes or actions.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Objectives                     Focus of work
-----------------------------  -------------------------------------------------
 Identify employment           Evaluate alternative approaches to providing
policies that would better     federal benefits in an environment with more
enable the government to       transition to and from the private sector.
compete with other major        Assess benefits/costs of redesigning retirement
employers for the "best and    programs.
brightest" job candidates.      Review options for restructuring federal
                               workers' compensation programs.
 Examine the implications      Explore alternatives for controlling costs in
for the compensation and       the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.
benefits of a more transient
federal workforce.

 Inform Congress of ways to
improve the efficiency and
integrity of federal
retirement programs.

 Identify ways to improve
the integrity and efficiency
of federal benefits programs.

 Assist Congress in            Work with government, business, academia, and
determining whether the        other countries to identify improvements that can
structure of the U.S.          be made to the current fragmented system and
statistical system best        opportunities and alternatives for privatizing
serves the nation's needs for  appropriate parts of the U.S. statistical
accurate, timely, and useable  system.
statistical data in the most    Advise Congress on the importance of its timely
cost-effective manner.         involvement in decisionmaking, suggest ways to
                               improve accuracy and reduce costs of the
 Identify measures Congress   decennial census, and monitor implementation.
and the Bureau of the Census    Assess the quality of federal statistics that
can take to improve the        underlie federal program decisions and
accuracy and reduce the cost   evaluations and the processes used to make
of, and effectively            improvements once problems are identified.
implement, the 2000 census.     Suggest ways the government can publish,
                               archive, and disseminate information more
 Improve the quality of       effectively and economically.
economic and sociodemographic
statistics used to formulate
public policy, and assess its
implementation and
effectiveness.

 Assist Congress and the
executive branch in
developing a framework for
publishing, archiving, and
disseminating government
information.

 Assist Congress in            Assess the applicability of a results/outcome
reviewing its approach to      orientation to the federal government's
regulatory oversight.          regulatory approach.
                                Examine how agencies (1) proactively inform and
 Examine alternatives to      (2) respond to inquiries from businesses and
regulatory emphasis on         others in the regulated community on the
procedural compliance.         regulations with which they are to comply and the
                               way in which they must comply.
 Evaluate agencies' actions    Assess the merits of alternative processes to
to provide information on      determine that the regulations federal agencies
regulatory requirements and    issue are needed and minimize regulatory burdens.
compliance strategies.

 Review methods used to
determine the appropriateness
of the regulations federal
agencies promulgate.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE II:  PLANNED MAJOR WORK
============================================================ Chapter 3

Issue                    Planned major job starts
-----------------------  -------------------------------------------------------
Managing a government     Review the impacts, alternatives, targeting, cost-
in transition            effectiveness, guidance, and lessons learned on federal
                         downsizing.
                          Assess the applicability and likely results of
                         applying the performance-based organization (PBO)
                         approach used internationally to federal agencies.
                          Survey issues that need to be addressed as
                         consideration is given to privatizing and contracting
                         out services performed by the government.
                          Identify opportunities to achieve cost savings in
                         specific government functions through such approaches
                         as privatization or competitive incentives.
                          Develop case studies on state and local privatization
                         efforts to document barriers and aids to, and
                         strategies for, privatization.
                          Review strategies to align federal HRM systems with
                         organizational goals and missions.
                          Assess whether restructuring initiatives are
                         achieving anticipated service improvements and cost
                         savings.
                          Lessons learned from the elimination of the Bureau of
                         Mines, et. al.


Managing for results      Review private sector approaches to performance
and accountability       management for individuals and groups.
                          Identify successful public and private sector
                         strategies for dealing with poor performers.
                          Assess the feasibility of aligning workforce
                         performance rewards with agency missions.
                          Examine the experience of the SES since the passage
                         of CSRA and identify areas for improvement.
                          Assess results-oriented management in
                         intergovernmental, science/R&D, business-like,
                         military, and regulatory programs.
                          Assess the feasibility of streamlining the
                         administrative redress process.
                          Assess agencies' capacity to provide meaningful
                         performance information in a form useful to
                         decisionmakers and the public.
                          Examine the applicability of alternative dispute
                         resolution approaches to improving the system for
                         dealing with workplace disputes, EEO complaints, and
                         employee appeals.


Reevaluating the merit    Review conversions and noncompetitive appointments to
system                   career positions in the executive branch.
                          Assess the applicability of private sector HRM models
                         to the civil service.
                          Evaluate OPM's plans for oversight in a
                         decentralized, results-oriented environment.
                          Assess implementation of FAA's new decentralized
                         personnel system.
                          Assess ways of measuring performance to ensure agency
                         accountability in the HRM area.
                          Evaluate the role of labor-management partnerships in
                         federal labor relations.


Redesigning               Examine workers' compensation administration and
compensation and         costs.
benefits                  Review financing and operations of federal retirement
                         systems.
                          Examine the administration and costs of federal
                         health benefits.
                          Review effectiveness of the government's "flexiplace"
                         program.
                          Examine issues related to the need for the uniformed
                         status of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
                         Administration Commissioned Corps.
                          Analyze and compare the benefit provisions of federal
                         and private sector retirement programs.
                          Determine the effectiveness of federal benefits
                         package in competing for recruits.


Collecting and            Assess administrative issues associated with
disseminating            proposals to consolidate or privatize statistical
information              agencies.
                          Determine the extent to which programmatic
                         duplication exists among major statistical agencies.
                          Identify best practices for designing and
                         implementing surveys of households and businesses.
                          Determine which statistics need to be official.
                          Assess the feasibility and potential consequences of
                         using the recurring Consumer Expenditure Survey to
                         update the Consumer Price Index market basket on a more
                         frequent basis.
                          Monitor implementation of the 2000 census with a
                         focus on the steps needed to effect a $1.7 billion cost
                         reduction.
                          Monitor implementation of Lobby Reform law.
                          Identify improvements that can be made in the
                         government's process for archiving information.


Improving federal         Examine the status of agencies' efforts to move
regulatory management    toward results-oriented regulations and regulatory
                         approaches.
                          Review the availability of regulatory information
                         that meets "customer" needs.
                          Review agencies' preparation of cost/benefit analyses
                         as required by Executive Order 12866.
                          Determine agencies' actions to implement the
                         requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE III:  GAO CONTACTS
============================================================ Chapter 4


      DIRECTOR
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.1

Nye Stevens (202) 512-8676


      ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.2

Timothy P.  Bowling (202) 512-3511
Michael Brostek (202) 512-9039
Bernard L.  Ungar (202) 512-4232


      ASSISTANT DIRECTORS
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.3

Stephen E.  Altman
James H.  Burow
Richard W.  Caradine
Curtis W.  Copeland
Larry H.  Endy
John A.  Leitch
James M.  McDermott
J.Christopher Mihm
John K.  Needham
Xavier R.  Richardson
Robert E.  Shelton
Norman A.  Stubenhofer
Steven J.  Wozny

*** End of document. ***