Federal Downsizing: Delayed Buyout Policy at DOE Is Unauthorized
(Testimony, 06/11/96, GAO/T-GGD/OGC-96-132).

GAO discussed the legality of the Department of Energy's (DOE) delayed
buyout policy. GAO noted that: (1) unless it was necessary to delay an
employee's separation to ensure performance of an agency's mission,
buyout legislation limits eligibility for buyouts to employees who
separated prior to April 1, 1995; and (2) the Secretary of Energy
improperly approved buyouts for agency employees after the legislatively
mandated deadline; and (3) its interpretation of the act is consistent
with Office of Management guidance.

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

 REPORTNUM:  T-GGD/OGC-96-132
     TITLE:  Federal Downsizing: Delayed Buyout Policy at DOE Is 
             Unauthorized
      DATE:  06/11/96
   SUBJECT:  Employee buyouts
             Reductions in force
             Federal downsizing
             Federal employee retirement programs
             Federal personnel law

             
******************************************************************
** 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


Before the Subcommittee on Civil Service,
Committee on Government Reform and
Oversight
House of Representatives

For Release on Delivery
Expected at
10:00 a.m.  EST
Tuesday
June 11, 1996

FEDERAL DOWNSIZING - DELAYED
BUYOUT POLICY AT
DOE IS UNAUTHORIZED

Statement of
Henry R.  Wray, Senior Associate General Counsel,
General Government Division,
Office of the General Counsel

GAO/T-GGD/OGC-96-132

GAO/GGD/OGC-96-132T


(410051)


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

  DOE - Department of Energy
  GAO - General Accounting Office

FEDERAL DOWNSIZING:  DELAYED
BUYOUT POLICY AT DOE IS AUTHORIZED
==================================================== Chapter Statement

Mr.  Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: 

I am pleased to be here today to discuss the legality of the
Department of Energy's (DOE) delayed buyout policy.  On June 6, 1996,
our Office of General Counsel issued a legal opinion to you, Mr. 
Chairman, and to the Ranking Minority Member, on this subject.  A
copy of our opinion is attached to my prepared statement (See
appendix.).  We concluded that DOE's policy is inconsistent with the
Federal Workforce Restructuring Act of 1994. 

The Federal Workforce Restructuring Act authorized civilian agencies
to offer voluntary separation incentive payments, or "buyouts," to
employees who separated from government service by retirement or
resignation.  The act generally limited eligibility for buyouts to
employees who separated prior to April 1, 1995.  However, the act
contained an exception to this general rule.  The exception
authorized the payment of a buyout to an employee who delayed his or
her separation to a date not later than March 31, 1997, if the agency
head determined that it was necessary to delay such employee's
separation in order to ensure performance of the agency's mission. 

In a memorandum dated July 10, 1995, the General Counsel of DOE
concluded that the Federal Workforce Restructuring Act did not
preclude DOE from offering buyouts to employees who had not applied
for them prior to April 1, 1995.  The General Counsel took the
position that the act does not specifically require that employees
file applications for buyouts, nor does it impose a deadline on an
agency's authority to offer buyouts.  He further stated that a
determination by the Secretary of Energy to "conditionally approve"
delayed buyouts for all DOE employees in broad categories of
positions who applied before April 1, 1995, could later be amended to
cover employees who had not filed buyout applications before that
date. 

For the reasons detailed in our June 6 opinion, we disagree with the
General Counsel's position.  We believe that the plain language of
the act, as well as the fundamental logic and underlying context of
the statute, clearly require that determinations to invoke the
exception and permit delayed separations must be made in conjunction
with approval of the buyouts themselves.  We believe that the
authority of agencies to approve buyouts terminated on March 31,
1995. 

The legislative history of the Act supports this view.  Although the
specifics varied, all versions of the buyout legislation that were
considered by Congress--from the original administration proposal to
the final language enacted into law--had several basic features that
remained unchanged.  All versions imposed deadlines on the period
during which buyouts could be offered and approved.  All versions
likewise provided for delays in separation beyond the deadline, but
only for employees who had been approved for buyouts and for whom the
requisite delayed separation determination had been made by the
agency head prior to the deadline. 

Therefore, we conclude that the Federal Workforce Restructuring Act
precludes offering buyouts to employees after March 31, 1995, or
making buyout payments to employees after that date unless the head
of the agency had determined by March 31 that a specific employee
could delay his or her departure in order to ensure the performance
of the agency's mission.  The DOE Secretary's determination to
conditionally approve delayed buyout applications for employees in
broad categories of positions does not meet this test.  This
determination was limited by its terms to those employees who
actually applied for buyouts by the March 31 deadline. 

Finally, our interpretation of the Federal Workforce Restructuring
Act is entirely consistent with guidance provided by the Office of
Personnel Management to federal agencies in February 1995.  The
contrary position taken by the DOE General Counsel has the basic
effect of extending the authority to grant buyouts beyond the limit
intended by the act. 

Mr.  Chairman, this concludes my prepared statement.  My colleague
and I would be pleased to answer any questions. 




(See figure in printed edition.)Appendix I
==================================================== Chapter Statement



(See figure in printed edition.)



(See figure in printed edition.)



(See figure in printed edition.)



(See figure in printed edition.)



(See figure in printed edition.)



(See figure in printed edition.)



(See figure in printed edition.)

*** End of document. ***