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One day after David Walker's formal departure from GAO, a House subcommittee is set to blast the pay system that represents the former comptroller general's signature managerial change within the agency.

"We're definitely repudiating what he did," a subcommittee staffer said of Walker's efforts to overhaul pay and personnel systems at the congressional auditing agency.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Federal Workforce Subcommittee plans a hearing Thursday on several bills affecting GAO. Among them is a measure that Federal Workforce Subcommittee Chairman Danny Davis, D-Ill., plans to introduce that would grant retroactive cost-of-living increases to hundreds of GAO employees who did not receive one in the last two years.

Walker's move in 2006 and 2007 to reassign thousands of analysts to a lower pay category as part of a new pay-for-performance system drew widespread criticism within GAO and led agency employees to form a union in September.

The issue has received added attention because many believe GAO should serve as a model for federal agencies it evaluates and because Walker specialized in human capital management before becoming comptroller general in 1998.

The subcommittee today will release what are likely to be unflattering results of studies on the effect of the new pay system on GAO's workforce. Those include a survey by GAO's Employee Advisory Council on workers' opinions of the new system and a study of how the change affected African-Americans at GAO.

The subcommittee has pressed GAO repeatedly on whether the system will hurt black employees. The panel has had longstanding concerns about diversity among the agency's personnel.

The subcommittee staffer said Walker, who had told Davis he would testify today, appeared to have timed his resignation to avoid the hearing.

"He was trying to make a point," the aide said. "If you are the human capital guru and you are the model agency, what would you do?"

A GAO spokesman declined to comment in detail before the hearing but said in a statement: "We are working with the committee in various ways ... to find the proper balance between providing employees greater certainty regarding annual pay adjustments while preserving the incentives and rewards of the GAO pay for performance system."

The hearing will cover legislation that would make various administrative changes requested by the agency. The bill would require the deputy comptroller general be appointed by the comptroller general, rather than the president; mandate that GAO's annual report to Congress assess federal agencies' cooperation with GAO audits; and authorize added funds for GAO to hire staff.

Other provisions would create an office of inspector general at GAO and allow the agency to keep money or property received as gifts. A companion measure has been introduced in the Senate.

COMMENTS

• Comptroller GENERAL David Walker lost the respect of his troops (workforce) after claiming to be a human capital expert and then breaking his word that he would protect the purchasing power of the salaries of all staff that performed satisfactorily. This human capital guru also instituted a highly competitive, zero-sum, forced ranking pay-for-peformance system that pitted once collegial teammates against each other for a shrinking bonus pie. When Walker denied annual cost-of-living adjustments to his most experienced staff in 2006 and 2007, he fomented a velvet revolution within the GAO. Staff rose up, banded together, fought back in court and Congress, forming a union to protect themselves from the PFP poison pills he and the Bush Administation have been trying to stuff down the throats of America's civil servants. Justice@GAO Posted March 14, 2008 5:04 PM
• I have been against the Pay for Performance from the beginning and especially it being connected to the Cost of Living increase. Some government employees cannot stay even with the Cost of Living with their purchasing power. Have you noticed when you receive a raise your purchasing power goes down because the market prices have increased? How can we continue to afford fuel, pushing $4 a gallon? The Cost of Living increase should be given without any connection to the Pay for Performance. As far as the Pay for Performance; it's very UNFAIR and UNEQUAL to ALL government employees because many agencies/departments cannot/will not fit within the boundaries and have delayed moving from the General Schedule, which worked for many years until some brilliant person has tried to reinvent the wheel! American Taxpayer Posted March 14, 2008 1:24 PM
• This is EXACTLY what needs to happen in the DOD because these new pay systems are only a legalized form of favoritism and discrimination. Some DOD agencies are on the new pay system (NSPS) and some are not. It is totally unfair that some employees in the same positions, performing the same duties, at different government agencies, are getting paid differently because some agencies are on this new pay systems and some are not. If one federal government agency is going to be on a particular pay system, then all federal government agencies should be on that same system. Under the new pay system, employees are getting screwed out of their cost-of-living increases, step increases, and bonuses. Ms. Davis Posted March 14, 2008 11:26 AM