Homeland Security employees leaving at higher-than-average rate

Senior Homeland Security Department employees left their jobs over the past two years at rates significantly higher than the average for other Cabinet-level departments, according to a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office.

Attrition rates for Homeland Security's Senior Executive Service positions or those requiring presidential appointment were 14.5 percent in 2005 and 12.8 percent in 2006, the report (GAO-07-758) stated. That's more than twice the average attrition at all Cabinet-level departments of 7 percent and 6 percent during the same years.

The report comes on the heels of several other accounts of a leadership vacuum at Homeland Security.

Last month, Government Executive's sister publication National Journal reported that an overreliance on political appointees and a dearth of career civil servants in senior positions at the 4-year-old agency could jeopardize its ability to respond to terrorist attacks. Then earlier this month, Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee released a report concluding that 24 percent of top positions at Homeland Security are vacant, leaving a "gaping hole" in executive resources.

Among GAO's findings: Over the last two years, more than half of the senior employees at Homeland Security headquarters either resigned or transferred to another department. Executives at headquarters, the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency had the highest attrition rates.

High turnover wasn't limited to the senior ranks either. Auditors reported that attrition among permanent nonsenior-level employees at Homeland Security was 8.4 percent in 2005 and 7.1 percent in 2006 -- significantly higher than the 4 percent average of all federal agencies.

But GAO found that those levels were due to especially high attrition rates among transportation security officers at the TSA, who compose more than one-third of all Homeland Security employees.

Factoring out the transportation security officers' attrition rates (17.6 percent in 2005 and 14.6 percent in 2006), attrition elsewhere at Homeland Security falls to 3.3 percent for both years, below the federal average.

GAO found that Homeland Security personnel managers took advantage of the flexibilities offered to agencies to recruit, hire and keep personnel -- such as cash awards, expedited hiring, internships, student loan repayment and special pay rates.

In particular, TSA made substantial use of cash awards. In 2006, the agency gave about 301 cash awards per 100 employees with a median award of $400.

Homeland Security concurred with GAO's findings, including a recommendation that the agency develop written policies that spell out the duties of officials responsible for ensuring compliance with the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. The law requires agencies to immediately inform Congress and GAO of senior political-appointee vacancies and limits the tenure of acting officials to 210 days. Homeland Security failed to meet reporting requirements for three vacancies between March 2003 and April 2007, GAO found.