A Department of Housing and Urban Development plan to eliminate 3,000 jobs was not based on a "systematic workload analysis to determine needs," the General Accounting Office has concluded in a new report.
Because HUD officials failed to analyze how reductions in staff would affect the department, GAO said it is uncertain whether HUD will have the capacity to carry out its responsibilities when the reforms are in place.
HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo announced a sweeping plan to reform and reorganize the department last June. Cuomo set a goal of cutting HUD's staff from 10,500 to 7,500 by 2002 and consolidating its 300 programs into 71.
In December, HUD inspector general Susan Gaffney said that eliminating the jobs would place the department in "serious jeopardy."
After reviewing documents and interviewing key officials involved in HUD 2020's planning, GAO concluded that the 2020 plan is "still evolving."
"Because the reforms are not yet complete and some of the plan's approaches are untested, the extent to which its proposed reforms will result in the plan's intended benefits is unknown," the report said.
GAO advised HUD to be cautious in pursuing the reform plan's goals. HUD must carefully monitor its performance, assess the impact of the reforms and ammend the plan if necessary, GAO said.
Under the plan, the staff of HUD's Office of Housing would be cut by 44 percent. The Office for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity would be cut by 11 percent, while the Office of Public and Indian Housing would see a staff reduction of 14 percent. The Office for Community Planning and Development would be cut by 8.8 percent.
The cuts are already underway. Last September, the agency approved buyouts for 771 employees.
In October, HUD mailed letters to each of its employees regarding their status under the reforms. More than 3,000 employees were told that they would be unaffected by the changes. Another 3,184 employees were told they would be given the opportunity to accept similar positions within their geographical area. Another 3,000 workers were notified that they had not been placed in positions in HUD's new organization.
At the same time, HUD announced 1,676 job openings and conducted a second buyout. In January of this year, the department announced additional voluntary reassignments for positions that remained unfilled.
HUD told GAO that its report "did not consider the agency's need for management reform and whether the plan focuses on the right areas." HUD said that it had undertaken substantial workload analyses to plan for reaching a staff level of 7,500 employees.
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