President Clinton has honored 58 members of the Senior Executive Service with the 1999 Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Executive, the Office of Personnel Management announced Friday.
Another 253 SESers received the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executive, OPM said. The distinguished and meritorious awards are among the highest honors the government can bestow upon career executives.
"It has been an extremely pleasurable task to spread the good news that these executives, the men and women who manage an incredible spectrum of programs, are being recognized for their dedication, their spirit and, most importantly, their contributions to the welfare and strength of our nation," said OPM Director Janice Lachance.
Distinguished executives receive an award of 35 percent of their base pay; meritorious executives receive an award of 20 percent of their base pay. With that formula, the awards range up to $41,400. This is the first year the percentage formula is in effect. In previous years, the distinguished rank award came with a $20,000 bonus and recipients of the meritorious rank award received $10,000 bonuses.
There are about 6,000 SESers in the federal government.
Nominations for the rank awards are made by agency heads. An agency may nominate up to 9 percent of its SESers, with not more than one distinguished rank nominee for every five meritorious rank nominees. The President selects winners following a review process conducted by OPM. The White House determines when the awards are announced. The 1998 awards were announced in April 1999.
Nominations for fiscal 2000 are due Jan. 28, 2000.
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