Agencies told to beef up executive performance rating systems
GAO report comes as Bush administration works to implement performance pay system for executives governmentwide.
Federal personnel officials must make performance ratings for senior executives more meaningful, the General Accounting Office reported this week.
The report-which is based on a survey of executives at NASA and the Education and Health and Human Services departments-found that a significant majority of federal senior executives at the three organizations received the highest possible performance rating in 2003.
"High-performing organizations have recognized that effective performance management systems can help them drive internal change and achieve external results," GAO officials said in a letter to Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee's Federal Workforce Subcommittee, and Rep. Jo Ann Davis, R-Va., the chairwoman of the Government Reform Committee's Civil Service Subcommittee. "Such organizations understand that they need senior leaders who are held accountable for results [and] drive continuous improvement."
The Bush administration is attempting to install a new performance pay system across the Senior Executive Service. The Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget aim to have the system in place in time for fiscal 2004 performance ratings and pay adjustments. OPM is pushing agencies to link senior executive performance ratings to agency achievements.
Davis' subcommittee plans to hold a hearing on the implementation of performance pay systems in September, according to her spokesman, Chad Bungard. The subcommittee will focus on performance pay regulations, the GAO report and "what comes next," he said.
According to the GAO report, almost all Education senior executives received the top rating and 63 percent were given bonuses in the 2003 assessment cycle. About 75 percent of NASA's senior executives received a top rating in 2003, and slightly more than half collected performance bonuses. At HHS, 86 percent of senior executives were awarded the top rating. HHS has already placed restrictions on performance bonuses, and since 2001 no more than one-third of senior executives at the department are allowed to receive such bonuses.
According to GAO, executive performance evaluation systems are not widely respected in the surveyed agencies. Less than half of the senior executives said they believed that their agency's SES performance management system was used well to achieve agency goals.
Also, fewer than half of the executives said they believe their performance system "is fully used to provide candid and constructive feedback."