Summary: As part of its continuing evaluation of major aspects of civil service reform, GAO reviewed the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) delegations of personnel authorities to Federal agencies. The objectives of the review were to: (1) determine whether personnel actions were being expedited by the delegations of authority; (2) determine whether OPM was effectively managing and monitoring delegations; and (3) evaluate the appropriateness of agency uses of the delegated authorities.
The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 encouraged OPM to delegate personnel functions to other Federal agencies to expedite appointments and other personnel actions. The Act required OPM to establish standards and maintain an oversight program to protect merit system principles. The lack of data made it difficult to determine the extent to which the delegation of personnel management authorities has reduced processing times. Those authorities that are rarely used may not be contributing to reducing processing times. Considering this and the time needed for monitoring such authorities, GAO found that the benefit of delegating minimally used authorities became questionable. Generally, agencies were using the authorities appropriately; however, some misuses occurred. To effectively curtail future misuses, OPM needs to improve the scope of its monitoring efforts.
