| Comment Number: | OL-10500448 |
| Received: | 2/17/2005 10:07:51 AM |
| Subject: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| Title: | National Security Personnel System |
| CFR Citation: | 5 CFR Chapter XCIX and Part 9901 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
The focus of the NSPS seems to be based on the premise that all Government personnel covered by this plan work for excellent, forward thinking, unbiased supervisors. An absolutely ridiculous premise. In the past, if a position I took was legal, correct, and in the public's best interest, I could stand on that that position, regardless of the popularity of such a position, with few fears that I would suffer any financial impact from arbitrary decisions of a manager who is basing my pay on their unilateral, unreviewable determination of my performance. Now, I am afraid that fewer employees will take such positions if it is counter to what their supervisor wants or may embarrass the organization. The NSPS, basically, takes away any independence of action which is what the public expects and trusts. I am also concerned with, basically, reducing/eliminating effective Bargaining Unit protection with trusting that all Government supervisory personnel are only watching out for my best interests. I am also concerned with the several deployability issues allowed. I am a Vietnam era vet and a Desert Storm vet with a service connected diasability. I have paid my dues. I am very concerned that the DoD could deploy me simply because they can no longer provide adequate incentives to secure voluntary deployments. It seems that most people have forgotten why the OPM and GS regulations became so voluminous. It is because employees were mistreated and when they took their cases to court, the courts agreed that they had been abused and the courts decisions provided the remedies that have been placed into the various personnel systems and documents. To think that these abuses will simply go away and not be challenged in court is ridiculous. Also, there are reasons why an individual should go through a lengthy review process prior to employment. It is far better to assure that you hire the correct personnel than it is to make it easier to remove that individual once it is relaized that the hiring was a mistake. This can easily lead to personnel shortages, performance inconsistencies, nepotism, and a general lack of trust in the personnel management system. I foresee valuable resources being expended to defend management abuses in court when adequate personnel protections already exist. I also foresee public distrust in a mangement system, seemingly, without adequate checks and balances.