Comment Number: OL-10501857
Received: 2/28/2005 10:09:56 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:

I am retired military and after retirement, found the private sector to be quite lucrative. I am now overseas with my wife and am now employed in the GS system. I have scanned through the NSPS Federal Register and find that the system you are envisioning is one that can and will be abused. There will be those of us that will advocate the proper use of the system, but we will find that this punishes those that do their jobs well. It also does not address budgetary constraints. Case in point in the present, we did not receive bonuses this year due to budgetary constraints. It seems that this will be continued even into the NSPS process. A chosen few can and will recieve bonuses or pay increase, while other hard working individuals will be left behind. What is the incentive to excel?? What is the incentive to continue service in the NSPS system? I can be a first class butt kisser in the private sector and reap many more rewards. I have read many of the comments already presented and the realistic fear is that others that are not deserving will get promoted/pay raises above the real workers that spend their time and efforts completing the misssion. Being a butt kisser will become an artform and DoD will have to start giving classes on how to succeed in the new NSPS system. Private schools will offer classes on how to circumvent the system and get ahead of others. Books will be written on the How-To get ahead in the DoD. Why is it that the GS system is so broken that we must use the events of September 11th to change it? We need an independent review of the system, not a YES-MAN/WOMAN panel to develop a new system, that will not work and is doomed to fail. There are changes that need to be made, but they should be made within the guises of the current system. Use the Best Business Practices of other Private organizations. The GS system should be fluid system that provides a stable environment for it's employees and one that gets rid of the dead wood. More often than not, dead wood is moved around. Fire their butts and let them justify their reasons for staying put in a job they are not doing. The NSPS system will not reward these peolple, but it does not offer any better way of getting rid of dead wood. All GS employees should be hired at will. That way they know from the get go that they can be released at anytime. Many private firms have this, as does many municipal governments. Bottom line is to fix the current system - don't trash it and start a new monster that will be bastardized and rewarding only to a chosen few.