Comment Number: OL-10503664
Received: 3/7/2005 11:09:14 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:

Complaints About NASA Raises Follow Switch to Performance-Based System By Stephen Barr, Washington Post, Wednesday, March 2, 2005; Page B02 In fashioning a new pay system for federal executives, the Bush administration and Congress jettisoned the six grades of the Senior Executive Service and replaced them with a broad salary range. Under the new system, rolled out last year, federal executives are no longer guaranteed an annual pay raise, as was the custom. Now, raises are supposed to be determined through performance evaluation systems, which must be certified by the Office of Personnel Management. Although job performance is supposed to be the chief criterion in setting raises, other factors also come into play, such as an individual's skills and job responsibilities. Some federal executives, meanwhile, say they have not been adequately informed of how the pay raise process works, and feel they have been left out of the loop. Concerns about the new pay system have recently emerged at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, providing a glimpse of the challenges involved in winning acceptance of performance-based systems. In January, about 50 percent of NASA executives received a 2.5 percent pay raise, the highest increase given. Twenty-seven percent received raises ranging from 0.5 percent to less than 2.5 percent, and 23 percent got no pay raise, said John Pennington, NASA's executive resources director. In making those pay decisions, NASA took into account the importance of the jobs held by executives as well as the performance of each executive. That led to complaints by some NASA executives that outgoing administrator Sean O'Keefe was rewarding his inner circle or mostly those in the top echelon rather than applying a uniform performance criteria to all 428 SES members. "The system is geared toward going along to get a raise or performance bonus," a NASA executive charged. He spoke on condition that he not be identified, citing fears that finding fault with the agency could harm his career. O'Keefe, who became chancellor of Louisiana State University last month, said any perceptions that he played favorites with raises are wrong. OPM and NASA's SES leadership created the process for judging performance and setting executive raises, he said. "I put no value to that process at all. I strictly acted on what was recommended by the process that we set in motion, exactly for this reason," he said. Raises were determined by evaluations sent from NASA's field centers and reviewed by mission directors at headquarters and by an executive performance review board, NASA officials said. The pay recommendations coming out of the process were sent to O'Keefe for his approval. O'Keefe said he signed them without modification. "No individual recommendation was changed," he said. Although job performance was the chief factor in determining pay raises, NASA officials said they also took "scope of position" into consideration, a factor allowed by OPM. O'Keefe said he was "not aware of that," but Pennington said, "We did establish a structure based on position worth -- positions with the greatest responsibility were eligible for the greatest increases." He added, "The actual fact is that we rewarded the people that are responsible for the mission implementation in the agency, and they happen to be the people in the senior leadership positions." Some of those senior executives reported directly to O'Keefe, said Vicki A. Novak, chief human capital officer at NASA. Although job responsibilities were considered, she said, "decisions were based on performance primarily." This year, agencies -- such as NASA -- that have won OPM approval for their SES performance appraisal system may pay executives between $107,550 and $162,100. If an agency does not have OPM certification, the top salary is limited to $149,200. NASA officials said the agency communicated its plan for pay raises before implementing th