| Comment Number: | OL-10503734 |
| Received: | 3/7/2005 1:54:48 PM |
| 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 civil service system as it stands is inflexible only because we choose to make it so. As a manager, I have effectively hired, fired and demoted personnel, all in the past 6 years. Yes, the process was cumbersome, but on the other hand, it was thorough and not subject to my whims. Somehow I feel the verbose wording of the premise of establishing this new system is just that -- words without complete substance and, I might add, they do appear to be very convincing to those not knowledgeable of the current system. The system now rewards experience instead of education. NSPS will only make this worse. Look, for example, at the scientific pay bands. Young professional scientific professions (e.g., recent college grad engineers) will enter and essentially stay put in the lowest pay band, unless a promotion opportunity occurs. Graduating after 5 years of intensive engineering study, my son is a DOD employee in a 7/9/11 engineering position. He is due his GS-11 in September. What will happen to him? Stuck in the lowest band? He asked me, but I only have a master’s degree and I could not interpret what will happen based on the Career Ladder section of this NSPS document on which we are to comment.. My advice to our young, bright, educated professionals -- bail out now and salvage your career. How does this help our national security efforts? The current system was designed to eliminate favoritism and nepotism. While not perfect, unlike the civilian community, the government was the place where women were not paid less than men for the same work and grade level. Following one of the publicized town hall meetings I inquired if any studies had been done on the previous Navy demonstration projects to determine if demographics showed any disproportionate salaries or problems with pay parity for any one race or gender. I expected a yes or no answer. My answer was as fuzzy as the regulations -- this data continues to be evaluated. I was also informed that NSPS deployment is event driven and would not commence until implementing regulations have been fully documented. Is this the implementing regulation? All flowery wording aside about defending our country and enhancing security, can someone provide some specific implementing instructions? As an employee who will be instrumental in providing homeland security, I want to know what pay band I will be in, and, if I am at the 'top" of my pay band, how that will affect my career. In all my years of government service I have not seen such a major program pushed to deployment with so little specifics on implementation. I am requesting that this public comment period be halted until such time as implementing instructions have been sufficiently promulgated. Since I do not know these instructions, I am denied the legal opportunity to provide substantive comments during this 30 day period, as I am told the key implementing components of this program will be publicized after this public comment period has concluded.