| Comment Number: | OL-10506927 |
| Received: | 3/13/2005 10:07:48 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:
I am adding my voice to many others urging you to NOT implement the proposed NSPS in the Department of Defense or any other agency where it is not already in effect, and to have performed a review, by an independent party, of the impact on morale – and consequent productivity - where it has been implemented. Management of those agencies must have a little input to that review as possible, for their input if given much weight, would obviously slant the conclusions. Implementation of NSPS would have little impact on me, as I will be eligible to retire in 2008 and the current schedule calls for my office to fall under NSPS in January 2006. It WILL potentially impact many of my co-workers, and could even acceleration the departure of experienced personnel from the Government if management does abuse the additional privileges NSPS would provide it. Even under the current system I have seen abuses, such as multiple cases of positions being held open for many months until a pre-selected worker became eligible for the position, then the position would be advertised as per regulations – with the selection being a foregone conclusion. Examples: - In one case, a man was selected for a contracting officer position based apparently on the fact that he and selecting supervisor had been close friends for many years; after he was forced to retire by another supervisor based on the low quality of his work, those who inherited his contracts soon learned to dislike them. Either he was incompetent of negligent to the equivalence of incompetence, and almost every contract he wrote needed extensive re-writing . - In my office, one branch supervisor was hired from another DoD agency, and made loife difficult for any worker who did not do things his way, often requiring re-writes of the work. He was only here three years, before moving on to another agency, but in his third year before he announced he was leaving eleven (out of an office staff of approximately 45) of our experienced, quality, persons either left the Government or transferred out to another agency. Most years the number of workers who leave, including for retirement, does not exceed four. Maybe the number leaving was unrelated to this supervisor, but there has never since been another year when so many left. Statistical review of the facts would indicate the supervisor was in some way related to the high number of departures. When I started working for the Government in 1978, one of the reasons I accepted the Government position (in spite of the fact that private sector salaries were much better) was the pension plan and the fact that a Government position was fairly secure; one could not be dismissed without good cause. In 1983 President Reagan took away the excellent pension plan from all new employees, effective 1984. If the NSPS is implemented, anywhere managers abuse the system - through nepotism, pay rate assignment through the buddy system, downgrading of workers so they can afford to hire additional persons of their choice (I can foresee work-arounds of the TDA happening frequently)….. how long will it be before the workhorses in each workplace start exiting en masse? Also with NSPS, I anticipate that it will be hard to hire and retain for more than a few years quality workers. I urge you, do not implement NSPS in any more Government agencies until an impartial review of the impact where it is now can be conducted.