Comment Number: OL-10510151
Received: 3/16/2005 6:54:16 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:

Reference NSPS Section Outreach to Employees: Statement re: townhall meetings were held worldwide in summer of 2004...with ample opportunity for Federal Employees to provide input, is disingenuous. I attended the only NSPS-related townhall meeting held at my command. The briefing was extremely vague, no specific details could be given about the new personnel system, and when the floor was opened for questions, one individual with multiple hard questions that couldn't be answered, and no plan for when or how questions would be answered, was told by one of the presenters to sit down and give somebody else a chance. At that point, the audience was so disgusted that nobody else asked any questions, and the briefing was ended, with much handshaking and back-patting among the presenters. I did not receive detailed, useable information about the NSPS prior to the published data of 14 Feb 05, and 1 month to review a lengthy proposal with numerous references to United States Codes that most civil servants are unfamiliar with, is unfair, and worse, smacks of having long-lasting Human Resource changes rammed through the system. The proposed NSPS is frightening in that it gives one person, for all intents and purposes, the Secretary of Defense (SD), sole authority/control over the DoD personnel system (with some few constraints only due to federal laws) and has only to coordinate/advise Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in advance where applicable (Section 9901.105). Re: Relationship to Other Section of the Law - the SD has total authority to define the mission and, it is surmised, what must happen to complete the mission as the SD has defined it. Currently proposed: Section F - The power to shape the workforce will rest with the Department, which one would conclude really means the SD, and could easily result in federal jobs becoming political paybacks/retaliations, i.e., federal jobs being cut from a geographic area that didn't vote for the winning presidential party, or jobs being moved to a geographical area that did vote for the winning presidential party. Department employees will all become Yes-Men so that their pay-for-performance is not penalized for objecting...to anything. This does not make good business sense if a stable, dedicated, honest, federal workforce is desired. The proposed NSPS will open the door wide for nepotism and favoritism, which is exactly the reason the numerous, and yes, convoluted and ungainly, OPM rules and regulations came into being. I agree with the intent to streamline OPM rules/regulations, and to reward good performers, but the proposed NSPS gives too much authority to one person/department, eases the way for abuses all the way down to the level of employee/manager, and leaves little recourse for the civil servant.