letters@govexec.com
More buyouts, higher pay for senior executives and new evaluation
systems for federal managers are among the ideas the Clinton
administration is circulating as part of a civil service reform
initiative.
In a discussion
paper obtained by GovExec.com, the administration lays out
dozens of potential changes to the way federal managers and employees
are compensated and evaluated. The paper is being used as a starting
point for civil service reform discussions among the administration,
Congress, unions and professional associations. The administration
expects to propose official changes later this year.
The discussion paper includes a recommendation that agencies be
granted buyout authority until the end of fiscal 2001, to help them
"deal with current and future changes in mission, funding,
etc."
Vice President Al Gore has recently touted another of the ideas
listed in the discussion paper: Tying federal managers' pay to
performance. Senior managers should be evaluated on measures of customer
satisfaction, employee satisfaction and business results, Gore says.
Morley Winograd, director of Gore's National Partnership for
Reinventing Government, said the proposed system would definitely apply
to senior executives. The administration is still determining whether
more managers, such as those at the GS-14 and GS-15 levels, should also
be subject to the new evaluation system.
Winograd said the administration is gathering ideas from stakeholders
and bouncing the administration's ideas off them.
"We're getting people's reactions to our proposals,"
Winograd said.
Edward Lynch, a staffer on the House Government Reform Subcommittee
on the Civil Service, said he is supportive of the concept of better
tying pay to performance, but expressed reservations about the
administration's proposal to re-establish buyout authority for the
executive branch.