GovernmentExecutive.com

The Homeland Security Department on Wednesday announced it would put an end to its new personnel system because of a provision signed into law this week that eliminates funding for the plan.

In a memo issued to DHS employees, Tom Cairns, the department's chief human capital officer, said a provision in the fiscal 2009 Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance and Continuing Appropriations Act (H.R. 2638) signed into law Tuesday by President Bush "prohibits spending funds to operate our new DHS human resources management system."

The personnel system, formerly known as MaxHR, was authorized by Congress in 2002 when it created DHS. The system included new rules governing performance management, labor relations, adverse actions and appeals. It also would have featured a market- and performance-based pay approach to replace the decades-old General Schedule system under which most civil servants work.

But a series of court rulings in 2006 prohibited DHS from moving forward with labor relations. The department went ahead with the performance management, appeals and adverse actions portions of the system, but in early 2007 decided to hold off on implementing a pay-for-performance system. The department also announced a broader initiative -- the Human Capital Operational Plan -- to promote hiring and retention, learning and development, and a DHS-wide integrated leadership system.

The new law repeals rules governing labor relations and adverse actions and appeals -- returning employees to Title 5 regulations that have managed civil servants for decades. The law also eliminates pay for performance at DHS, except at the Transportation Security Administration. TSA's personnel system was established under a different statute.

"Pay for performance was so far on the back burner that it probably got cold," DHS Spokesman Larry Orluskie said on Thursday. "It takes it off the plate for now. I don't think any DHS employees were expecting a pay system to roll out any time soon."

Orluskie added that the main goals of HCOP -- hiring, training and performance management -- will remain. "We will continue to work with our employees and [the Office of Personnel Management] to provide the best human resource system possible, the best way we can," he said. "Our employees need that, and they've told us that time and time again through their surveys."

Orluskie said about 35,000 nonbargaining employees had converted to the program. DHS requested $5 million from Congress to continue the system in fiscal 2009.

Repeal of the program drew praise from federal labor unions, which have long charged that it would encourage cronyism and result in salary cuts in the long term.

"DHS now has an opportunity to work with employees and their representatives to improve morale that is at or near the bottom among major federal agencies," said Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union.

"We couldn't be more thrilled that this is a wooden stake in the heart of [Bush administration] attempts to curtail collective bargaining, due process and civil service rights," said Mark Roth, general counsel for the American Federation of Government Employees. "It's a nice goodbye kiss to this administration."

COMMENTS

• Although there will always be some who won't let the truth get in the way of their own slanted views, Jim Kaley is spot on in his assessment. This personnel system, as all government pay-for-performance systems, would have only led to negative results. Look no further than NSPS, which is turning away the best candidates as they look elsewhere for employment, or the TSA pay system, which is largely responsible for their recruitment and retention of quality employees. Additionally, Kaley is right that ICE can't simply deport illegal aliens to countries which won't accept them. Although facts like these are brushed aside by those who only want to bash the federal workforce, they are true nonetheless and people who refuse to admit this are the problem. Name Withheld Posted October 30, 2008 10:59 AM
• Can't fool you Jim.. ICE is turning the illegals around faster, as the article points out because they came under scrutiny they are moving the prisoners around from 1 holding area to another that way the "ICE" clock starts again. So much for Fed's telling the "TRUTH" and not gaming the system No the problem is just what it is government is broke. Government working as government and not like the private sector is the issue.Feds have been gaming the system as long as I have been around. The honesty you profess is inherent doesn't exist and if you believe it does than you are part of the problem. Do I believe CS are lazy yea I do do are they under worked and overpaid yea I do and so does the general public Dan ketter Posted October 8, 2008 12:31 PM
• I am so glad that this time consuming, ineffective program has run its course. Its prime contractor got 70 million or more in tax dollars each of several years when they should have been delivering the airplanes they make. Back in the late 1970's we suffered through MERIT PAY. Merit Pay died like this did, just faster, because in the government there is a fundamental flaw in bonuses. Government (pardon the blasphemy) is not a business and cannot be run like one. It is a government and has to be run like, well, a government. That means telling the truth and doing the right thing. When you start paying bonuses to a small fraction of government employees, people start lying about their accomplishments. Then upper management begins to repeat the lies and to believe them and you get stupid strategic decisions. (You know like, “You’re doin’ a heck of a job Brownie!”) Worse though is that you develop an environment where everyone winks when a lie is told and where mid-level managers get and expect their subordinates to help them mislead upper management. After 30 years of working in Treasury and 4 in DHS, I am pretty sure that people will lie for money. Take the motivation away. If your pay is the same whether you tell the truth and do the right thing, as it is for lying, then you will tell the truth. Get it? Most people rise to the expectations others hold out for them. Government employees by and large do great work whether or not their masters know it or understand it. Dan Ketter, I know you think feds are lazy, but the issues with deportation are not all simply put them on the bus and send them home. Border Patrol, CBP, ICE, and DRO actually turn most aliens around a lot faster than what you say. Not every case is simple. You cannot pick some one up unless you have a place to put them, which is a question most often of funding. Even if an alien wants to go home, a country has to agree to accept them. Just because a person is a Chinese citizen does not mean China does not take 6 months to get DRO travel documents. Jim Kaley Posted October 7, 2008 3:43 PM