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Return to Article: Congress withholds millions from DHS personnel system

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  I think that reform at the Defense Department at least would be wonderful. I work under pay for performance and I like it fine, but I work hard. I can understand if you have a bad boss, it might be terrible but, I'm also a military spouse that has had to deal with a months long backlog when a screw-up in my husband's pay continues to get worse only because the civilian pay clerk has no incentive to do any better. I have had to deal with rude, ignorant people who get their jobs because they had "spousal" preference rather than experience and hide behind civil service protections and continue to do at best shoddy work while still getting paid and garnering benefits. The Defense Department really needs a rework on its hiring and civil service laws -- quickly.

  Christie Posted October 23, 2006 7:54 PM
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  Pay for performance means we will pay you when we feel like paying you. Or, an even better excuse is, we don't have the money to pay you this year.

  My wife is on a pay for performance system. She has recently been told that "you have performed your duties better than last year, but you get a raise that is 1 percent less than last year's raise.

  Pay for performance -- right!

  ICED!!!! Posted October 4, 2006 8:37 PM
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  I've been thinking (shhh, please don't tell anyone), what is this all about?

  Attempts to reform the civil service have been going on for decades with little pockets of special test cases and one large omnibus system as the result; so why this big push and all the finger pointing now? It seems to me the issue, quite simply, is control; control over people, money, and too many over our safety and freedom.

  That statement may seem overly simplistic; I grant you that the components causing this issue are complex, many, and varied. A knee jerk response to 9/11 sent us into a reactionary, force projection mode similar to what Israel is often criticized for. Our leader felt we needed to show the world that we were to be reckoned with. The Congress needed to show we were behind him; and they continued in that mode passing several pieces of legislation that, otherwise, may not have withstood the glaring light of constitutionality. Regardless of our personal opinions, this administration will go down in history as pivotal in the expansion and consolidation of federal power. That is its legacy.

  Now, five years later, we have had time to breathe. Today, we are looking back trying to figure out if that was a pig-in-a-poke that we bought into or not. Some think we should continue whole hog; others think that the ham has points but the jowls were too much.

  The only tools Congress has over the executive branch are those of censure and the purse strings. The pulse of the people is not yet sufficient to censure those who reacted in our name, but many feel we can stop throwing good money after bad.

  While I will not weigh in on that nasty conflict issue, I see many, including my representative, reexamining the other longer term issues of legislation taken shortly after that horrendous event. Personally I think this is a good thing. As a matter of fact, later this year I will again weigh in on this particular debate, and I will do so with my ballot.

  See you there?

  Tip off.

  GovExec.com reader Posted October 4, 2006 9:36 AM
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  Congress wants a new system of personnel evaluation and pay for DHS and the Defense Department. Now the courts have stopped both new systems as illegal. Also, now Congress does not want to pay for the new systems. This is a bunch of political crap that should be stopped immediately and the new systems should revert back to the old GS system that works fine and protects employees from bad management that is rampant throughout the Defense Department at least.

  Congress is playing games with employee pay and evaluations at a time that is not appropriate and it should stop the entire process. Why are we spending hundreds of millions of dollars to simply implement a system that puts all step, cola and maybe locality pay into a pool to distribute based on decisions of an incompetent "pay pool" and not the incompetent supervisors?

  Congress -- admit your mistake and get rid of all these "new" systems. There is nothing new in the evaluation -- only in the distribution of pay. What is happening could be done for a few thousand dollars and would still be wrong and would not increase incentives for potential retirees to stay in government employment. The continued weakening of the economy is the reason existing employees will stay in government and why new employees will join government. It also will help recruit military personnel even in the face of war and without the $40,000 bonuses and NASCAR sponsorships currently being done. Oh there goes another 42-year-old to recruit!

  Taxpayer Posted October 3, 2006 8:01 AM