Agencies prize accountability when using special hiring authority

Federal managers who use special hiring flexibilities to attract top executives to government posts have maintained a high level of accountability and fairness, according to a new report from the PricewaterhouseCoopers Endowment for the Business of Government. Despite the potential for abusing special hiring authorities, managers at such agencies as the Internal Revenue Service and the Education Department's Office of Student Financial Assistance (SFA) have actually enhanced accountability by taking great pains to ensure fairness in their recruitment of executives, according to the report, "A Weapon in the War for Talent: Using Special Authorities to Recruit Crucial Personnel." "The executives and managers in the agencies had a strong incentive and sense of duty to make the special hiring provisions succeed," said the report's author, Hal G. Rainey, a professor of political science and public administration at the University of Georgia. "This appears to have spurred them to avoid even the appearance of impropriety." Rainey received a grant from PricewaterhouseCoopers to write the report. Title 5 of the U.S. Code dictates standard personnel rules for the federal government, including a rigid system of job classifications and corresponding pay scales. But Congress has granted Title 5 exemptions to some agencies, such as the Federal Aviation Administration, giving them authority to craft their own personnel systems to better suit their particular human resource needs and allowing them to pay certain employees higher salaries. Others, such as IRS and SFA, still operate under Title 5 regulations, but Congress has given them special hiring flexibilities outside Title 5 to attract top executives from the private sector. For example, SFA's chief operating officer has the authority to appoint up to 25 technical and professional employees to help the agency carry out its mission. Some interpreted the statute to mean that SFA could hire a reasonable number of senior managers, plus 25 technical and professional employees. But to avoid exceeding the authority of the provision, the agency's COO interpreted the statute to include both senior managers and other professional positions for a total of 25 new employees. IRS officials have showed a similar respect for fairness when exercising the flexible pay authorities granted by Congress in the 1998 IRS Restructuring and Reform Act, according to Rainey. The agency's newly created oversight board can review the use of pay flexibilities and each job candidate is subject to extensive background checks by the IRS and the Treasury Department. Although the IRS is in a better position to offer top executives competitive salaries to work at the agency, the pay authorities "by no means give the agency a release from accountability and checks against misuse," Rainey emphasized. "They have obviously considered it very important to demonstrate responsible and well-justified utilization of these special authorities," Rainey wrote. In addition to SFA and IRS, Rainey studied the special hiring authorities at FAA and the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). In 1999, PTO moved out of the Commerce Department, becoming a performance-based organization. The new authority has given the agency more freedom to create executive positions as needed. Beside ensuring a fair and transparent hiring process, agencies using special hiring flexibilities to attract well-qualified candidates must possess a strong commitment to recruitment from the top leadership, clear legislative authority and a recruiting strategy that fits the organization's overall mission, the report said.