GSA allowed to offer prizes to federal employees

Laptop computers and other prizes await lucky federal employees who fill out customer service surveys from the General Services Administration (GSA).

This month the General Accounting Office gave GSA's Public Buildings Service (PBS) the green light to award prizes to employees randomly chosen in drawings to increase the response rate of customer satisfaction surveys.

PBS maintains 40 percent of federal office space and distributes surveys to agency employees working in GSA-managed buildings to assess customer satisfaction. In October, GSA sent a letter to GAO asking whether or not PBS could use appropriated funds to pay for prizes in a drawing designed as an incentive for people to fill out customer surveys.

GAO approved PBS' request to use funds for prizes since customer satisfaction information helps GSA carry out its mission and since employees are not required to fill out surveys.

The cost of the prizes-estimated at $35,000-will come out of GSA's Federal Buildings Fund. Prizes include 11 laptop computers and 150 leather portfolio cases filled with work-related items.

In January 2000, PBS launched a pilot program to see how prize incentives affected the rate of survey responses. According to GSA, the survey response rate rose from 32 percent to 51 percent during the pilot program.

"Indeed, GSA has demonstrated, statistically, that conducting a drawing in connection with its customer satisfaction surveys will enhance the response rate to the survey, and, thus, the value to GSA of the information that GSA obtains from its customers," Anthony H. Gamboa, acting general counsel for GAO, said in his opinion.

GAO has previously allowed agencies to offer prizes to help accomplish their missions. In 1991, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offered cash prizes to fisherman to encourage them to provide the agency with information for research on the history and migration rate of certain fish. In 1988, GAO said the Army could use funds to frame posters as prizes to encourage people to provide important recruiting information.