OPM director John Berry said he remains concerned with continued growth in 3Rs payments given recent labor market conditions and called for more contemporaneous and active management of the 3Rs program.
OPM said it plans to review data that the biggest incentive users have submitted to OPM’s Central Personnel Data File and Enterprise Human Resources Integration systems.
Further, it said it would ask agencies to validate or certify the data accuracy, then track 3Rs trends on an on-going basis and if necessary, investigate anomalies and take corrective actions.
OPM noted that the 3Rs report to Congress for 2008 shows that 47 agencies paid 39,512 3Rs payments worth more than $284 million, and that between 2007 and 2008, the total number of incentives paid increased by more than 21 percent and the total incentive cost increased by more than 37 percent.
While OPM said it makes sense for most agencies to delegate the administration of their 3Rs programs to subordinate organizations and to the field, it said it appears that the problem for many agencies is that there is neither detailed knowledge nor adequate overview at the headquarters level of 3Rs use in the subordinate organizations and field.