Another point of concern for GAO was that certain agencies had especially high numbers of execs rated at one of the top two levels–for example, NRC, 99.3; Justice, 98.3; Commerce, 95.9; and Agriculture, 95.4.
Meanwhile, State rated 95.2 percent at the very top, followed by USAID at 76.2 and SSA at 71. In contrast, VA gave the top rating to just 21.7 percent, GSA to 25.4 percent and DoD to 30.6 percent.
The wide variation was especially notable, it said, given that another goal of the policy revisions was to promote greater consistency in ratings among agencies. That in turn was intended to help promote movement of execs among agencies, which was intended to be a fundamental element of the SES when it was designed during the Carter administration, but that largely has been honored in the breach since then.
“The goal of having a uniform system would appear compromised if an ‘outstanding’ rating in one agency does not have the same meaning in another agency,” it said.
GAO examined five agencies–DoD, Energy, HHS, Justice, and Treasury—and found that each had converted to the revised policies or was in the process of doing so. However, even within that framework, there were variations in areas including performance review boards and linkage of SES performance plans with agency strategic objectives.
