GAO has cited in a new report opportunities for the FDA and OPM to improve the oversight of recruitment, relocation and retention incentives.
The report follows a recent OPM announcement that it would begin reviewing the use of 3R payments out of concern of possible over-reliance given the current job market.
OPM noted that in 2008, 47 agencies paid 39,512 3Rs payments worth more than $284 million, and that from 2007 to 2008, the number of incentives paid increased by more than 21 percent while the total incentive cost increased by more than 37 percent.
FDA, within the Department of Health and Human Services most often uses retention incentives for employees in mission-critical occupations — much more so than relocation or recruitment incentives — but without an updated strategic workforce plan or established agencywide indicators for tracking its use of 3R incentives, FDA cannot assess the impact that these incentives have on its overall human capital strategy, according to GAO-10-226.
It said that while FDA collects data on workforce indicators at the agency and center levels, it has not analyzed how 3R incentives are helping the agency achieve its recruitment and retention goals.
After reviewing a sample of FDA 3R incentive files from January 2007 through October 2008, GAO found that FDA maintained documentation that provided sufficient explanation to justify each award.
However, several of the incentive files GAO reviewed lacked adherence to certain other requirements, such as prescribed contents of a service agreement, which in most instances may have resulted from a lack of documentation.
GAO called on OPM to provide guidance to all agencies on the importance of considering succession planning in the decision process for awarding retention incentives.
The report also said that while HHS’s 3R incentive policy generally addressed the requirements for 3R incentive plans as outlined in OPM’s regulations, that there were several instances where the policy omitted or did not clearly address certain important requirements, such as the conditions for terminating or reducing an incentive.
