The chair of a Senate governmental affairs subcommittee has tasked GAO with reviewing the SES performance bonus program to determine whether it is effective in light of questions about payments of such bonuses in agencies experiencing management problems such as VA.
"There is ample evidence to suggest that performance bonuses have been issued by government departments and agencies to SES employees as a routine matter of course with little regard to actual performance," said Sen. McCaskill, D-Mo.
A recent report from her subcommittee showed that the federal government spent more than $340 million on cash bonuses from 2008-2011 for SES employeess. In 2011, the government gave bonuses to 81 percent of all SES employees.
"Most federal agencies lack sufficient, quantifiable metrics with which to determine whether SES employees are deserving of the bonuses that they receive,” she said in her letter requesting the study.
