Changes underway at individual agencies suggest that broader,
more systematic civil service reform should be seriously
considered, the Government Accountability Office has said
in a new report.
It argued that the momentum carrying human capital reform
should be leveraged to extend flexibilities government wide
in order to develop more results oriented, customer focused,
and collaborative cultures.
It also hinted that agencies should be given similar
flexibilities to those granted to the Departments of Homeland
Security and Defense where “precedent-setting” changes are
underway.
“We are fast approaching the point where standard, government
wide human capital policies and processes are neither
standard nor government wide,” said GAO, continuing, “it
would be both prudent and preferable to employ a government
wide approach to address the need for human capital
authorities that have broad-based application and serious
implications for the civil service system.”
GAO said such an approach would not be intended to hold back
any agency’s efforts, but rather to speed up human capital
reform throughout the federal government consistently within
the civilian workforce. GA0-04-976T
