At the hearing, Walker said the proposed regulations
provide some safeguards against abuse and to ensure
fairness, but said “additional safeguards should be
developed.”
Details are missing concerning exactly how DoD “would
promote consistency and provide general oversight of
the performance management system to help ensure it
is administered in a fair, credible, and transparent
manner, and incorporate pre-decisional internal
safeguards . . . (for) consistency and equity, and
ensure nondiscrimination and non-politicization of
the performance management process,” he said.
He cited GAO’s past position that Congress should
establish statutory standards for an agency to have
in place prior to implementing a performance pay
program, and identified an initial list of safeguards
to ensure fairness, effectiveness and credibility.
For example, “DoD needs to commit itself to publishing
the results of performance management decisions,”
which would ensure transparency and allow for
accountability mechanisms in connection with the
results of the performance management process, said
Walker.
He said that could be done by publishing anonymous
results of performance management and pay decisions,
and reporting periodically on internal assessments
and employee survey results related to the performance
management system, something that could give employees
the information they need to understand their own
performance as well as the system as a whole.
