Fedweek

Jeff Pon, a former OPM official who also has held numerous other HR leadership positions inside and outside government has been sworn in as director, and Michael Rigas, a Massachusetts state government official who has held positions with the conservative Heritage Foundation and the GSA, has become deputy director, following their confirmation last week by the Senate.

OPM has been without a confirmed director for nearly three years since the resignation of Katherine Archuleta in the wake of the breaches of personnel and background investigation databases. It has not had a confirmed deputy director since 2011.

“We have not taken a hard look at our civil service laws in decades, we are still relying on paper processes and in too many areas, the federal government is not a workplace that is keeping up with the demands of the next generation of public servants or serving our current federal employees. We can do better,” Pon said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the White House has made nominations for the two vacant seats on the MSPB governing board. One is Andrew Maunz, an attorney in the SSA general counsel’s office who has represented the agency in employment litigation before the MSPB, EEOC, FLRA and in court as a special assistant U.S. Attorney. The other is Dennis Kirk, currently an attorney in private practice who previously held career positions with the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Army; he would become chairman. With only one member since January 2017, the MSPB has been unable to decide on appeals of decisions by the board’s hearing officers, resulting in a backlog of cases.

Also still vacant is the directorship of the Office of Government Ethics. Emory Rounds, an associate counsel there who previously served in the Bush White House and in several agencies, recently was nominated for that position.