THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2010
KLMNO
EZ SU THE FEDERAL WORKER At OPM, an overhaul of retirement processing
FEDERAL DIARY Joe Davidson
I
n the latest attempt to fix a dysfunctional federal retiree program, Office of Personnel
Management Director John Berry announcedWednesday yet another overhaul of a system that leaves retirees waiting months for their checks. Berry said he is adding 80
people to a retirement- processing staff of 130 in hopes of making a significant cut in the 138 days, almost five months, it takes on average to process claims. “We want to do everything we
can to put as much of their money—at the end of the day we have to remember this is their money—in their pockets as quickly as we can,” he said. Staffing cutbacks at OPM,
similar to those other agencies experienced during the Bush administration, are among the reasons for the long waits. The 130 employees handled 98,000 claims in fiscal 2010, a load just slightly lower than 178 workers were responsible for in 2006, according to OPM. Berry said 40 new staff members would be hired and
another 40 would be transferred from other OPM offices for six months to help deal with the backlog. That office will focus only on retirement claims and not on health and insurance issues, as was done in the past. The retirement- processing staff has a new leader, Bill Zielinski, a former Social Security Administration official, who is OPM’s associate director for retirement services. “We are hiring those people as
down to a much more reasonable level.” Berry did not set a
goal for what that reasonable level might be but said “it’s got to be a lot better” than what is now. The system is so
John Berry, personnel management office director.
slow because OPM needs complete records to process retirement claims, and that’s not as simple as it sounds. Federal workers often
we speak, and we will be training them and getting them on the front lines as quickly as we can,” Berry said. “That being said, our timeline continues to worsen. . . . I recognize the hardship this poses to our retirees.” While they wait for OPM to
determine what they are due, the agency provides retirees with partial checks. Berry said he has told agency officials “to maximize that partial payment, especially over the next 12 months, until we can resolve this backlog and get this behind us.” Berry said previous reports by
OPM put the backlog at 40 or 45 days. That was bogus. “I do not know how those numbers were figured out,” Berry said. “It has no bearing in reality that we can find. . . . This is far worse than what has been recorded.” He added, “We need to get this
CONVERSATIONS:ANAGALINDO-MARRONE As elections near, a reminder on Hatch Act BY LISA REIN The Office of Special Counsel,
an investigative agency primarily responsible for looking out for whistleblowers, also prosecutes the Hatch Act, a law prohibiting federal workers fromengaging in certain political activity.With the midtermelections just a few weeks away, the OSC is reminding civil servants to observe the law. Ana Galindo-Marrone, 46, has
been chief of the agency’s Hatch Act unit since 2000. She’s a graduate of the University of Miami Law School and lives in Arlington County. She discussed her staff ’s work with The Washington Post.
Q: Howmany government lawyers are involved in prosecuting the Hatch Act?
A: Back when I started this work in 1999, it was justme. Now we’re up to 12 attorneys. We all come with different
washingtonpost.com Q.
AWashington Post poll reported Monday that 52 percent of Americans believe federal workers are overpaid and that more than a third believe the employees are less qualified than those in the private sector. The poll also noted that three out of four respondents who interacted with a federal employee said it was a positive experience. What do you make of the results?
l Please e-mail your answer to
federalworker@washpost.com and include your full name, home town and the agency for which you work.We might include your response in Friday’s Washington Post.When answers are particularly sensitive, we will consider a respondent’s request to withhold full identification.
The Federal Page
An ironic twist in this campaign finance fight
Democrats have accused John McCain of violating the same laws he helped write. The senator calls the allegations a “stunt.” Influence Industry, A19
‘Our land has always been sacred’
Native American farmers celebrate a $760 million settlement in their discrimination case against the USDA. Conversation, A19
backgrounds. I was a school board attorney inMiami before coming here. Some people I hire right out of law school.We just made an offer to a public defender.We have an attorney right out of the JAG corps.
Q: Howmany cases do you prosecute every year?
A:We enforce this law nationwide, against state and local employees as well as federal ones who violated it. In fiscal 2009, we prosecuted 10 cases. Currently, I’mlooking at five or six cases onmy desk that have just been approved for prosecution — on top of 10 we already filed this year. The number is growing. In 2008 there were three cases, in 2007 just one. Half our time is dedicated to our advisory function.We’ve issued 4,320 advisory opinions this year.
Q.What’s an advisory opinion as it pertains to the Hatch Act?
A: A state or local employee typically asks, “AmI covered by the law?” The question for them is if their principal employment is in connection with a federally financed activity. An example would be the director of a housing authority or a chief of police or a social service director. An opponent of a state or local employee running for public office also could seek an opinion.With federal advisory requests, the question is typically, Can I send this e-mail at work? They aremore questions about actions the employee wants to take.
Q:What political activities can be done when an employee is off duty, and does this line get blurred with BlackBerries and teleworking?
A: Let’s say I support a particular candidate. I can, off duty, send out an e-mail tomy
violate the law? A:Many employees, when we investigate the violation, will say they were passing on the campaign e-mail which has now gotten themin trouble, and that they didn’t know it was political.
Q:What’s a typical penalty if someone is found to have violated the law? A: Firing or suspension. . . . A suspensionmeans anything more than 30 days.
Q: Do you sympathize with people who work in a political town where the line between government and politics is often blurred?
COURTESY OF OFFICE OF SPECIAL COUNSEL
Ana Galindo-Marrone, 46, has been chief of the Office of Special Counsel’sHatch Act unit since 2000.
friends saying here’s a link to their campaign page. But in terms of restrictions: You can’t engage in political activity on duty in a federal roomor office building while using a government vehicle. I don’t think everyone saw the advent of almost everything being on e- mail.When employees take government equipment home— we have to look at whether the political activity was done on duty at home. The law doesn’t say you can’t use government equipment like a BlackBerry, but you can’t do it on duty or in the federal workplace.We would have to establish that the person was on duty.
Q: How do you and your staff hear about possible violations of the law?
A: An agencymay hear froman employee on the receiving end of a political e-mail and we get a referral. The problemwith e- mail is you never know where it’s going to end up. You send an e-mail to 20 friends, they send it to their friends. Someone gets it and says, “What is a federal employee doing on government time sending campaignmail?” Technology has facilitated the activity — and the referrals.
Q:What about colleagues who discuss the presidential election over lunch in the agency cafeteria?
A: That’s the hardest question to answer. The law says we retain a right to retain our opinions, but we can’t engage in political activity on duty. Clearly if you’re just talking with a close friend about the events of the day, a debate, say, that is probably not going to constitute political activity. But if I decide I’mgoing to convert a colleague to supportingmy candidate — that’s political activity.
Q: Domost employees willfully
A: At the end of the day, what the Hatch Act is intended to do ismake sure our advancement in the federal service is based on merit and not political affiliations, and that our provision of services to the public is not done in a partisan way.
reinl@washpost.com
work for various agencies during their careers. Some have military service, which must be counted. Divorce settlements can complicate matters. The system is not automated,
so all of this generates lots of paper. Details must be checked. If information is missing, it slows the process. It’s labor intensive. “It’s time consuming,” said
David B. Snell, benefits director for the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association. Snell wants to see an
automated system that captures employees’ retirement related information from the time they begin working for the government, sends it to OPM for processing and quickly determines the correct payment amount at the time workers leave federal service. That certainly is not what happens now, nor will that be
the case any time soon. There is “minimal IT hope on
the horizon,” Berry said. Berry made no attempt to sugarcoat the situation. “There is no question that we
face a lot of problems and that there has been an ugly history in our retirement processing area,” he told reporters. That history includes $200
million in largely failed attempts, over more than 20 years, to computerize a federal retirement system that largely relies on pieces of paper, said Matthew Perry, OPM chief information officer. OPM began an automated processing program in 1987. “Despite 8 years of work, the program was at high risk of failure,” said a Government Accountability Office report. The second effort, from 1997
to 2001, also failed, though like the other attempts, some elements of that program were useful, Perry said. The latest debacle was a 10-
year contract OPM canceled two years ago for a program it called RetireEZ. Uncle Sam paid out $21 million before he pulled the plug.
Berry said OPM will continue
attempts to automate the system, but will do so incrementally, rather than attempting to remake the entire system at once. “I don’t want to repeat the
mistakes of the past,” he said.
federaldiary@washpost.com
OnLeadership:TheFederalCoach
6Excerpt
fromviews.washingtonpost.com/leadership/fedcoach The nonprofit Partnership for Public Service and The
Washington Post’s On Leadership site produce the Federal Coach, hosted by Tom Fox, director of the partnership’s Center for Government Leadership. The goal is to “engage, inspire and learn from you, the federal
worker, whether you are a new hire, a contractor or a manager at the highest level.”
Executives, rewards
andteleworking Thank you for your comments
onmy recent columns about how tobecomeagovernmentexecutive and reward federal employees the rightway.Please continue sharing your ideas and questions by e- mailing me at
ourpublicservice.org. To start, I wanted to share the
following advice from a reader about becoming a senior govern- ment executive:
As an senior executive for six
years, I give the following advice: Generally speaking, you must be willing tomove and take riskwith your career. If you are not, you are unlikely to gain the broad back- ground of diverse experience nec- essary to be competitive for a se- nior executive position. Further- more, if Iwant to change an orga- nization, I am unlikely to hire from within; don’t assume you will get the position because it is “your turn.”
—FederalCoach reader I also wanted to share some
terrific advice fromanewer feder- al employee about the bestway to rewardhighperformance:
Speaking as a GS-7-9, I’d be far
more interested in a reward sys- tem that allowed top performers career advancement and/or train- ing opportunities. A few dollars doesn’t change the job, but meet- ing a target to qualify for cross- training or advancement would mean a lot more to people at my level. Cash awards in my agency are very small and awarded six months toayearafter thenomina- tion, rendering them doubly meaningless.Why not replace the system with awards of real long- termvalue?
—FederalCoach reader Next, here are two questions
that I received on telework this week.
Telework is incredibly popu-
lar these days given the poten- tial work-life benefits to people and the operational benefits to federal agencies. There is all of this talk about telework, but are government leaders prepared to manage in a remote environ- ment? How canmanagers learn more about leading in this envi- ronment?
—Federal employee, Architect of theCapitol
One of the barriers to imple-
menting telework in federal agen- cies is the assumption by manag- ers that the physical presence of employees equals strong perfor-
mance, because better perfor- mance measures are often not available to them. However, it’s important that federal managers remember that performance is measured by productivity and re- sults,not by face time. If you’re interested in embrac-
fedcoach@
ing telework for your team, go back to the basics. First, set clear performance expectations that identify measurable results and deliverables. Second, establish a regular reporting process to dis- cuss progress, difficulties and re- sults. Third, stick to the new rou- tine.
“Successful use of telework requires
collaboration.” —Tom Fox, the Federal Coach.
I have a poor performer who
wants to work from home. How canI learntotrust thisworker? —Federalmanager (GS-15),U.S. SmallBusinessAdministration
Trust but verify. Successful use
of telework requires collaboration between managers and employ- ees. Although managers should show flexibility and be willing to make accommodations, employ- ees must act responsibly and be productive. First, define a clear path for-
wardtowardtelework.Determine howmuchtime intheoffice,deliv- ering results, youwill need first to be convinced that your employee is capable of effectively working fromhome. Second, set adeadline and begin developing a weekly routine that includes setting ex- pectations, reporting progress and measuring results. Once you set thesemeasureswiththegoalof telework in the distance, you will quickly find outwhether your em- ployee ismotivatedto improvehis orherperformance. Withthefederalhiringreforms
near, the Partnership for Public Service recently released a new guide, “What’s My Role,” which gives federal managers five steps to getting the best workers with the right skills into the right jobs. Go to
ourpublicservice.org. VisitOn Leadership at views.wash-
ingtonpost.com/leadership/fed- coach. There are threeweekly installments. Mondays: “Getting Ahead”—advice on “leading up.” Wednesdays: “ViewFromthe Top Floor”—interviewswith federal lead- ers. Fridays: Answering questions about navigating the federalworkforce ter- rain.
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