Group Picked to Examine Pay-for-Performance

The Obama administration's review of the Pentagon's pay-for-performance system is getting underway with the naming of a task group to examine the National Security Personnel System.

The group's report could have a significant impact on the future of NSPS. It is the government's largest pay-for-performance program and has been harshly criticized by federal labor unions. The administration has agreed to a request by members of Congress to halt any further employee conversions to NSPS pending the review.

Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III and Director of the Office of Personnel Management John Berry announced that the Defense Business Board will oversee the review.

"The task group will be chaired by Rudy deLeon, the senior vice president of National Security and International Policy at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C.," says a statement issued by the Defense Department and OPM. "The other members of the group will be Michael Bayer, chairman of the Defense Business Board, and Robert Tobias, a professor at American University and director for the Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation." Tobias is a past president of the National Treasury Employees Union.

The three-member panel will present its findings during an open meeting of the board in late summer. The board then will send its recommendations to the secretary of defense and the OPM director.

In this instructions to the business board, Lynn said the task group should examine "whether the program objectives are being met" and "whether NSPS is operating in a fair, transparent, and effective manner.”

By Eric Pianin  |  May 15, 2009; 1:55 PM ET
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