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Senior Executive Service: Reasons the Candidate Development Program Has Not Produced More SES Appointees

GGD-88-47 Published: Apr 20, 1988. Publicly Released: May 24, 1988.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined why federal agencies did not more frequently use the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) Candidate Development Program (CDP) when making Senior Executive Service (SES) appointments, focusing on the: (1) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); (2) Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); (3) Department of Agriculture (USDA); (4) Department of the Interior; (5) Office of the Secretary of Defense; and (6) Veterans Administration (VA).

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of Personnel Management To better achieve OPM expectations for CDP, the Director, OPM, should determine what actions OPM could take to enhance the use of CDP. This could be done by OPM in conjunction with other federal agencies or by the SES advisory board as part of its examination of SES-related policies.
Closed – Not Implemented
OPM continues to work with agencies to monitor CDP. OPM has developed a package for applicants describing SES CDP as well as agency CDP and contacts. OPM leadership is reexamining this area and looking for new approaches to accomplish the desired results. Recommendation is based on work done prior to 1983, and it is highly unlikely that recommendation over 6 years old will suddenly be implemented. In future work on the CDP program, GAO will revisit this issue.

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Topics

Civil service jobsEmployee incentivesEmployee promotionsFederal employeesEmployee trainingStaff utilizationPersonnel managementProgram managementSenior Executive ServiceVeterans