Federal Manager's Daily Report Friday, September 24, 2004 Published by FEDweek, the federal government's largest information resource with now over one million weekly readers to its electronic newsletters. *********************************************************** Federal Manager's Daily Report is a brand new FREE daily electronic report for all federal managers and supervisors featuring the day's top stories on management and workforce issues. Please pass this information on to your fellow colleagues. You can sign up for this free daily report at http://www.fedweek.com/subscribepopup.htm. *********************************************************** In Today's Issue: 1. Good-Government Groups Merge 2. GAO: Nearly All Army Active Duty Reserves Have Pay Problems 3. OPM Coaches on Entering SES at Blacks in Government Conference ************************************************************
1. Good-Government Groups Merge In what they called a move to build on the "growing momentum" behind the cause of improving government performance, two groups working to improve the management of the federal government, the Partnership for Public Service and the Private Sector Council, have announced that they are merging. Together, PSC's, "private sector expertise and the partnership's extensive outreach activities will create a powerful ally for effective government," said David Walker, Comptroller General of the United States and a member of the partnership's board of governors. PSC shares the expertise of leading Fortune 500 executives with federal agency leadership and will continue to operate as a PPS program, according to a PPS statement. "This collaboration exemplifies what we have long believed: business has an important role in strengthening our public service," said Max Stier, PPS president and CEO. PPC president and CEO, Pete Smith, added that PSC would "expand its reach in sharing business best practices with the public sector." 2. GAO: Nearly All Army Active Duty Reserves Have Pay Problems The way the Department of Defense provides pay and benefits to mobilized Army reservists is "so error-prone, cumbersome, and complex" that it is unreasonable to expect timely and accurate payments resulting from them, the Government Accountability Office has said. It said 332 of 348 soldiers it audited in eight case study units that were mobilized, deployed and demobilized between August 2002 and January 2004 had at least one pay problem such as an overpayment, late payment or underpayment of active duty or allowance -- but that many had several problems that often lingered, and nearly all received the tax exemptions they are entitled to one month late. As a result soldiers found themselves deployed overseas, sometimes in remote and dangerous places, seeking help on pay and benefits, according to GAO-04-911. It said the processes in place to pay them involve hundreds of organizations that are "deficient with respect to tracking soldiers' pay status as they transition through their active duty tours, carrying out soldier readiness reviews and after-the-fact report reconciliation requirements, and are unclear about procedures for applying certain pay entitlements." GAO, which did the case study to follow up on its November 2003 report highlighting pay problems with mobilized reservists, further identified human capital weaknesses in the case study units including "insufficient resources allocated to key unit-level pay administration responsibilities, inadequate training related to existing policies and procedures, and poor customer service." 3. OPM Coaches on Entering SES at Blacks in Government Conference The Office of Personnel Management stressed training and preparation for attendees of the recent 26th annual Blacks in Government training conference who are thinking of entering the senior executive service. In what it called a one-day "boot camp," OPM gave a slide presentation on training, interviewing and leadership skills, and discussed executive core qualifications. The event included an intensive session on how to "prepare" -- develop and present -- ECQs, a self-marketing workshop with mock interviews and executive coaching by senior executive members. Published by FEDweek LLC 11551 Nuckols Rd. Suite L Glen Allen, VA 23059 (804) 288-5321 Website: http://www.fedweek.com A 100% Veteran-Owned Business [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are subscribed to federalmanagersdailyreport as [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
