March 14, 2008
A summary of daily news relevant to the federal workforce produced by the Partnership
for Public Service.
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Celebrate Public Service with the Washington Capitals!
Join the Washington Capitals and the Partnership for Public Service as they celebrate America's dedicated public servants, and
cheer the Capitals on to victory as they square off against the Atlanta Thrashers tonight, March 14th!
In appreciation of the
dedicated service of our federal employees, the Washington Capitals are offering discounted tickets. Click here to buy tickets through the Partnership for Public Service. You do not need to be a federal employee to
receive this discount.
Date: Friday, March 14
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Verizon Center, Washington, D.C.
Cost:
Mezzanine
Corners: $19 (Normally $22)
Mezzanine Center: $34 (Normally $50)
Lower Level Loge: $45 (Normally $75)
FAA Embarks on Hiring Marathon
Federal Times
By Stephen
Losey
The Federal Aviation Administration aims to grow the size of its air traffic controller staff by about 1,600 over the next nine years. That
won’t be easy given that about 12,300 air traffic controllers are expected to leave the agency during that period, mostly because of
retirements.
So the agency is embarking on a nine-year hiring marathon in which it plans to hire roughly 1,400 to 1,800 new controllers a year.
To do that, it has streamlined the way it recruits and hires new controllers.
And this year, the agency began holding hiring fairs around the country in which the agency subjects promising job candidates to a barrage of
interviews, paperwork, tests, medical screenings and other steps — all in a single day.
This has dramatically shortened the time it takes job candidates to be hired and sent to the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City for training. Before, it
took six to nine months for a candidate to apply for a job and start training; now it takes two or three months.
Air traffic controller candidates "are ready to work, and we want to get them processed and in training as soon as possible," acting FAA
Administrator Bobby Sturgell said in a Feb. 15 statement.
The key to speeding up the time to get new controllers in place is the agency’s new hiring centers —temporary centers that rotate
among FAA sites around the country.
In the past, FAA expected job candidates to arrange tests and screenings and fill out required paperwork on their own. Candidates would have to
make multiple appointments for examinations at different locations.
"Before, they were on their own," said Jim Trinka, FAA’s director of technical training and development. "Now we’re holding them by
the hand and treating them well along the way, and that’s giving them a positive view of the agency. It’s intensive, but those 20
people [processed each day in the center] finish in six hours what used to take four to six months."
The first hiring center was in Jamaica, N.Y., on Jan. 13 and that week it processed nearly 100 candidates that it invited from 200 miles around.
"Within two weeks, we had [hired] 21 people," Trinka said. "And another week after that, they were in their academy training classes."
Word of the hiring centers is spreading. FAA was surprised the week of Feb. 11 when a job candidate from Chicago flew to Jacksonville, Fla., for
the second hiring center.
Staffing the centers are about 50 FAA managers, medical personnel and human resources officers. They screen about 20 people a day for a week, then
shut down and relocate elsewhere.
FAA officials also escort job candidates from test to test, which gives the potential new hires more chances to ask questions about the job and
the agency.
"They were able to tell me what I should expect over the next few weeks, and that made me more comfortable," said Ranika Harris, who was hired
after attending the Jamaica center and is now at the FAA Academy.
FAA plans to set up a weeklong center each month for the rest of the year.
If demand grows the agency may hold events more frequently next year. Bringing the 50 staffers to each hiring center costs about $50,000. But that
is money well spent considering how quickly new controllers are hired, Trinka said.
Finding suitable spaces for the centers can sometimes be a challenge, said Pat Spatarella, the team leader in charge of FAA’s
pre-employment processing centers. For example, the Jacksonville hiring center only had one soundproof room to conduct hearing tests, which
wasn’t enough and caused some backups in the process.
Similarly, medical personnel need private rooms to conduct physical exams, and managers need space to conduct job interviews.
Another step FAA took to improve hiring is it consolidated the task of posting job vacancies. Before, FAA’s nine regions posted their own
announcements, and those typically got little exposure beyond the region. FAA expanded the audience for its job postings by distributing them in
fewer but larger regions.
The agency also empowered and trained more managers to hire. It more than quadrupled the number of managers qualified to interview job candidates,
Trinka said. Today more than 400 managers are qualified to interview.
This isn’t the first time FAA has experimented with intensive hiring processes, Trinka said. It set up similar hiring centers after Sept.
11 to quickly stand up the Federal Air Marshal Service, and in 1981 after President Reagan fired more than 11,000 air traffic controllers.
FAA employs 14,745 air traffic controllers.
Taxpayer Advocate Says Outsourcing at I.R.S. Is Inept
New York Times
By Lynnley Browning
The use of private debt collectors by the Internal Revenue Service is ineffective, the national taxpayer advocate told Congress yesterday, and the
program should be canceled.
The advocate, Nina E. Olson, the government-appointed watchdog of the I.R.S., said that private debt collection cost the government at least $81
million a year in revenue. She repeated her call for the I.R.S. to end the practice.
Congress authorized private debt collection in 2004 as a way to bring in easy-to-collect tax debts. But it has come under scrutiny by Ms. Olson
and others because of its costs and concerns about abuses. The issue may figure in the confirmation of Douglas H. Shulman, the vice chairman of the
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, whose nomination as I.R.S. commissioner is pending in the Senate. When questioned about private debt
collection in a confirmation hearing in January, Mr. Shulman said that he was aware of concerns.
In a letter in January to the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, 17 senators, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic presidential
contender, said that they would withhold support for Mr. Shulman’s confirmation unless he dropped the program.
Private debt collection, according to the letter, has cost the I.R.S. $71 million in start-up costs through last year and has lost $50 million.
Ms. Olson’s testimony, before the House Ways and Means subcommittee on oversight, is likely to renew discussion of whether the outsourcing
to three companies makes sense.
The program costs $7.65 million to run each year, she said, and the I.R.S. also pays private collectors $4.6 million in commissions, or around 25
cents on each dollar they bring in. That puts the cost of the program to more than $12 million a year.
Private debt collectors brought in $32 million in 2007, Ms. Olson said, but are expected to bring in as little as $23 million this year. When the
costs are subtracted, the I.R.S. program may have less than $11 million in net revenues for 2008.
But there is a far greater cost, Ms. Olson argued.
If the more than $7 million in operating costs were put into the I.R.S.’s automated debt collection system — an existing program
— the agency could bring in at least $91.8 million in net revenues, and possibly as much as $145 million — a much bigger return. Those
figures do not include the commissions.
Ms. Olson argued that when calculated against that backdrop, private debt collection cost the government at least $81 million a year in revenue.
"Since the purpose of the P.D.C. program was to raise revenue, the fact that it is costing the government $81 million or more each year destroys
whatever thin rationale might remain for its existence," she said in her written testimony. "I believe it is time to end the P.D.C. program."
The I.R.S., in 2004 estimates, originally thought the program would bring in $1.5 billion to $2.2 billion over 10 years, or $150 million to $220
million a year. The agency, however, has drastically scaled back those estimates.
The I.R.S., which complains that it is underfinanced by Congress, says that it turned to outsourcing because it does not have enough money to hire
more revenue officers to collect tax debts. The agency prefers to go after bigger delinquencies itself.
In what one I.R.S. source called a "Coke versus Pepsi" test, the agency is now testing the effectiveness of private debt collectors by taking back
in-house certain cases sent out to private collectors and comparing the results.
Representative Jim Ramstad, Republican of Minnesota, said during the hearing that private debt collection was worth it because it brought in money
that the I.R.S. otherwise would not have.
He also said that internal officers would not be used for these types of collections, and that the program’s costs would be recovered by
late 2010.
Separately during the hearing, the acting I.R.S. commissioner, Linda Stiff, said that the agency was looking at whether foreign executives met
their tax obligations. She also said that the I.R.S. was looking at potential payroll tax abuses.
Last week, reports surfaced that Kellogg Brown & Root, a former subsidiary of Halliburton, was using subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands to skirt
American payroll taxes on its Iraq-based employees.
"We’re certainly familiar with the issue surrounding that case," Ms. Stiff said. A company spokeswoman said Thursday that the Cayman
entities had been set up in compliance with I.R.S. regulations.
Project Management Skills Still in Short Supply, CIO Council Finds
Federal Computer Week
By Jason
Miller
Despite the Office of Management and Budget's efforts for more than five years to increase the number of federal project managers and improve
their skills, most of this effort has gone for naught, according to a new assessment.
A CIO Council Information Technology Workforce Capability Assessment issued today on the organization's Web site found that the number of
respondents who said they are project managers decreased by 3.4 percent since 2004, and their proficiency in the skills necessary has remained
largely unchanged.
"While there are no large gaps for personnel performing [information technology] project management functions extensively, specific
competencies within the ITPM specialty area remain of concern, such as in capital planning and investment and in project management," the survey
stated. "The largest gaps for those performing ITPM extensively and moderately are in project management software, federal enterprise architecture
and earned value management."
The 2006 survey received responses from 31,759 civilian agency IT workers, which is about 40 percent of the targeted population. The CIO Council
conducted similar surveys in 2003 and 2004. It took nearly two years to analyze and issue the results.
Overall, the typical IT worker is between 51 and 55 years old, has been in government more than 21 years, is a General Schedule grade 12 or higher
and will be eligible to retire in 11 to 20 years.
Although project management remained stagnant, OMB’s effort to improve the workforce’s IT security capabilities has made significant
progress, the organization said. The survey found certification rates at some agencies almost doubled since 2004, and skill proficiency has improved
across the board for those who perform IT security or information assurance activities extensively.
The number of respondents who said they have information assurance certification since 2004 has increased by 5.9 percent — the third
highest among certifications named by IT workers. Certifications in computing, at 9 percent, and network support, at 8.3 percent, increased the most.
Still, the lack of progress around project management remained the biggest surprise from the survey because of how many respondents — 43.9
percent — said they were IT project managers.
Since 2002, OMB has focused on the federal project management workforce by defining minimum qualifications for project managers. In a 2004 memo,
OMB included changes in Circular A-11 to focus on reporting, including earned value management and memos requiring its use.
But the survey and a hearing held in September 2007 by a Senate subcommittee revealed that 18 departments rebaselined almost 20 percent of
their 2,027 projects.
"Program management is a core competence of government, yet we don’t recognize it for the impact and the benefits it can have on success of
government in delivering outcomes," said Emory Miller, a senior vice president of government affairs at Robbins-Gioia, a program management consulting
firm. "We spend a lot of time talking about acquisition, but program management is integral to that discipline and to the enterprise."
The survey also found that project management was the top training need by those performing the functions extensively, and it was the
second-highest education need for those performing the functions moderately. The number of respondents who said they received project management
certifications stayed the flat at 6.7 percent, and 4.1 percent said they specifically received IT project management certification. This was a new
category of inquiry since 2004.
Miller said agencies don’t spend enough time training project managers.
"The government has to establish a career series that people aspire to," he said. "That way, agencies reward program managers so they can be
promoted through series and gain experience and stay within a career field."
The council must continue dealing with the retirement wave, and project managers are being affected in ways similar to those in other IT jobs. The
analysis said more than 24 percent of the respondents performing project management extensively will be eligible to retire in three years, but only
12.3 percent plan on retiring. Meanwhile, 19 percent of the respondents who perform ITPM moderately will be eligible to retire in the next three
years, and 12 percent said they plan on retiring.
The council made 11 recommendations, including continued project management training as being critical for current personnel and succession
planning.
"Cost/benefit analysis and capital planning and investment assessment should all be considered for targeted training; each showed
significant…gaps among individuals performing IT project management functions extensively and even larger gaps among personnel performing the
same functions to a moderate degree," the council recommended. "Contracting/procurement showed a small gap for those extensively engaged in IT
project management and a medium gap for those performing moderately, and [it] was also identified as a training need."
Respondents said they still lack skills to use the federal enterprise architecture but have closed the skill gaps for EA in general. The survey
said the rate of retirement for workers with those skills is high: Ten percent said they will retire during the next three years. The council
recommended increased training and succession planning.
The council also said it is working with the Office of Personnel Management to establish an IT architecture specialty title in the GS-2210 series.
"This effort will aid in management of the federal EA community, the majority [of whom] currently identify themselves as project managers or
members of the policy and planning specialty area," the report states.
The council also has high hopes for the Homeland Security Department’s IT Security Essential Body of Knowledge (EBK) effort to develop a
national baseline for the cybersecurity workforce.
"Compiled as a competency and functional framework, the EBK will characterize the IT Security/IA workforce, promoting uniform guidelines for
training and certification programs that will assist in overall workforce management," the report states.
