GAO-10-356R Personnel Practices 

United States Government Accountability Office

Washington, DC 20548 

January 29, 2010 

Congressional Requesters 

Subject: Conversions of Selected Employees from Political to Career Positions 

at Departments and Selected Agencies 

Political appointees in the federal government sometimes seek appointments to 

career competitive and other positions which, unlike political appointments, do not 

terminate at the end of an administration. Conversions of political appointees to 

career positions must conform to merit system principles requiring that selection be 

determined solely on the basis of merit after fair and open competition. Sometimes, 

however, circumstances surrounding conversions can raise questions as to whether 

the individuals received political favoritism or an unfair advantage in the merit 

system selection process, even the appearance of which could adversely compromise 

the integrity of the system. 

As requested, we are providing you with information on the number of conversions of 

political appointees to career positions as reported to us by 42 executive branch 

departments and agencies from May 1, 2005, through May 30, 2009. The types of 

positions this letter covers and a definition of each, along with the criteria we used to 

select the 42 departments and agencies, are listed in the scope and methodology 

section. 

As agreed with your offices, we will report at a later date additional information on 

these conversions reported by the 42 departments and agencies. That report will 

discuss (1) for each of these conversions, characteristics of the political positions 

previously held by employees and the career positions to which they were converted 

and (2) whether the departments and agencies followed appropriate authorities and 

proper procedures in converting employees holding political positions to career 

positions at the GS-12 level and above. 

Results

On the basis of data submitted by the 42 departments and agencies and our 

discussions with them, 143 former political appointees and congressional employees 
converted to career positions from May 1, 2005, through May 30, 2009.1

 These 

conversions were reported by 26 of the 42 departments and agencies we surveyed. 

The other 16 departments and agencies reported no political conversions during this 

period. Eighty (56 percent) of the 143 reported conversions were made by 5 

departments: the Departments of Justice (32), Homeland Security (18), Defense (13), 

Energy (9), and Commerce (8). (See encl. I for a more detailed list of departments 

and agencies reporting political conversions from May 1, 2005, through May 30, 2009.) 

Agency Comments

We provided a draft of this report to OPM for their review and comment. OPM 

indicated that they had no comments on this report. 

Scope and Methodology

We have regularly reported on conversions from noncareer to career positions in the 

past.2 In 2002, we reported on conversions from political to career positions during 

the period from October 1998 through April 2001. In 2006, we expanded our scope 

and reported on conversions of employees from seven categories of noncareer 

positions, including those defined as political positions in the 2002 report, to career 

positions during the period from May 2001 through April 2005. The scope of this 

report is similar to our 2002 report in that it only includes conversions that involve 

political appointees and congressional employees that convert to career positions. 

Importantly, and consistent with how we have reported related data in the past, for 

the purpose of this review, we defined political appointees as those who had an 

appointment in one of the six categories of positions defined below.3 

• Schedule C: Appointments are generally noncompetitive and are for excepted 

service positions graded GS-15 and below that involve determining policy or 

that require a close confidential relationship with the agency head or other key 

officials of the agency. 

 

1

The 143 conversions in our review include 5 appointments of limited-term Senior Executive Service 

(SES) employees to career SES positions. Agencies reported 43 appointments of limited-term SES 

employees to career SES positions based on our request for them to include career appointments 

whenever limited-term and emergency SES positions were involved. However, in 38 of these cases, we 

found after further review that the appointees were career employees rather than political appointees 

and therefore we did not include them in our review. 

2

 GAO, Personnel Practices: Conversions of Employees from Noncareer to Career Positions, May 

2001 – April 2005, GAO-06-381 (Washington, D.C.: May 1, 2006) and Personnel Practices: Career and 

Other Appointments of Former Political Appointees, October 1998 – April 2001, GAO-02-326 

(Washington, D.C.: Feb. 26, 2002). 

3

Because this report focuses only on political appointees, we eliminated the “other statutory at-will 

individuals” category used in our previous work reporting conversions. Sometimes called 

administratively determined positions, these appointments are made under specific authority provided 

to certain agencies to appoint individuals to these positions noncompetitively. Also, as described in 

footnote 1, we excluded limited-term and emergency SES appointees who were career employees 

prior to the appointment. 

GAO-10-356R Personnel Practices

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• Noncareer SES: Appointments are to positions with responsibility for 

formulating, advocating, and directing administration policies. Noncareer SES 

appointees have no tenure and serve “at the pleasure of the department or 

agency head.” 

• Limited-term SES: Appointments may be made for up to 36 months to a 

position with duties that will end in 36 months or an earlier specified time 

period. 

• Limited-emergency SES: Appointments may be made for up to 18 months to 

meet a bona fide, unanticipated, urgent need. 

• Presidential appointees, including executive level and noncareer ambassadors: 

Appointments are made by the President, generally to fill high-level executive 

positions. Appointees support and advocate the President’s goals and policies. 

• Noncareer legislative branch: Appointments are primarily to positions in 

member and committee offices. 

We identified four categories of career positions, defined as follows: 

• Career (competitive service): Appointments are made through a 

governmentwide or “all sources” merit staffing (competitive) process, 

including recruitment through a published announcement, rating and ranking 

of eligible candidates, and establishment of OPM-created or approved 

qualification standards. 

• Career-conditional (competitive service): Appointments are for permanent 

positions in the competitive service and are generally the initial positions for 

new hires. Appointees must complete a 1-year probationary period and a total 

of 3 years of continuous creditable service to attain a career appointment. 

• Career (SES): Appointments are to top-level policy, supervisory, and 

managerial positions above grade 15 of the General Schedule. Career SES 

positions require a further review and approval of the executive/managerial 

qualifications of the proposed selectee by an OPM-administered SES 

Qualifications Review Board. 

• Career excepted service (Non-Schedule C): Appointments involve agency 

positions that are not subject to OPM’s competitive hiring examination. 

Agencies have authority to establish their own hiring procedures to fill 

excepted service vacancies. Such procedures must comply with statutory 

requirements such as merit systems principles and veteran’s preferences, 

when applicable. 

The criteria used to select the executive branch departments and agencies for this 

review were: (1) all cabinet-level departments and (2) agencies that had oversight or 

other regular responsibilities for federal workforce issues. In addition, to get a 

further variation of federal agency experiences, we considered the size, mission, and 

GAO-10-356R Personnel Practices

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type of workforce to select additional agencies for our review. Under these criteria, 

we identified 42 departments and agencies. These are listed in enclosure II. 

To determine the number of employees who converted from political to career 

positions, we asked the 42 departments and agencies to first complete a data 

collection instrument (DCI) for the selected conversions made from May 1, 2005, 

through May 30, 2009. Using the DCI, we asked the 42 agencies to provide 

information about the career positions to which the individuals were converted, i.e., 

the position title, the job series, pay grade, and date of appointment. We also asked 

the agencies to provide the title of the appointee’s former position. In addition, we 

asked the departments and agencies to provide the related Standard Form 50 for all 

appointments. These forms provide the official record of a personnel action. We 

used the Form 50s to obtain information about each appointee’s prior position, such 

as annual salary, and to verify all conversions and the information that the agencies 

provided on the DCI. 

 

We conducted this performance audit in Washington, D.C. from July 2008 though 

January 2010 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. 

Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, 

appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions 

based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a 

reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. 

As agreed with your office, unless you publicly announce the contents of this report 

earlier, we plan no further distribution until 30 days from the report date. At that 

time, we will send copies to the Director of the Office of Personnel Management and 

other interested parties. In addition, this report will be available at no charge on 

GAO’s Web site at http://www.gao.gov. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Major contributors to this report were Gerard Burke, Sara Cytron, Laurie Choi, 

Clifton Douglas, Jessica Drucker, Karin Fangman, Valerie Pfeiffer, Bill Reinsberg, 

George Stalcup, and Kiki Theodoropoulos. Please contact me on (202) 512-6806 if 

you have any questions. 

Laurie E. Ekstrand 

Director, Strategic Issues 

GAO-10-356R Personnel Practices

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GAO-10-356R Personnel Practices

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List of Congressional Requesters 

The Honorable Tom Harkin 

Chairman 

Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

United States Senate 

The Honorable Joseph I. Lieberman 

Chairman 

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

United States Senate 

The Honorable Edolphus Towns 

Chairman 

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

House of Representatives 

The Honorable Daniel K. Akaka 

Chairman 

Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, 

The Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia 

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

United States Senate 

The Honorable Stephen F. Lynch 

Chairman 

Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia 

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

House of Representatives 

The Honorable Dianne Feinstein 

United States Senate 

The Honorable Charles E. Schumer 

United States Senate 

The Honorable Danny K. Davis 

House of Representatives 
Enclosure I DRAFT

Number of Employees Converted from Political to Career Positions from May 1, 

2005, through May 30, 2009, as Reported by Certain Departments and Agencies

Departments and agencies Number of 

conversions 

Number of 

employees 

converted to 

Senior 

Executive 

Service (SES) 

positions 

Number of 

employees 

converted to 

Competitive 

Service (non - 

SES) positions 

Number of 

other 

conversions2 

Department of Agriculture 6 0 6 0 

Department of Commerce 8 1 7 0 

Department of Defense 13 6 5 2 

Department of Education 4 0 4 0 

Department of Energy 9 3 6 0 

Department of Health and Human Services 1 0 1 0 

Department of Homeland Security 18 3 14 1 

Department of Housing and Urban 

Development 

2 0 2 0 

Department of the Interior 6 3 3 0 

Department of Justice 32 2 14 16 

Department of Labor 6 0 6 0 

Department of State 3 0 3 0 

Department of the Treasury 5 1 2 2 

Department of Veterans Affairs 6 1 5 0 

Commodity Futures Trading Commission 3 0 2 1 

Consumer Product Safety Commission 2 0 0 2 

Environmental Protection Agency 2 0 2 0 

Federal Maritime Commission 1 0 0 1 

General Services Administration 1 0 1 0 

National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration 

2 2 0 0 

International Trade Commission 1 0 1 0 

Office of Special Counsel 2 1 0 1 

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation 2 0 2 0 

Small Business Administration 2 0 2 0 

Social Security Administration 3 2 1 0 

Securities and Exchange Commission 3 0 3 0 

Total 143 25 92 26 

Source: GAO analyses of data based on department and agency responses to our data collection instrument. 

a

Other conversions would include conversions to Non-Schedule C excepted service positions. 

GAO-10-356R Personnel Practices 

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Enclosure II DRAFT

GAO-10-356R Personnel Practices 

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Executive Branch Departments and Select Agencies Covered in This Review 

1. Department of Agriculture 

2. Department of Commerce 

3. Department of Defense (Office of the Secretary, Air Force, Army, and Navy) 

4. Department of Education 

5. Department of Energy 

6. Department of Health and Human Services 

7. Department of Homeland Security 

8. Department of Housing and Urban Development 

9. Department of the Interior 

10. Department of Justice 

11. Department of Labor 

12. Department of State 

13. Department of Transportationa

14. Department of the Treasury 

15. Department of Veterans Affairs 

16. Commission on Civil Rightsa

17. Commodity Futures Trading Commission 

18. Consumer Product Safety Commission 

19. Corporation for National and Community Servicea

20. Environmental Protection Agency 

21. Equal Employment Opportunity Commissiona

22. Export-Import Bank of the United Statesa

23. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporationa

24. Federal Labor Relations Authoritya

25. Federal Maritime Commission 

26. Federal Trade Commissiona

27. General Services Administration 

28. U.S. International Trade Commission 

29. Merit Systems Protection Boarda

30. National Aeronautics and Space Administration 

31. National Labor Relations Boarda

32. Office of Government Ethicsa

33. Office of Management and Budgeta

34. Office of Personnel Managementa

35. Office of Special Counsel 

36. Office of the U.S. Trade Representativea

37. Overseas Private Investment Corporationa

38. Peace Corpsa

39. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation 

40. Securities and Exchange Commission 

41. Small Business Administration 

42. Social Security Administration 

a

Agency did not report any employees converted from political to career positions from May 1, 2005, through May 30, 

2009. 

(450812)