**GAO-09-840**                      Published: Jun 25, 2009. Publicly Released: Jun 25, 2009.                  

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## Highlights

DOD is in the process of implementing this human capital system, and according to DOD, about 212,000 civilian employees are currently under the system. On February 11, 2009, however, the House Armed Services Committee and its Subcommittee on Readiness asked DOD to halt conversions of any additional employees to NSPS until the administration and Congress could properly address the future of DOD's personnel management system. On March 16, 2009, DOD and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced an upcoming review of NSPS policies, regulations, and practices. According to DOD, the department has delayed any further transitions of employees into NSPS until at least October 2009--pending the outcome of its review. Furthermore, on May 14, 2009, the Deputy Secretary of Defense asked the Defense Business Board to form what has become this task group to review NSPS to help the department determine, among others things, whether NSPS is operating in a fair, transparent, and effective manner. This statement focuses on the performance management aspect of NSPS specifically (1) the extent to which DOD has implemented internal safeguards to ensure the fairness, effectiveness, and credibility of NSPS and (2) how DOD civilian personnel perceive NSPS and what actions DOD has taken to address these perceptions. It is based on the work we reported on in our September 2008 report, which was conducted in response to a mandate in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008. This mandate also directed us to continue examining DOD efforts in these areas for the next 2 years. We currently have ongoing work reviewing the implementation of NSPS for the second year, and we also will perform another review next year.

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## Topics

Human Capital

AccountabilityCivil serviceCivilian employeesCompensationDefense procurementEmployee incentivesEmployee trainingEmployeesHuman capitalInternal controlsMonitoringNational security personnel systemPayPerformance appraisalPerformance managementPersonnel managementRegulationSafeguardsStandardsStrategic planningSurveysSystems designPolicies and proceduresProgram goals or objectivesProgram implementationTransparency