“The reason for this change is due to the Department’s appropriations act for fiscal year 2009, which prohibits spending funds to operate our new DHS human resources management system.” 

Tim Kaufman of the Federal Times offered a fuller explanation in his article yesterday:

“The final nail in the coffin came Tuesday, when President Bush signed into law a 2009 spending bill for federal agencies that prohibits the department from spending money on the new system. Homeland Security had sought $5 million in fiscal 2009 to fund its performance management system and had hoped to extend the system to 70,000 employees, virtually its entire nonbargaining work force, in the coming year.”

No one denies that competition for key talent and retention of high-performing personnel have been significant obstacles for Federal agencies over the past several years.  With the death of this initiative, the disparity between the antiquated system of Federal pay and modern commercial best practices will grow.  I predict that DHS will continue to lose the people they desperately need, keep the low performers they don’t, and further alienate those who could offer tremendous value to their government and country.  

It’s a simple question of motivation and market parity.  As a result of this action, the public/private divide continues.  In a time calling for increased personal and professional accountability, taking another step backward should not be an option.  Let’s see if the next administration can overhaul the system and keep the conversation going.