FEDERAL PAID ADMINISTRATIVE LEAVE: Additional Guidance Needed to Improve OPM Data
Abstract
Federal agencies have the discretion to grant paid administrative leave for a variety of reasons, such as weather closures and blood donations. While paid administrative leave costs taxpayers, it has not been reviewed or reported on extensively. GAO was asked to examine the use of paid administrative leave. This report (1) describes paid administrative leave policies at selected federal agencies; (2) reviews practices in recording and reporting paid administrative leave and describes the number of federal employees granted such leave, and the amount and associated salary costs of such leave; and (3) describes categories for which large amounts of paid administrative leave have been charged by individual employees at selected federal agencies. To determine the total amount of paid administrative leave, GAO analyzed fiscal year 2011 through 2013 payroll data from OPMs Enterprise Human Resources Integration system. To review agency policies and reasons for using large amounts of administrative leave, GAO selected five agencies based in part on the percentage of employees with higher-than-average amounts of such leave. GAO recommends that OPM develop agency and payroll provider guidance regarding the recording and reporting of paid administrative leave. OPM partially concurred agreeing to clarify guidance to agencies and payroll providers, but said it could not direct agencies on how to collect such data. GAO continues to believe the recommendations are valid.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2014
- Accession Number
- AD1176243
Entities
People
- Carolyn E Taylor
- Cynthia Saunders
- Deirdre Duffy
- Ellen Grady
- Erin S. Rath
- Jeff Demarco
- Jeffrey Schmerling
- Karin Fangman
- Mary Diop
- Rebecca Shea
- Robert Robinson
- Sara Daleski
- Shelby Kain
- Steven Lozano
- Ulyana Panchishin
- Yvonne D. Jones
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office