FEDERAL DOWNSIZING: Agency Officials' Views on Maintaining Performance During Downsizing at Selected Agencies.
Abstract
A bipartisan consensus has emerged that the federal government must find ways to meet the public's demand for services with a reduced but more effective workforce. In response to this consensus, the number of civilian employees government wide decreased by about 12 percent between fiscal years 1993 and 1996. On an agency-by-agency basis, some agencies had reductions larger than 12 percent, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HuD), the Department of the Interior (DoI), the General Services Administration (GSA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). In light of the demand for a smaller but more effective workforce, you asked us to review these five agencies to obtain information on the effects downsizing has had on their performance and what actions were taken to maintain performance. In response to your request, our objectives were to (1) determine which components within the five agencies were downsized and to what extent; (2) determine what actions were taken to maintain performance for one selected downsized component at each parent agency, the results of those actions on the component's performance, and the effect of the downsizing on customer service; and (3) identify lessons the five components learned about maintaining performance during a period of downsizing. The selected components were HuD'S Office of Housing, DoI's Bureau of Reclamation (BoR), GSA'S Public Buildings Service (PBS), NASA'S Kennedy Space Center (%sc), and 0PM'S Investigations Service. Each of these components had experienced a sizeable downsizing of its workforce. In the case of the Investigations Service, unlike the other four components, most of its activities and employees were privatized (made part of a private company - see app. V).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA342580
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office