Eliminate Excessive Red Tape and Automate Functions and Information Background The federal personnel system is clogged with unnecessary process constraints and thousands of pages of regulations. In 1983, the National Academy of Public Administration concluded: The present personnel management system is far too process oriented. It is much too rigid and needs major change. . . . Thousands of pages of personnel regulations tend to remold personnel managers into personnel technicians. Because of the complexity of these regulations, line managers tend to abdicate their responsibilities for personnel decisions and fail to give personnel management the high priority it deserves. Process drives out substance.(1) Ten years later, the Federal Personnel Manual (FPM) has expanded to over 10,000 pages of policies, regulations, guidance, and processing instructions. Additional agency directives parallel and often supplement the FPM. While agency directives and the FPM contain information needed by line managers, they are primarily written for the personnel administrators upon whom managers must depend for interpretation. Additionally, until recently, OPM has not led any efforts to use technology to reduce the number of manually prepared required reports or to enhance agency accountability systems. The past 10 years have also seen a technology explosion. Every agency has a data system that supports internal operations and feeds into the Central Personnel Data File (CPDF) of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). However, agency systems are outdated and are not interoperable; while complex processes contained in the FPM or agency regulations have been automated, automation has focused primarily on internal personnel office operations almost to the exclusion of managers' needs. Need for Change Managers and human resource administrators must be freed from unnecessary process constraints in order to focus on mission instead of efforts to overcome obstacles to its achievement. As process constraints are eliminated, use of technology needs to expand to eliminate manually prepared reports, provide access to information, support management decisionmaking, and monitor organizational performance. Cross References to Other NPR Accompanying Reports Department of Defense, DOD01: Rewrite Policy Directives to Include Better Guidance and Fewer Procedures. Streamlining Management Controls, SMC08: Expand the Use of Waivers to Encourage Innovation. Strengthening the Partnership in Intergovernmental Service Delivery, FSL02: Reduce Red Tape through Regulatory and Mandate Relief. Endnotes 1. National Academy of Public Administration, Deregulation of Government Management Project: Personnel Management (Washington, D.C., October 1983), p. i. (Interim panel report.)
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