Washington, D.C. 20530

November 16, 2001

MEMORANDUM FOR BUREAU PERSONNEL OFFICERS

The purpose of this memorandum is to: (1) remind components of the statutory and regulatory requirements¹ for public notice of job opportunities and to ensure methods of accountability within your organization; and (2) share with you a copy of the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) study of the public notice process, which is still in need of improvement.

The attached OPM report, "A Work in Progress" does note an improvement in vacancy posting since FY 1997. Federal agencies have correctly posted more than three-quarters of the FY 1999 vacancies. This is a nine percent improvement from FY 1997. However, further improvement is needed since OPM has indicated that almost one quarter of the vacancies were not announced. The OPM study found that:

• agencies failed most frequently to announce time-limited vacancies on the USAJOBS system;



• career/career conditional vacancies were most likely to be appropriately announced; and



• the major barrier to fulfill public notice remains the same, i.e., a lack of full understanding of job announcement requirements.

OPM has indicated that it will continue to emphasize the importance of public notice, provide guidance, and review agency compliance during its oversight evaluations. To ensure that the Department adheres to the public notice requirements, it is hereby requested that you:

1. establish and implement an accountability system to ensure compliance with the public notice requirements. This may be achieved by identifying individuals within your organization to be responsible for meeting public notice requirements, periodically reviewing for compliance, and holding those individuals accountable;



2. ensure that your staffing personnel are aware of and fully understand public notice requirements. We recommend conducting a meeting or in-house training session with all staffing specialists and assistants to discuss OPM public notice requirements and your organization's job announcement procedures; and



3. review your merit promotion plan and ensure that public notice requirements are properly addressed. An amendment to your plan to include or modify public notice requirements will not require approval by my office. However, a copy of any changes should be forwarded to Jolliette Spencer, of my staff's Policy Group.

Questions concerning this memorandum may be referred to Ms. Spencer on (202) 514-6778.

Attachment

¹  See 5 U.S.C. 3327(b), 5 U.S.C. 330(b), 5 CFR 330.102(a)(1), 5 CFR 330.102(b)(1), and 5 CFR 333.102.

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