Washington, D.C. 20530

December 10, 2003

MEMORANDUM FOR HEADS OF DEPARTMENT COMPONENTS

The Department of Justice has designed a new, unified performance management system in response to the President's mandate that all agencies be more focused on achieving strategic goals and aligning their performance and award systems accordingly. We appreciate the participation and input of component staffs and have incorporated suggestions as appropriate. Therefore, the following changes will occur in the administration of performance-based cash awards (excluding SES bonuses, gainsharing, special act/achievement, and "on the spot" awards) which are effective in FY 2004.

(1) Each component is to hold in reserve .75% in FY04, 1% in FY05, and 1.5 % in FY06 of its salaries budget at the beginning of each fiscal year.

(2) The Attorney General will review each component's performance for the results it has achieved in attaining the Department's strategic goals.

(3) The Attorney General will then set the maximum percentage a component can spend on employee cash awards. This may range from 0 to .75% in FY04, 0 to 1% in FY05, and 0 to 1.5% in FY06. A component whose approved awards budget is less than the set aside amount will be allowed to spend the balance of its funds; however, the excess monies cannot be spent on performance awards.

(4) Once a component is informed of its award budget by the Attorney General, it must allocate its award budget to its major sub-components based upon their achievement and contribution in achieving both Department and component strategic goals. Prior to any award pay outs, each component is to submit a plan to the Justice Management Division stating how it will determine the award budgets for its sub-components. In no circumstance can award monies be distributed as a percentage of employee salary or by head count.

(5) Once sub-components have their awards budget, they are to use it to award meritorious employee performance awards (where performance standards are already required to have a "line of sight" to organizational expectations) based on a comparison of performance with elements and standards.

(6) Each component must submit a report at the conclusion of each fiscal year stating the dollar amount that was spent on performance awards.

If you have questions about this matter, please contact Sheila D. Marshall of the Personnel Staff's Workforce Effectiveness Group via electronic mail at sheila.d.marshall@usdoj.gov or by telephone on (202) 514-6778.

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