"TSA executive bonus program draws fire"

Friday, October 15, 2004 

TSA executive bonus program draws fire 
By Chris Strohm
Govexec.com 


A report this week that the Transportation Security Administration gave
disproportionately large bonuses to executives compared to lower-level
workers has prompted a flurry of criticism. 

The Homeland Security Department's inspector general reported this week that
TSA doled out about $1.45 million in bonuses at the end of 2003 to 88
executives. The report concluded that the average TSA award was about
$16,500, which was higher than awards given out by any other agency. 

In December 2003, TSA distributed monetary awards to executives ranging from
$10,000 to $20,000 each, according to a list of the bonuses obtained by
Government Executive. Stephen McHale, who resigned as the agency's deputy
administrator in July, received a cash bonus of $20,000. David Stone, now
the agency's chief, got $17,500. Stone served as a federal security director
at Los Angeles International Airport until August 2003, when he became the
agency's deputy chief of staff.

According to the Office of Personnel Management, 76 percent of TSA
executives received a cash performance award. Of the almost 51,000
nonexecutive TSA employees, about 3 percent received an award or pay
increase.

TSA officials defended the awards, saying the bonus program followed all
laws and regulations and covered a two-year work period. "Given the hours
and productivity of the workforce during this critical period, TSA believes
the award expenditures were fully justified," agency spokesman Mark Hatfield
said in a news release. 

The agency, however, was unable to provide reliable or comprehensive data
for awards given to employees in nonexecutive grades, the IG said. The data
"suggests that a substantial inequity exists in [TSA's] performance
recognition program between executive and nonexecutive employees," the IG
wrote. 

Several TSA screeners expressed anger at the IG's report. 

"The majority of the monetary awards should have gone to TSA screeners,
leads and supervisors based on their percentage of the TSA workforce," said
a former screener. "That is what is called fair and equitable." 

A screener from Newark International Airport in New Jersey called the
bonuses "appalling" because they disproportionately went to executives.

A TSA official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that it does not
appear that all executives who got a bonus had been with the agency for the
two-year period the agency cited.

According to OPM, an average of 49 percent of executives at all federal
agencies received cash awards in fiscal 2002, the latest year for which
statistics are available. At TSA, 76 percent of executives received a cash
performance award related to their fiscal 2002-2003 performance. 

TSA did not spend the total amount it was authorized to award in bonuses,
however, the IG found. The agency's fiscal 2003 award pool was $1.85
million, meaning that about $400,000 was not spent. TSA also stayed within
executive performance award limitations, even though the agency was not
legally obligated to, the IG said. 

TSA said it is "inaccurate and misleading" to compare its bonuses to those
given by much larger, Cabinet-level departments. The agency added that its
executives are not eligible for the Presidential Rank Award, the
government's highest award for civil servants. 

Data showed that TSA distributed 2,001 performance awards and pay increases
to 1,423 nonexecutive employees from August 2002 through February 2004. Out
of 50,878 nonexecutive employees within the agency, only 3 percent received
an award or pay increase. 

"Compared to the 76 percent of eligible [executive] employees who received a
monetary performance award, there is a wide disparity in the percentage of
nonexecutive employees who received monetary awards," the IG wrote. 

The IG also found that 38 percent of executives who received awards had no
individual recommendation or justification. Their personnel files did not
contain, as part of the performance evaluation process, a narrative showing
how they met performance goals. Instead, boilerplate language was used
repeatedly without change to address how the executives met or exceeded
performance expectations. 

TSA officials said the use of identical language for performance awards for
federal security directors and assistant federal security directors was
justified because both positions--regardless of location--have the same
duties and responsibilities of providing day-to-day operational direction
for federal security at U.S. airports. 

The IG concluded, however, that boilerplate language defeats the purpose of
an awards program that is intended to recognize and reward individual
performance that surpasses that of colleagues. 

TSA acknowledged that its "program infrastructure" for the first awards
cycle was "inadequate." The agency said improvements will be made in the
preparation and review of documentation to support bonuses in the coming
years, as well as to provide equitable treatment to all employees.


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