Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Office of Personnel Management recently updated Veterans Service Organizations on the Department of Defense's rollout of the National Security Personnel System. During the quarterly meeting OPM also provided VSO representatives with a briefing on the agency's Annual Report to Congress - The Employment of Veterans in the Federal Government FY 2004.

"OPM highly values its relationships with Veterans Service Organizations and we want to work with the VSOs to ensure the best interests of our veterans are met following their tour of service," said Dan G. Blair, deputy director of OPM. "Our veterans have a wealth of knowledge and experience gained during their deployment and it is our responsibility to encourage and promote veteran hiring within the federal government."

Mary Lacey, program executive officer for the Department of Defense's NSPS, and OPM's George Nesterczuk, senior policy advisor to the Director on Department of Defense, expressed optimism that the court challenge to NSPS brought on by employee unions will be resolved by the end of February thereby clarifying further deployment of the new system. Lacey reported the first wave of DOD employees will be converted to NSPS by the end of April, with a second wave to be converted October 1.

Nesterczuk assured VSO representatives, "Veterans' preference is fully protected under NSPS in the instance of a reduction-in-force. Preferences in establishing retention lists will be extended to 30 percent of disabled veterans and all other eligible veterans in the same manner as is currently applied."

OPM also briefed VSO representatives on a new self-accountability initiative. OPM will work with federal agencies on annual self-audits and reports on the results of their human capital programs.

Mark Doboga, deputy associate director of OPM's Center for Talent and Capacity Policy, reviewed the report to Congress, which reveals that while the federal government hired fewer people in FY 2004 than it did in FY 2003, veterans increased their share of representation. "Veterans increased their share of new hire full-time, permanent positions to nearly 34 percent in FY 2004, the highest in five years," Doboga noted.

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