What is OPM’s role and oversight responsibility in accountability?

OPM has statutory responsibility for oversight of the Federal personnel system. This oversight covers agency compliance with merit system principles (5 U.S.C. 2301), avoidance of prohibited personnel practices (5 U.S.C. 2302), and the effectiveness of personnel policies, programs, and operations across government.

Under Civil Service Rule X, Agency Accountability Systems, OPM may require agencies to build and maintain human resources management (HRM) accountability systems:

This authority serves two purposes. It sets governmentwide standards for agencies’ internal HRM accountability systems, and it gives OPM a consistent framework for reviewing them. The standards apply broadly, touching HR staff and line management alike, across all Executive agencies subject to the merit principles, regardless of their specific HR authorities.

Legal Authorities

OE’s oversight rests on a framework of statutes, Civil Service Rules, and OPM regulations. The authorities below establish OPM’s mandate to assess agency human capital management, require agencies to maintain accountability and evaluation systems, and take corrective action when warranted.

The framework for enforcement and corrective action is 5 U.S.C. 1104(b)(2) and Civil Service Rules V and X (5 CFR 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3):

• OPM evaluates “(1) Personnel policies, programs, and operations of Executive agencies… including their effectiveness with regard to merit selection and employee development; (2) agency compliance with and enforcement of applicable laws, rules, regulations, and office directives; and (3) agency personnel management evaluation systems.” (5 CFR 5.2(b))
• The Director may instruct an agency head, based on an OPM evaluation or investigation, to take corrective action, including canceling personnel actions where appropriate. (5 CFR 5.3)
• “The Office shall establish and maintain an oversight program to ensure that activities under any authority delegated… are in accordance with the merit system principles and the standards…” (5 U.S.C. 1104(b)(2))

How this authority developed

OPM’s authority to evaluate Federal personnel management has developed over more than a century:

Civil Service Act of 1883 — authorized the new Civil Service Commission to “make investigations and reports on the practical effects of Commission action as well as department and agency action in accomplishing the purposes of this act.”

Veterans Preference Act of 1944 — extended and defined OPM’s oversight authority.

Executive Order 9830 (1947) — established the role of the personnel function in the management of Federal agencies and required the Commission to “maintain an adequate system of inspection to determine that equitable and sound application of statutes, Executive orders, regulations, and standards relating to personnel management is being carried out by the agencies.”

Classification Act of 1949 and Performance Rating Act of 1950 — further extended and defined OPM’s oversight authority.

Presidential Memorandum of October 9, 1969 — required agencies to establish internal personnel management evaluation systems and charged the Commission with:

1. Establishing standards for adequate evaluation systems,
2. Conducting research in and developing methods for evaluating personnel management,
3. Insuring that persons who engage in personnel management evaluation are properly qualified and receive the necessary training,
4. Assessing the adequacy of agency evaluation systems and requiring necessary improvement,
5. Maintaining its own capability to make independent evaluation of agency personnel management effectiveness sufficient to evaluate the adequacy of agency efforts and to supplement and complement such efforts, and
6. Collaborating and coordinating with the Bureau of the Budget in its overall responsibility for evaluating organization and management in the executive branch.

Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 — abolished the Civil Service Commission and replaced it with several oversight agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management, and expressly stated the merit system principles in their present form. Section 1103 authorizes OPM to execute, administer, and enforce the civil service rules and regulations and to conduct studies and research into improving personnel management; Section 1104 requires OPM to establish and maintain an oversight program ensuring that activities under delegated authorities are in accordance with the merit system principles and OPM standards, and authorizes OPM to require corrective action of agencies that violate any law, rule, regulation, or OPM standard.

Executive Order 13197 (2001) — established Civil Service Rule X, Agency Accountability Systems, formalizing OPM’s responsibility to hold Executive departments and agencies accountable to the President for effective HRM. By amending Civil Service Rules V and VII and adding two new Civil Service rules, it clarified OPM’s authority to:

1. require agencies to establish their own systems for ensuring that their HRM practices are consistent with merit system principles;
2. collect workforce information from agencies and establish basic standards of quality for that information; and
3. review and report on agencies’ HRM programs and practices that are outside Title 5, enabling OPM to share information on the most effective programs while ensuring that any inconsistencies with merit system principles do not go unnoticed.

Although organizations, agencies, Presidential administrations, and personnel systems have changed many times, OPM’s statutory oversight responsibility remains today.

OE partners with Federal agencies to carry out Executive Orders, Presidential memoranda, and other Administration priorities affecting human capital, and provides OPM leadership with a governmentwide view of agency progress.

Executive Orders and Presidential memoranda that establish human capital requirements are carried out by agencies, with implementing direction and guidance issued through OPM’s policy offices. OE assesses the actions agencies take to put these directives into practice, tracks their progress against applicable requirements, and identifies where implementation is on track, at risk, or delayed. This work draws on the methods and data sources OE applies across its oversight program, allowing OE to assess implementation consistently and in context. By maintaining a current, governmentwide view of implementation, OE helps ensure that Administration priorities are carried out effectively and consistently while safeguarding the integrity of the merit system.

OE Responsibilities

• Assesses agency actions to implement human capital–related Executive Orders and Presidential memoranda;
• Tracks the timeliness and completeness of required milestones, reporting, and deliverables;
• Confirms that implementation aligns with merit system principles and applicable laws, rules, and regulations; and
• Identifies risks, barriers, and cross-agency issues, reports them to OPM leadership, and recommends areas where OPM could provide further support to ensure implementation.

OE manages the governmentwide infrastructure that supports agency HRM accountability and evaluation — coordinating the independent audit program, chairing the Accountability Program Manager Council, training evaluators, and maintaining the shared tools agencies use to run consistent, high-quality evaluations.

Independent Audit Program (IAP) Management

Under 5 CFR Part 250, CHCO Act agencies must maintain an independent audit program as one of the three human capital evaluation mechanisms. The IAP provides an objective review of an agency’s HR programs, transactions, and delegated authorities for compliance with merit system principles, laws, and regulations. OE supports agencies in establishing and running their audit programs — setting audit standards and cycles, scoping and planning audits, and tracking findings and corrective actions to closure. OE also assists agencies with their audits upon request. Audit results feed the agency’s Agency Staffing Plan (ASP), evaluation system and inform its Human Capital Review.

Accountability Program Manager Council (APMC)

OE chairs the governmentwide APMC, a community of practice that brings together the agency accountability program managers, audit leads, and evaluation staff responsible for human capital accountability across the Federal Government. Rather than a governance body, the APMC is a forum where members share leading practices, work through common challenges, and strengthen human capital audits and accountability programs governmentwide, consistent with federal human capital statutes, regulations, merit system principles, and applicable OPM guidance. The APMC Charter establishes the council’s purpose, membership, roles, and operating procedures.

Evaluator Training

OE develops and delivers training for agency personnel who conduct HRM accountability evaluations and audits. Training covers evaluation methodology, assessing compliance with merit system principles, audit planning and sampling, documenting findings and corrective actions, and using OE’s standard checklists and tools. New evaluators are not required to complete this training before conducting an evaluation, though many do so beforehand or within their first year as an evaluator.

Evaluation Resources

OE maintains shared tools that standardize how agencies plan and carry out evaluations, including evaluation and self-assessment checklists, audit templates, and reference guides. These resources help agencies produce consistent, well-documented results that adhere to merit system principles.

Under 5 U.S.C. 1104(a)(2), OPM delegates to agency heads the authority to conduct competitive examinations for positions in the competitive service (except administrative law judges). An agency obtains this authority through a signed delegated examining agreement with OPM, which specifies the conditions for applying the delegated authorities, sets minimum standards of performance, and describes the system of oversight by which the agency and OPM monitor its use (5 CFR 250.102). Competitive examining itself is governed by 5 CFR Part 332 (Recruitment and Selection Through Competitive Examination) and Part 337 (Examining System), with operational guidance in OPM’s Delegated Examining Operations Handbook (DEOH).

OE’s oversight role

OE oversees how agencies exercise their delegated examining authority. Under their delegated examining agreements, agencies are required to conduct annual audits of their delegated examining operations and provide the results to OPM. OE also conducts periodic oversight audits to verify that examining actions comply with veterans’ preference, qualification standards, assessment and rating procedures, and other merit system requirements. Audit findings result in required corrective actions, which OE tracks to closure; based on results, OE may recommend that an agency’s delegated examining authority be continued, modified, or withdrawn.

Examiner certification

Individuals responsible for conducting delegated examining activities — including those performing the annual audits — must complete OPM certification requirements and remain currently certified to perform those activities. OE manages this certification program and maintains a registry of delegated examining (DE) certified individuals. OE also works with agency delegated examining program managers to support the proper use of delegated examining authority.