Federal executives sailed through another year with mostly high job ratings, data released by the Office of Personnel Management show.
The percentage of career senior executives rated at the highest levels under various performance systems was 74.5 percent in fiscal 2003, about the same as in fiscal 2002.
 
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Agencies, overall, handed out more bonuses to their career senior executives in fiscal 2003 compared with the previous year. For 2003, 57.4 percent received a bonus, up from 49.2 percent in 2002.
The Bush administration, early in its first term, began urging agencies to tighten up on performance ratings of federal executives, but the crusade has produced mixed results.
For example, the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Interior and Transportation and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave the highest grades in 2003 -- 100 percent of their senior executives received the highest performance rating possible.
Other departments also rated executives highly. At least 96 percent of executives at the Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services and State were judged to be performing at the highest level in 2003.
A few agencies were tough graders. Less than 40 percent of the career executives got high marks at the Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Labor and at the Agency for International Development, the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management.
Some agencies were more generous with bonuses than others. Career executives in 2003 had the best chance to garner a bonus at four agencies:
• Agriculture Department, where 80.6 percent of executives received a bonus; the average award was $12,491.
• General Services Administration, 93.2 percent; average bonus, $12,003.
• Labor Department, 90.6 percent; average bonus, $11,594.
• Small Business Administration, 83.9 percent; with the average bonus $15,228.
Government wide, the average career Senior Executive Service bonus was $12,883 in fiscal 2003, up slightly from $12,444 in 2002.
OPM did not provide data on rating systems at each agency, which typically use three to five levels to define performance.
Despite the mixed picture on ratings, the administration's directives to more rigorously rate career executives may be taking hold in some parts of the government.
For example, in fiscal 2001, 83.7 percent of the executives received the highest rating -- 9.2 percentage points higher than in 2003. Some agencies also have dramatically reduced the number of executives getting the highest marks -- Energy rated 99 percent at the top in 2001, only 18.4 percent in 2002 and 38.3 percent in 2003.
Other agencies have gone in a different direction. At OMB, the percentage of executives winning the highest rating has increased since 2001 -- from 19.5 percent to 31.5 percent.
Carol A. Bonosaro, president of the Senior Executives Association, said she would like to see more data on agency rating systems. But the modest change in overall ratings "tells me that if they are still rating pretty much the same after all the exhortations, then they must be pretty confident about the performance of their management corps," she said.
Time Off for Pope's Funeral
Federal employees may take time off today to attend church services and other religious observances for the funeral of Pope John Paul II, the Office of Personnel Management said yesterday.
Personnel rules allow employees to use vacation time, compensatory time off or other leave, including leave without pay, "to take part in the observance of the Pope's funeral," Dan G. Blair, acting OPM director, said in a memo to agency heads.
Talk Shows
Patricia Wolfe, president of Federally Employed Women, and Janet Kopenhaver, the group's Washington representative, will be the guests on "FEDtalk" at 11 a.m. today on federalnewsradio.com.
Gwendolyn Sykes, chief financial officer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, will be the guest on the "IBM Business of Government Hour" at 9 a.m. tomorrow on WJFK radio (106.7 FM).
"Does Your Faith Help on the Job?" will be the topic for discussion on the Imagene B. Stewart call-in program at 8 a.m. Sunday on WOL radio (1450 AM).
E-mail: barrs@washpost.com
