Online Confusion Prompts OPM to Restart Executive Search Process

Mix a little electronic confusion with good intentions and here's what you get -- a federal program put on hold.

That, more or less, is what happened to an Office of Personnel Management program that grooms talented federal employees to become government executives. The case illustrates the pitfalls of online processing of applicants and what it can mean for the government's commitment to administer elite programs fairly.

The OPM began operating the Senior Executive Service Federal Candidate Development Program, or Fed CDP, in 2004 to augment leadership training programs run by most large agencies.

Although the program is small -- the last class had 12 members -- the OPM hopes to turn it into a premier training ground for executives across government, especially for agencies that anticipate losing a significant number of career executives to retirement in coming years.

But the effort to put together the program's 2009 class hit a bump in late January, when a large number of applicants did not click the submit button on their applications or partially completed their application.

The OPM had announced it would take applications through Jan. 22 or until 500 applications were received. When Jan. 22 rolled around, 154 applications had been completed and submitted, far short of what the agency wanted.

Looking at the program's database, officials saw that 130 people had completed their applications but not hit the submit button, and an additional 100 had started an application but not finished it.

In the spirit of trying to expand the number of applicants, the OPM sent an e-mail encouraging the 230 to complete or submit their material.

Then, OPM officials began having second thoughts about sending out the e-mail reminder. After all, 154 people had followed the instructions without extra assistance.

On April 7, Linda M. Springer, OPM director, issued a statement announcing that the processing of applications had been stopped "because we now believe irregularities may have occurred [that] could have compromised the overall fairness of the process."

In an interview last week, Kay T. Ely, an associate director at OPM, said officials hope to restart the program in May, complete the selection of class members by August and start classes in September, with graduation in September 2009.

"We have sent back notification to everybody involved in the application process to let them know that we have had to stop this process and we plan to re-announce in May. Even those that applied in the past will have to apply again," Ely said.