Evaluation of the Department of State's Use of Schedule B Hiring Authority

What OIG Reviewed
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted an evaluation of Schedule B appointments by the Department of State (Department) from January 1, 2013 to January 1, 2018 to assess whether it complied with Department policies and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) regulations.

What OIG Recommends
OIG made two recommendations to the Bureau of Human Resources: (1) to adopt a policy requiring consultation with the Office of Legal Adviser when Schedule B hiring requests have characteristics similar to the examples described in this report to ensure all appointments comply with OPM regulations and relevant policies and (2) to amend the Department’s Schedule B policy to detail in what circumstances Department career employee or contractor conversions are appropriate. The Bureau concurred with OIG’s recommendations.

What OIG Found
Schedule B appointments are a special type of hiring authority that allows an agency to hire individuals without using ordinarily applicable competitive hiring procedures. The Office of Personnel Management granted the Department of State authority to use Schedule B to appoint individuals in “scientific, professional, and technical positions at grades GS-12 to GS-15 when filled by persons having special qualifications in foreign policy matters.”

Schedule B appointments must follow Department policy and OPM regulations for excepted service hiring. For instance, the Schedule B appointment cannot be to a position of a confidential or policy determining nature. In addition, under the Department’s policy, Schedule B appointments are appropriate to fill a temporary need for a special project, negotiations or conferences on a special topic, or where the applicable experience does not already exist in the Department.

OIG found that many of the Department’s Schedule B appointments to fill scientific, professional, and technical positions from 2013 to 2016 did not comply with Department policy and OPM regulations. Several individuals lacked special qualifications in foreign policy matters, and, of the appointments reviewed, almost a fifth were appointments to positions that are inherently policy-determining or confidential. In addition, the Department used its Schedule B authority to convert then-current Department employees or to hire Department contractors as Schedule B employees when the expertise needed was already available within the Department. The Department’s Schedule B policy, however, does not provide adequate guidance on whether and in what circumstances such hires or conversions are appropriate.