ALEXANDRIA, Va.–NCUA should review some of its hiring practices for compliance while also doing a better job of ensuring job applicants’ qualifications are verified prior to candidates being brought in for interviews, according to a new report by the agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG).
The OIG’s new report, which it said was “self-initiated,” focused on the period from January 2019-December 2020 and said it found the agency’s hiring practices were largely in accordance with requirements from the Office of Personnel Management, other federal requirements and the agency itself, but there are issues around how efficient the system is for identifying high-quality candidates.
According to the OIG, when it comes to hiring practices, the NCUA has not been in full compliance with requirements for timely notice to candidates on the status of their applications, and not all case files included “sufficient records to allow reconstruction of each merit promotion action from the request for personnel action to final selection (or non-selection) documents.”
Some ‘Missteps’
When it comes to verifying the qualifications of applicants, meanwhile, the OIG said in its review of the process for hiring an agency general counsel it found some “missteps” that led to an 18-month timespan to fill the position as a result. In addition, the OIG report states that it further found that in a process that began in June 2019, the agency did not validate the qualifications of General Counsel candidates a recruiting firm had referred to the agency before the Executive Resources Board and the NCUA board conducted interviews of the candidates.
“As a result, NCUA’s executive leadership interviewed a candidate who did not qualify …,” the OIG report states, specifically saying the issue occurred because human resources personnel did not request SF-50 documentation from the candidates early in the hiring process.
Recommendation & Suggestion
The OIG made one recommendation:
- NCUA should review and adjust as necessary its current practices that are meant to ensure that the NCUA fully complies with regulations, policies, and procedures governing its hiring practices, specifically that candidates receive timely notification of the status of their applications; that required documentation, such as the job analysis and NCUA qualification statement, are included in USA Staffing case files, and that when contracting with a recruiting firm, all required language is included in the contract with the firm.
The OIG report also made one suggestion:
- That when using a recruiting firm to assist in efforts to fill vacancies, management ensure that Office of Human Resources personnel validate referred candidates’ qualifications prior to the Executive Resources Board and the NCUA board reviewing assessments and conducting interviews of the candidates.
The full OIG report can be found here.
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