Should Political Appointees Be Held Accountable for Hiring Top Talent?

Government Executive: Political appointees should be held accountable for hiring and managing employees within their agencies, the head of a good government nonprofit said on Tuesday.

“One of the interesting phenomena [in government] is that we do have a performance management system for the career workforce, not for those 4,000 politicals,” Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, told Senate lawmakers during a roundtable discussion of USAJOBS, the government’s online warehouse of job vacancies. “Performance plans should also hold them accountable for their stewardship of the organizations that they are running, including their ability to recruit and retain the very best talent.”

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