An Evaluation of the Intergovernmental Personnel Act of 1970

The Intergovernmental Personnel Act of 1970 is aimed at resolving problems at the State and local levels in many areas, from building personnel management systems where none existed, to promoting civil service reform. Several evaluations show that the grants have generally been successful, played a catalytic role in State and local government personnel management improvement, and have resulted in several cost savings. However, problems with State and local governments continue to require Federal assistance. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) needs to better identify these problems so that program administration can be improved . Grantees are not required to report cost savings on every project, and grants are limited, resulting in many projects not being funded and many local jurisdictions never using the funds. The overall extent to which these governments are improving their personnel management with or without other Federal assistance or through the sharing of results from other jurisdictions has not been determined. Several actions initiated or planned by OPM, if properly implemented, should help improve State and local personnel management. The Act's program must be broadened to fund government management improvement projects for State and local governments.