Government Cost Reduction Act

Government Cost Reduction Act - Title I: Productivity Improvement by the Office of Personnel Management - Requires each performance appraisal system developed by a Federal agency under Office of Personnel Management (OPM) regulations to include performance standards relating to the degree of attainment of cost reduction goals and management objective established under title III of this Act. Directs an agency to consider such standards when evaluating the performance of senior executives. Prohibits the President from awarding the rank of Meritorious Executive or Distinguished Executive to a senior executive who fails to attain such standards.

Specifies criteria for the classification of Federal managerial positions which excludes any consideration of the subordinate position structure or the extent to which functions are performed by an agency rather than by contract. Directs OPM to prescribe regulations to assure that managers who reduce their staffing levels or budget utilization are rewarded and do not, as a result, have their positions reduced in grade.

Title II: Program Goals and Performance Indicators - Requires the head of each executive agency to establish goals for each agency program and performance indicators which measure the effectiveness of each program.

Directs the President to issue an Executive order terminating the current system by which agencies report productivity data to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Title III: Cost Reduction Goals and Performance Objectives - Directs the President to establish goals for each fiscal year for reducing unit costs and the costs of maintaining required levels of Government effectiveness, and to include such goals in the annual Budget transmitted to Congress. Requires that such goals indicate the reductions which will occur in direct and indirect labor costs and overhead costs.

Requires each agency head: (1) to achieve explicit, measurable cost reduction goals; (2) to establish performance indicators to measure the effectiveness of the production of goods and delivery of services by an agency; (3) to establish objectives for each program of the agency; and (4) to report to the President annually on the progress of the agency in achieving its goals.

Title IV: Productivity Program Reporting - Prescribes a framework for reporting and assessing the results of productivity enhancing programs, including guidelines governing budget savings and surplus personnel resulting from productivity improvements.

Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to report savings returned to the Treasury by the agencies to the President and Congress. Requires the Office of Management and Budget (OMB): (1) to report at least annually to the President and Congress on each agency's productivity reserve transactions; and (2) to maintain an inventory of all reports on executive branch productivity, unit costs and work measurement, resource requirement factors, and data bases containing similar information.

Title V: Productivity Enhancing Capital Investments - Directs OMB to: (1) promote capital investments which enhance productivity; (2) develop guidelines for agencies to identify capital investments which result in fast payback within four years or increased program effectiveness; (3) issue guidelines for establishing agency revolving funds to finance productivity enhancing capital investments; and (4) monitor and report annually to the President and Congress on the savings and improved program effectiveness derived from fast payback investments.

Title VI: Labor Management Relations - Establishes standards for productivity and quality of working life as negotiable items between an agency and any labor organization.

Directs OMB to issue guidelines enabling agencies and employees to demonstrate that work could be performed by agency employees as efficiently as it could be performed by outside contractors.

Requires OPM to prescribe regulations which: (1) prohibit a reduction in force if unit cost reductions are maintained when productivity improvements result in a reduced workload; and (2) provide for a necessary reduction by augmenting the workload, attrition, reallocation, retraining, or job redesignation.

Directs OMB to prescribe regulations: (1) to permit half of the savings resulting from effective management to be reapplied to authorized functions or used to reward productive employees; and (2) to abolish personnel ceilings and budgeted workload requirements designed to limit the agency workforce.

Authorizes agencies to establish Joint Employee-Management Work Committees to improve work performance.

Establishes, within each agency, merit teams to develop performance appraisal standards on a consensus basis. Directs each agency to include employees in training sessions respecting the development of such standards.

Directs OPM to transmit periodic reports to the President and Congress on the costs and benefits of quality of work life initiatives.

Title VII: Quality of Working Life - Requires each agency to prescribe regulations which provide that management systems, operating procedures, and jobs are structured to improve the productivity, environment, morale, job security, and utilization of employees.

Title VIII: Consultant Reform - Establishes general statutory authority for the head of a Federal agency to appoint and fix the compensation of experts or consultants for temporary or intermittent services. Eliminates provisions of Federal law permitting an agency to procure such services by contract only when specifically authorized by appropriations or statute.

Establishes the pay rate payable for GS-18 as the maximum pay rate for experts and consultants for all agencies.

Directs OPM to prescribe regulations governing the employment of experts and consultants by Federal agencies. Requires each agency: (1) to submit to OPM a quarterly report on the number of days each consultant or expert is employed and the amount each individual is paid; and (2) to count such individuals as fractions of persons (depending on the number of hours they are employed) in administering any personnel ceiling. Prohibits an agency from initiating any action to obtain consultant or expert services by contract unless it has been certified that all reasonable steps have been taken to obtain such services by appointment.

Requires each Federal agency to transmit to the Secretary of Commerce a written notice describing: (1) any proposed contract in an amount exceeding $10,000 with specified exemptions; and (2) any contract modification that increases the contract award by $50,000 or more. Directs the Secretary to publish such notices in a specified publication of the Department of Commerce. Directs each agency to notify the Committees on Appropriations of each House of Congress concerning any such modification.

Directs every Federal agency to maintain and make available to the public each month a list of contracts which were entered into during the preceding 24 months and for which contractors have not completed performance. Requires that such list disclose certain information concerning the contract, contractor, and Government employees responsible for awarding and administering the contract.

Declares that all contracts, excluding contracts determined to be classified information for national security reasons, shall be considered public information. Specifies information concerning the qualifications and selection of a contractor which shall be available to the public upon request.

Requires each agency report which is prepared by a contractor or which is derived from a contractor's report, to disclose certain information concerning the contract including: (1) the identity of the contractor; (2) the amount of the contract; and (3) the type of procurement process used to award the contract.

Defines the term "organizational conflict of interest" as any situation in which a contractor has interests relating to work to be performed under a contract which may bias the contractor's judgment or result in an unfair competitive advantage to the contractor. Requires each contractor and each consultant or subcontractor used by such contractor to disclose any information relevant to any potential or existing organizational conflict of interest with regard to any contract for which such contractor is submitting a proposal or any proposed modification to an existing contract. Directs an agency, upon determined that such a conflict exists, to: (1) disqualify such contractor or the consultant or subcontractor from eligibility for award of the proposed contract; (2) modify the proposed contract to eliminate such conflict; (3) include in the agency records and transmit to Congress a statement concerning such conflict if the contract services can be obtained from no other person; (4) terminate the existing contract to be modified; or (5) modify the existing contract to mitigate the conflict and report thereon to Congress if termination is not in the best interest of the Government.

Requires each agency to include with its requests for regular appropriations for each fiscal year, an itemized statement of amounts requested for the procurement of goods and the procurement of services. Requires the Budget transmitted by the President to Congress each year to specify requests for new budget authority for and estimates of outlays by each agency for such procurement. Directs each agency head, by a specified date, to transmit to the Committees on Appropriations of each House an analysis of such requests and estimates.

Requires each agency to include in its records regarding any completed contract totaling more than $50,000 and for which a report was prepared, an evaluation describing such report, the actions taken by the agency in response to such report, and a summary of the performance of the contractor.

Directs an agency to consider an employee's compliance with agency rules and procedures applicable to contracting functions when: (1) evaluating the performance of a member of the Senior Executive Service; and (2) determining any pay increase for a supervisor or manager under the merit pay system.

Requires the Director of OMB to apportion appropriations to Federal agenciess in a manner which insures that no more than 20 percent of the total appropriations available to an agency in a fiscal year may be obligated during the last two months of that year. Authorizes the Director to waive such spending limitation with regard to certain funds upon determining that such action is necessary to avoid a serious disruption of an agency program or operation, if the Director reports on such waiver to Congress. Requires the Director to report to Congress on the implementation, agency violations, impact, and continuation of such spending limitation. Exempts reserves established to comply with such a spending limitation from reporting requirements of the Improvement Control Act of 1974.

Requires the Director to promulgate a regulation establishing a data system for the collection and dissemination of information regarding Government procurement activities. Specifies information concerning each Government contract for the procurement of goods or services which must be included in the system. Directs the Director: (1) to make information within the system available to Congress, Federal agencies, and the public upon request; and (2) to submit to Congress quarterly and annual reports on Government procurement activities.

Amends the Freedom of Information Act to require agencies to make information produced pursuant to a contract available to the public to the same extent as it produced by Government officials.

Amends the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act to require agencies to pay interest on any payment which is overdue by more than four weeks on a contract with a small business concern.