We have reported on similar human capital challenges at other agencies.
For example, in June 2003, we testified that the Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC) had failed to fill most of the new staff
positions it needed to examine recent high-profile corporate failures
and accounting scandals.[Footnote 10] In our June 2002 report on the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC),[Footnote 11] we stated
that the increasing competitive nature of the natural gas and
electricity markets made it critical that FERC have more staff members
knowledgeable about how the energy markets work and how to regulate
these markets effectively. However, FERC did not have a strategic human
capital management plan to guide its efforts to transform its workforce
and had not taken full advantage of the personnel flexibilities and
tools available to federal agencies in addressing its human capital
challenges. In April 2002, we found that the individual federal trade
agencies responsible for negotiating, monitoring, and enforcing U.S.
trade agreements lacked sufficient staff members with the expertise to
perform the necessary economic, technical, and legal analyses for the
new agreements.[Footnote 12] The agencies collectively did not have
sufficient expertise to adequately complete these analyses and faced
problems with recruitment and high turnover rates.