OPM lets agencies decide if conferences count as training
It will be up to agencies to decide whether to pay for employees to go to such events as part of their official duties, the Office of Personnel Management says.
The Office of Personnel Management says it will stop determining whether conferences qualify as training activities. It will be up to agencies to decide whether to pay for employees to go to such events as part of their official duties.
“OPM is discontinuing this practice to make clear that agencies are responsible for their employees’ training and development” according to existing laws and regulations, the memo from OPM Director Katherine Archuleta said.
The memo also restated guidelines in federal regulations. It said agencies may sponsor employees’ attendance when the conference is educational or instructional in nature. The conference must be structured to allow “a planned, organizational exchange of information between presenters and audience.” And the topic of the conference must relate to an employee’s work.
In recent months, the Obama administration has backed away from intensely regulating agency conferences and travel amid complaints from agencies that the additional oversight was burdensome and costly. At the National Institutes of Health, paperwork related to conference travel costs $15 million a year, according to NIH Director Francis Collins.
The White House increased scrutiny on conference attendance in 2012 after questionable events hosted by the General Services Administration, the Veterans Affairs Department and other agencies came to light. It required department secretaries to sign off on any conference that cost more than $500,000.
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