Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 96 Part 1.djvu/939

 PUBLIC LAW 97-258—SEPT. 13, 1982

96 STAT. 897

Comptroller General decides are necessary to carry out the duties and powers of the General Accounting Office. (h) The Comptroller General may establish for appropriate officers and employees a merit pay system consistent with section 5401(a) of title 5. (c) The annual rate of basic pay of the General Counsel of the General Accounting Office is equal to the rate for level IV of the Executive Schedule. 5 USC 5315. (d) When a change in organization, management responsibility, or workload makes it necessary, the Comptroller General may fix the rate of basic pay of 5 positions at rates not more than the rate for level IV of the Executive Schedule. (e) The Comptroller General may procure the services of experts and consultants under section 3109 of title 5, except that the services 5 USC 3109. of not more than— (1) 10 experts and consultants may be procured for not more than 3 years; and (2) 10 experts and consultants may be procured permanently, temporarily, or intermittently to carry out sections 717(b)-(d) and 719(b)(l)(A) of this title at rates that are not more than the rate for level V of the Executive Schedule. 5 USC 5316. § 732. Personnel management system (a) The Comptroller General shall maintain a personnel management system. The Comptroller General may prescribe a regulation about the system only after notice and opportunity for public comment. A reprisal or threat of reprisal may not be made against an officer or employee of the General Accounting Office because of comments on a proposed regulation about the system. (b) The personnel management system shall— (1) include the principles of section 2301(b) of title 5; 5 USC 2301. (2) prohibit personnel practices prohibited under section 2302(b) of title 5; 5use2302. (3) prohibit political activities prohibited under subchapter III of chapter 73 of title 5; 5 USC 7321. (4) ensure that officers and employees of the Office are appointed, promoted, and assigned only on the basis of merit and fitness, but without regard to those provisions of title 55 USC lOl. governing appointments and other personnel actions in the competitive service; (5) give a preference to an individual eligible for a preference in the executive branch of the United States Government in a way and to an extent consistent with a preference given an individual in the executive branch; and (6) provide that the Comptroller General shall fix the basic pay of officers and employees of the Office not fixed by law, consistent with section 5301(a) of title 5. 5 USC 5301. (c) Under the personnel management system— P^y '"^t^^s. (1) the Comptroller General shall publish a schedule of basic pay rates for officers and employees of the Office; (2) except as provided in clause (4) of this subsection and section 733(a)(3)(A) of this title, the highest basic pay rate under the pay schedule may not be more than the highest basic rate for GS-15; (3) except as provided in section 733(a)(3)(B) of this title, basic pay rates of officers and employees of the Office shall be

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