Lack of action on appeals with OPM

[barkley]

I am beginning to explore my options regarding OPM's failure to act on the appeals filed. 

I could understand OPM not acting until the testing process was complete, but it is beyond the pale that they are proceeding to certificate without ruling on the appeals.

If anyone is interested in pursuing redress, please pm me with a non-work email address and telephone number.

[jrh83]

I kind of wish I was still waiting for the response, rather than getting the flat rejection.

The OPM response to my appeal is paraphrased below.

    We told you to follow our [confusing/misleading/easy to miss] rules exactly.
    We told you we would reject your app. if you don't.
    You failed to follow one or more of those rules.
    We reject your application. . . your actual qualifications are not relevant.

I've seen that a few people had their appeals granted.  I really wonder how OPM differentiated those appeals from mine and the others they rejected?  Can you say "arbitrary and capricious"?

[jrh83]

I don't understand why OPM chose to deny the vast majority of the appeals.  Yes, I know that OPM refuses to admit it is capable of making a mistake, but granting enough appeals to assure there are enough candidates on the register is a lot less work for OPM than reopening the register.  If they combined that policy with leaving the rest of the appeals pending, they'd be able to postpone reopening the register for another 5-8 years.

Instead, they just rejected at least 80-90% of the appeals, leaving a register with only about 500 names, with reopening the only way to add new names.  50 more hires will shrink that list so that the following certificate could essentially reach the bottom of the list.