Ex-U.S. Personnel Chief Secretly Tried to Keep Reins, Panel Told

The acting head of the federal Office of Personnel Management told a Senate committee today that Donald J. Devine, President Reagan’s nominee for a second term in that job, asked her to keep silent about his attempt two months ago to secretly retain control of the agency.

Acting OPM Director Loretta Cornelius said Devine “asked me if I would say I didn’t know about the document” he signed while still director giving him power to run the agency from a subordinate post.

The day he resigned, March 25, Devine became executive director of OPM. The order he signed the same day delegated all the authority of the agency’s director to the executive director.

Cornelius said she discovered the existence of the order only after she saw official OPM recommendations signed by Devine in late April.

When his term ended and Democratic opposition delayed his immediate reconfirmation in March, Civil Service rules forced the 48-year-old Devine to leave the director’s job. He then took a $2,800-a-year pay cut, to $72,300, to become executive assistant to Cornelius.

Cornelius and Devine soon clashed over who was running the agency. After six weeks as her executive assistant, Devine resigned, citing “tangled lines of authority.”