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Washington, D.C.-The labor-management partnership effort that has propelled the most far-reaching modernization of a government agency in more than 50 years was honored last night with a Hammer Award from the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR).

The award-a $6 hammer, a ribbon and a note from Vice President Al Gore, all in an aluminum frame-was presented by Morley Winograd, NPR's director, to the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) during a celebration of the work of federal employees.

The Hammer Award is given to teams of federal employees reflecting work in support of efforts to reinvent government to make it work better, cost less and get results taxpayers care about.

Vice President Gore has been in charge of the eight-year program since its inception at the beginning of the Clinton-Gore administration, which made reinventing government a priority. The $6 hammer is symbolic of changes in government from a time when agencies paid more than $400 for a hammer.

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said the work that NTEU and IRS have done over the past two years in restructuring one of the most important government agencies "offers not just the best example of what can be accomplished when the parties work in partnership, it should serve as a model for such cooperation throughout government."

The NTEU-IRS partnership previously was honored for its work on modernization with a Sturdivant Award, marking excellence in the federal sector. Under the continuing restructuring of the IRS, thousands of NTEU members have played important roles in the design and implementation of structural changes affecting the agency and taxpayers.

Kelley said that while more than 1,400 NTEU members took part in modernization design teams, "all IRS employees share in this recognition," noting that even as restructuring steps were underway through the last two tax-filing seasons, IRS employees "successfully performed their jobs on behalf of the public day-in and day-out." She said that successful effort helps define "the real meaning of public service."

While full implementation will take at least another 18 months, the agency began at the October 1 start of the fiscal year to service taxpayers by organizational units devoted to specific tax needs, a sharp departure from the geographic structure it has used since 1952.

Kelley used today's occasion to emphasize the responsibility of Congress to provide adequate and stable funding for all federal agencies.

"While it is clear," she said, that "a massive and far-reaching undertaking" such as the IRS restructuring "cannot be accomplished without sufficient funding," it is "also clear" that the everyday missions of every federal agency "are dependent on having enough resources, as well."

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 25 agencies and departments, including 98,000 in the IRS.