|
Some good news coming out of the FAA masks a much larger problem.
The good news is that an independent review of our nation's air safety gives the FAA high marks for safety enforcement. The report supports the decision by Transportation Secretary, Mary Peters, to work with industry partners to improve safety. Conversely, the Transportation Inspector General and the Office of Special Counsel cite multiple problems and shortfalls within FAA. And, there's the problem in a nutshell.
Agency heads have learned that an honest and unbiased review of agency programs from government investigators and auditors is almost impossible. Increasingly, an unbiased evaluation of a government program must be performed by an outside review panel.
The problem is that investigatory organizations such as the OSC and IGs have departed from their statutory requirement of performing unbiased and critical reviews of governmental programs and operations. Instead, the OSC, and many of the IGs, have morphed into political hit squads that enjoy special protection and privileges from certain elected members of Congress.
The legislation enacted to create IGs and the OSC had the best of intentions. After all, who could possibly object to establishing a small group of elite auditors and investigators with the responsibility of examining the effectiveness and improving government programs? I believe the role of the independent IG is essential to good government. I have argued that all government programs need annual evaluations to ensure that taxpayers are getting the promised results. In addition, government employees, at every level, need to know that they share a responsibility for program improvement.
But, recently IGs and the OSC rarely perform that statutory mission. Instead, they focus almost exclusively on providing powerful congressional committee chairs with isolated, and often anecdotal, information that is then used to score political points. If an Agency head refutes the biased assessment, either the inspectors, or certain members of Congress, such as Congressman Waxman, will immediately launch allegations of corruption and cover-ups. Government insiders have learned that it is career suicide to suggest that an investigation got it wrong. But, few will say so, for fear of retaliation.
I think oversight is essential. Every businessperson knows that oversight and analysis are essential elements in effective program improvement. But, oversight, to be effective, must be independent, unbiased and balanced. Currently, our government's oversight systems are in chaos and desperately in need of an overhaul.
Don't believe me? This past week, we saw such an example of unfairness. OSC head, Scott Bloch, summarily fired Jim Mitchell who, until then, was serving as the Chief of Staff and Director of Public Affairs. Mitchell was given no reason for his abrupt dismissal and described the OSC Chief as an unfettered, whimsical hurricane, dictating personal agendas that must be obeyed blindly. Bloch has a solid, and very public, record of this type of unethical behavior.
Over a year ago, when questioned by Congress, Bloch ordered "Geeks on Call" to perform a 7 level wipe of government computers in his office and home, claiming concerns about viruses. A Level 7 wipe to remove a virus is the equivalent of shooting a fly with a shotgun.
Bloch has been caught making selective leaks to the media, and has even gone so far as to direct other government employees to make anonymous postings on blogs, in what one level headed Congressman noted was "a governmental propaganda campaign".
The real issue here is not Bloch's malfeasance, but rather why these activities are tolerated. Federal employees, and especially government acquisition professionals, are raked over the coals for even the slightest procedural discrepancy. But, gross violations within the ranks of the IG and the OSC are tolerated, proving they constitute a special class of government employee.
Congressman Waxman is certainly one, but not the only, enabler of IG and OSC abuse. The PCIE, led by Clay Johnson, has the statutory responsibility for oversight of this community. Under Clay Johnson's lack of leadership, the PCIE has turned a blind eye while IGs and Investigators have moved more deeply into politics and away from unbiased reviews of government programs. Bloch's continuing presence reminds us again of the lack of oversight and effective checks and balances on the oversight community.
The current IG community and the OSC are so badly compromised they cannot perform the very mission for which they were established. Secretary Peters was correct to engage an outside group of experts. Similar efforts by DoD, DHS and GSA, have outside experts performing reviews and assessments of different governmental programs.
The oversight community has lost the confidence of senior officials, as well as rank and file government employees, who want an honest and unbiased audit of a program's effectiveness.
They know that government investigators may not share the goal of identifying and fixing problems to the benefit of American taxpayers. Restoring the trust and confidence in the oversight community will take considerable effort and a radically different approach. |
