FOG

I do work for the gov't, and I agree that BIA has problems, but I also know that the everyday workers at the overwhelming majority of agencies do a great job of executing the orders passed on to them. When the orders are conflicting or incompetent, which can occur because the public knows to be true facts which later prove to be false, then the orders lead to inefficiency. In the case of the USPS, their orders are unambiguous- they must move the mail rapidly and efficiently, and they do, despite a raft of requirements which do not hobble private enterprises. I do not know how the BIA debacle got started, but I am willing to bet good money that if the truth ever gets out that a political appointee will turn out to have been the culprit, and that ambiguous or conflicting requirements will also be part of the mix.

I work with an advisory committee, which has many individuals from the affacted industry, and they are considerably more impressed with our skill and diligence now that they have attempted to assist us in finding good and appropriate policies.

Some government agencies get into trouble with the public when they are too efficient, such as the IRS, or when they move in one direction or another to fit policy. The DOL has a rulemaking going on redfining who will be subject to overtime pay. As a result of their effective work, they will probably have made enemies of the labor unions. The real issue is not whether the DOL employees did a good job but whether the affected people are happy with the outcome of a politicial decision, which was not made, but which was implemented by skilled and efficient government workers.

Someone may say that "we were just following orders" is not a good excuse. I, and most of my coworkers that I have discussed the matter with, belive that it is not up to government workers to second-guess the electorate, their elected leaders or thepolitical appointees of the elected leaders, as long as the orders are not immoral, ilegal or unconstitutional. If an elected or appointed official says the world is flat and we are going to make policy accordingly, the remedy lies only with the voters. We will do our absolute best to implement a flat earth policy, even if we hold personal beliefs, or even knowledge, which conflict with that. We work work diligently, and as efficiently as we can given that a policy is based on false assumptions. We will, of course, do our best to give accurate information to the elected and appointed officials, but relatively few of them go to the trouble of getting elected or appointed so that they can seek our advice.

Since you are a voter, and therefore in many ways the ultimate decisionmaker, you can do a few things to make government more efficient. You can recognize that there are tradeoffs, and accept that if you want better transportation you may have to put up with more construction, more jobs, then you may have to accept more pollution or drilling in the ANWR, less crime you may have to pay more for prisons and staffs, better education higher taxes and so on. Public employees are great at using the resources allocated within the framework prescribed. Help us make a better framework by acknowledging tradeoffs and we can do an even better job.

If you pretend that we are all living a life of ease and adding no value, then you are likely to provide insufficent resources to attract good enough workers. A good enough worker would have to be very good where a large program is involved, yet often the wages are not enough to draw appropriate talent. If the quality of a worker's efforts can affect outcomes of a program by 1/2% (a very modest percentage), and the program is a one billion dollar program, then the difference affected by that worker's quality is $5 million. Nickle and diming that employee by a few thousand is not wise.

At the moment it is politically expedient for both major parties to blame government shortcomings on the employees, which is almost as stupid as blaming fires on firefighters. Look beyond the headline-grabbing stories and analyze the more common cases of emplyeees doing their jobs well and drawing no attention.