Homeland Security Watch

Comment by William R. Cumming

July 26, 2006 @ 12:18 am

As a former civil servant (actually lawyers are technically excepted service)who once passed a civil service exam (the old FSEE)this is a fascinating and disturbing description of a major event in civil service history. Probably still undocumented is the number of different systems existing in the the components that became DHS, there certainly was not one system being reformed. The real importance of the article is it careful documentation of the drafter’s compulsion for secrecy and rush to get out product. Haste makes waste as they say. Nonetheless, it seems that a simpler path would have been to simply authorize a study for a new system and not make it a quid pro quo politically (this issue defeated Max Cleland for the U.S. Senate)but instead it will earmark the final demise of the civil service. Civil servants typically in past did not give readily to political campaigns (nor are as likely to be strong-armed by their management for contributions) as contractor employees. The government today is a contract dominated environment but one in which the procurement staff of the departments and agencies are completely understaffed and underfunded. Congress did itself in because contractors in reality don’t feel the same pressure to answer Congressional inquiries the same way as civil servants. Thus, even less oversight. The tradeoff was Congress’ to make-more contributions less information. We now see what they got! A ponderous inefficient new bureaucracy and they don’t have a clue as to what is going on. Secrecy rules the day and an educated public and Congress is a virtual impossibility.