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Return to Article: Defense comptroller: Financial management better than perceived

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  I agree with Bob agreeing with me (and legions of others). And Bob is right in that this rampant and inherently self-serving "we take care of our own (at the US taxpayer's expense via concocted and sham external recruitments)" inbreeding is not limited to mid and upper GS hires in the DoD financial series. It is unfortunately replicated in many other DoD administrative management disciplines as well. This tawdry practice, however, which is typically practiced by one agency careerists, is, thankfully, not present in all federal organizations. First order federal organizations that truly hire personnel based on meritocracy and only after legitimate searches for excellence to identify the best and the brightest, including the NIH and the IRS, consider such practices an anathema to their mission and the US taxpayer. But that IS NOT the case within DoD, where almost all (by not no means literally all) of the admin management hiring 'managers' are DoD one agency careerists to the person and bone. It is both laughable and pathetic that these US taxpayer salaried so-called 'leaders' preposterously perceive that excellence exists within and among themselves - only and merely within current or prior DoD staffers. This utter and complete self-serving nonsense simply and indefensibly speaks for itself and to the underlying caliber of 'manager' and so-called 'leader' who actively participate and perpetrate what is so aptly tagged the utter base dregs of public administrative management.

  Michael J. Smith, M.P.A. Posted October 18, 2007 4:06 PM
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  Very well stated Mr. Smith could not have defind the problem better myself.

  BTW It is just not the financial community that this applies to. As I see it the Govt. as a whole operates in this fashion.

  Bob Posted October 18, 2007 12:26 PM
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  """"We know where our money is. We track our money. We send accounting reports to Congress.""""

  And when one becomes a Congressman he has heard the REAL TRUTH for the last time!!

  If our Financial Management System at my Navy activity is any indication Ms. Jonas either has no clue as to the real status or does and is just prevaricating.

  Bob Posted October 18, 2007 11:50 AM
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  Ms. Jonas:

  Here's a thought for which you may wish to consider taking action. If you want to instill real, long lasting and positive change to substantively improve both the competencies of and professionalism within the overall DoD financial management community, how about acting as a change agent, a real change agent, a real leader, and substantively address and stop the decades-long preposterous levels of rampant self-serving inbreeding that permeates almost every literal corner of DOD's financial management community? Are you even aware that the vast majority (nearly 100%) of the hiring actions for DoD financial management positions in the mid and higher grades (GS 12-15 or equiv) end up with hires who comprise only and merely current or prior DoD staffers of some sort (e.g., DoD GS staff, or recently retired DoD military members who were desirous of obtaining co-called (but non-existent under current federal and OPM regulations, laws and public policy) "conversions" to GS positions post retirement, or DoD contactor staff? And please keep in mind that these ludicrous near 100% levels of groupthink instilling and mediocrity fostering inbreeding are 'achieved' from purported external (i.e., federal-wide and/or DEU) recruitments. Internal recruitments, or those limited to only current agency staff, of course, all lead to inbreeding hires. Yes, the unvarnished truth of the matter within the DoD financial management community is that DoD 'managers' have long used and abused the external federal hiring process by recruiting obviously for appearances sake only, because they functionally recruit the position internally by using and abusing hiring criteria that is specific to DoD and/or the hiring DoD agency. This overly insular practice, of course, in addition to creating these ludicrous levels of inbreeding, also by definition discounts and invalidates the highly portable and translatable skills sets and experience of non-DoD applicants. Can you not see that this is a if not THE major factor why DoD's financial management community cannot pull itself out from the ditch from which it has placed itself into so many decades ago as a direct result of this dregs of public administrative management practice?

  Michael J. Smith, M.P.A. Posted October 18, 2007 11:37 AM