Return to Article: Transition observers anticipate a bottom-up approach to agency reviews
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63689
Speaking about the Transition Team people... Did anyone else out there get hit by the mother of all taskers this week, asking for enourmous amount of data? We did. This is the largest tasker I have ever seen in any transition, and it looks like a generic document that would fit any agency. No one minds providing the information requested, but was it really necessary to send this tasker right before Thanksgiving when a lot of people have leave and travel plans to be with their loved ones? Would it really have made such a big difference if it had been sent either last week or next week? Come on folks, be human for a moment. Remember that the Government's best resource is its people. Have a happy Thanksgiving.
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63646
The transition people are, for the most part, retreads from the Clinton Administration, who have been hanging around Washington for the last 8 years hoping to land another political appointment. This is not change that I can believe in. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
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63633
I agree with a previous comment that management would interfere and direct employees how to answer to the transition team. I would love to give be interviewed. Is there any way they can tlak with you like the IG without letting anyone know?
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63346
After the Defense Dept, go to DHS/ICE.
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63331
How can you have a bottoms-up approach if employees are told not to interact with these review teams, that a team member reaches out to you directly with a request, you are to "please" rediret that request to the agency's Senior Transition Officers or Deputy Transition Officers. Do not respond to any request... without "coordinating" with management appointed contacts. What the heck is this? Censorship! 26+ year fed and K. Huffman make good points.
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63326
Of course the taxpayers aren't being consulted, you know the folks that pay the bills. This just for government by government total disappointment
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63303
I'll believe it when i see it.
"No matter how cynical you get, it's impossible to keep up." -- Lily Tomlin
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63292
These teams should look carefully for illegal/improper personnel actions by political appointees during the last few months of the current administration. One assistant secretary in Homeland Security made press headlines in September for bragging very publicly about "shooting" career civil servants that he described as "more devious than al Qaeda." Since then, he has remained in office and been allowed to continue taking actions against career Feds that are very wrong and perhaps illegal. Such actions should not have been condoned by this administration, nor should they be allowed to remain in effect beyond inauguration day.
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63279
This is always an interesting process that can be very beneficial to the existing management team as they have an opportunity to gain insight into the new Administration's thinking and priorities and also to identify hot spots within the agency that should be brought to the attention of the new management team. The list of review Team leaders is impressive. I am especially pleased that former FAA Administrator Jane Garvey will be heading up the DOT review. I had the opportunity to work with Administrator Garvey during the Clinton and Bush Administrations and the Nation and the FAA was very fortunate to have her as FAA Administrator when 9/11 happened. The one area that ususally does not receive enough attention during the transition reviews is the field operations. In many Departments, field operations are very if not the most important component of the agency...i.e. Defence, Homeland Security, State, Veterans Administration, Energy, etc. However, senior career executives in the field usually do not receive enough face time with the review teams to share their issues and insights.
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63274
Unfortunately, the "bottom-up" review will probably be at the executive level. I had a detail to coordinate resolution of payment problems involving multiple external agencies. Those included in the fact finding were agency executives inside the beltway. The meeting was scheduled for 4 weeks after percieved payment issues and questions were raised buy field personnle but none of the agency executives who were to attend said they had payment problem although the field personnel spent a great deal of time resolving them. A second meeting was schedule 6 months later with the same results. All this rhetoric sounds good to the public but will the outcome of the Obama bottom-up review be fair and unbiased? Is selecting individuals who were executives at the various organizations a good idea? Will lobbying and agendas be removed from the process? Probably not. As far as being the same kind of "commissar system" that follows presidential transitions, it may be but louder and with more publicity. Seems the media is still in love with the president elect.
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63251
How far from the bottom will the review input be solicited? I am hopeful that there is consideration for also valuing information from the people that are actually performing the work, not only input from those who, in theory, are overseeing its performance. At individual agency/unit levels; teams made up of diverse perspectives on operations and having equality in position at the table would most benefit an outside perspective of enhancing operational efficiency, assuming the individuals are not intimidated by the superiors on the "team". Consideration of including worker level perspective in high level assessment may also be very useful in understanding and evaluating functionality and efficiency from a "bottom-up" review. There are times when those making decisions are too removed from the actual function and embedded in the bureaucracy to see the trees for the forest.
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63226
"Colossal waste of time" perfectly sums up the review team concept presently being peddled. What a perfect conceptual archetype for inside the beltway "change". This will be the same commissar system that follows every political overhaul in Washington - review team members on search out and replace missions, opportunistic agency operatives jockeying for favored positions, employees with integrity and real inside knowledge wisely keeping their mouths shut.
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63222
Start with the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA).
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