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Post by Diana on Nov 17, 2012 18:38:59 GMT -6
Perhaps I misunderstood, but Anita did include government/public sector jobs in the list of the too many people who receive a government check. And yes, I do earn my government check.
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Post by Robin Hood on Nov 18, 2012 0:11:27 GMT -6
Diana, I am also a gov't employee... and as a gov't employee I see everyday the waste and inefficiency that bureaucracy breeds... it is mind blowing some days.
I am an IT Specialist for the USDA, I cover 18 counties here in Texas. Out of those 18 counties, I have ONE that has a server that was made in this century, I have servers that were installed when Reagan was POTUS... simple modernization would save MILLIONS of dollars... Most of my users that I support have PC's that are over 10 years old. I sit back and watch day after day as we step over dollars to pick up pennies. Another good example... we have these FANTASTIC business class color printers that the agencies won't buy toner for because they cost $50 more than the ones for the home office printers... the per page print costs out of the big printers is about 1/2 of that of the small printers, but because some bureaucrat in an office someplace sees only the cost of the toner cartridge we are stuck using these crappy little home office printers.
If there was a profit margin to worry about I guarantee you that someone would be looking into the waste of money and trying to save a buck every place they could, but being gov't there is no oversight.
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Nov 18, 2012 7:16:04 GMT -6
So is that "waste and inefficiency" due to the fact that the bureaucracy is inept, or because their budget has been cut to the point that its impossible to purchase the hardware needed to become more efficient... sounds like the strategy of "starving the beast" is working quite well, and what you are seeing are the death pangs.
Cut ANY organization's budget and it will become ineffective... a self-fulfilling prophesy.
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Post by Robin Hood on Nov 18, 2012 15:13:40 GMT -6
So is that "waste and inefficiency" due to the fact that the bureaucracy is inept, or because their budget has been cut to the point that its impossible to purchase the hardware needed to become more efficient... sounds like the strategy of "starving the beast" is working quite well, and what you are seeing are the death pangs. Cut ANY organization's budget and it will become ineffective... a self-fulfilling prophesy. Mostly inept... they have plenty of money to make things run well... however the bureaucracy with all the red tape is the problem. A good example of the pure amount of red tape... right now our workload is insane, we are in the middle of about 3 major projects, I am falling a bit behind and asked my boss about the possibility of working 5-6 hours the next few weekends to get caught up... keep in mind I was NOT asking for overtime, but just some time off once things are caught back up and we could afford the time off... I was directed to fill out 3 different forms and he would push it up the chain. Now, why do we have to do this for something that shouldn't be a big deal... The pure amount of red tape is what is killing our gov't.
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Post by ♥ COVID-19♥ on Nov 18, 2012 15:38:34 GMT -6
Yes, but that's nothing new -- it's always been that way. I was a federal employee back in the 80's (VA). Just getting simple office supplies was a chore. And ordering anything major (like a computer), you might as well forget about -- fill out the forms, get the signatures, submit them. You might as well have sent them to The Bermuda Triangle because they'd magically disappear. There's a reason why they call the government The Employer Of Last Resort.
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Post by Robin Hood on Nov 18, 2012 22:04:32 GMT -6
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my job, it is just the HUGE amount of bullshit that goes along with it that I hate. I could make more money working in the private sector without a doubt, however in this job market I am staying put for now...
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Post by Tex on Nov 19, 2012 7:42:52 GMT -6
Yes, but that's nothing new -- it's always been that way. I was a federal employee back in the 80's (VA). Just getting simple office supplies was a chore. And ordering anything major (like a computer), you might as well forget about -- fill out the forms, get the signatures, submit them. You might as well have sent them to The Bermuda Triangle because they'd magically disappear. There's a reason why they call the government The Employer Of Last Resort. This doesn't bode well for Obamacare.
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Post by Diana on Nov 19, 2012 8:54:05 GMT -6
I completely agree with all of the above statements regarding gov't waste, inefficiency, ineptitude and ridiculous amounts of red tape involved it what should be very simple things. I also love my job but often find the politics and bullshit associated with it infuriating. People sitting in offices with no clue as to what we actually do and what goes on out in the field take it upon themselves to make decisions as to what we need or don't need, and we have ended up with a screwed-up mess more than once because of it. Then more money has to be spent to straighten it out when it would have cost less to get us what we requested in the first place. The GSA debacle has resulted in much closer scrutiny of our purchase requests, travel authorizations and other spending recently. Our training branch funds were cut many years ago and snacks, drinks and such can no longer be purchased with training funds and Las Vegas was never a location where training can be held. Obviously GSA decided that since it holds the purse strings, it was OK for them to have a convention in Vegas and spend $5000 or so for sushi, all on the taxpayers' dime. Makes all of us government employees look bad and pisses me off even more to hear "we don't have the money" when requesting routine lab supplies.
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Post by Tex on Nov 19, 2012 10:30:38 GMT -6
I have never worked for the federal government but when I had an audit practice as a CPA, I had several clients who administered federal programs. The most complex of these was an Indian tribe. They had numerous programs with different fiscal years than either the tribe or the federal government. Federal audit requirements dictated that every program be reported in the audit report on the same fiscal year as the tribe. This left the federal agency people with a document that wasn't worth much. The numbers didn't correlate to their budgets - each audit report consisted of a meaningless combination of two program years into one.
I met with the inspector general's office folks (who have authority over such audits) and suggested ch-ch-changing as many of the federal program fiscal years to conform to the tribe's year and for the several programs for which that could not be done, issuing an audited supplement which covered the program and corresponded with the program's fiscal year and budget. This made for a very thick audit report but also for a usable document. The guys at the IG's office and all of the federal program people were all for the idea but the IG guys were careful to tell me that they could not suggest such a thing but nonetheless liked it.
I can say with some certainty that there are millions of man hours wasted on this one item alone. The federal personnel that I dealt with were generally competent and helpful and knew very well what the problems were, but were hamstrung by rules. Another observation I would make is that the programs were always in feast or famine. Either they were scraping around to make payroll through the end of the year or were buying a bunch of unneeded equipment so that their budget wouldn't be cut on account of not spending everything in the current year.
IMHO, federal employees who correspond to middle management in the private sector should be given more decision making authority and held accountable for their decisions more like the private sector.
There were workarounds but there was a hell of a lot of waste. Disclaimer: I got out of the audit practice in 1996 when I got custody of my sons and couldn't spend weeks at a time out on the road, so if my anecdotes are out of date, that is why.
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