Put on your helmet and flack jacket because …

There is yet another report blasting the civil service and those who toil in it. The latest kick in the backside says the civil service “as a government insitution plays an important role in insuring that government policies result in tangible services for the population.” I think most of us would agree to that. But, you guessed it. There’s more …

The report goes on to say that without top-notch career executives “government cannot operate effectively and efficiently.” Again, so far so good.

Unfortunately, the report continues: “The federal civil service has been enmeshed in myriads of problems: Weak governance structure, red-tapism, weak accountability, low professional standards, waste and corruption, poor productivity and lack of control, redundancy and overbloated staff structure.”

We’ve heard it before, yet each time it hurts. Then it gets really gets down to business. Bottom line, things are pretty bad in Corrupt Bloated Bureaucrat Land.

Before you leap from the Washington Monument or Grand Canyon in shame, remember there have been plenty of similar reports before. And for the most part, not much changes — except that your image gets a little more tarnished each time. For instance:

Just last week The Cato Institute issued (yet another) report saying that federal government workers are overpaid. Other think tanks, individual politicians and administrations have blasted government salaries and demanded reform. Mostly, they go nowhere and nothing much changes. Lack of “reform” —  if you believe that all things considered the government does a pretty good job — is not necessarily bad. Also the production of reports, the researching, writing, publishing and then the rebuttals of such reports make for full employment in D.C., an area where we don’t plant taters, dig coal, fell trees or otherwise add to the nation’s wealth. There is one nugget of good news in this report …

The saving grace for feds in Washington, Austin, Raleigh-Durham, Huntsville, Seattle, Ogden and Charleston is that this report isn’t about them. They aren’t the bloated bureuacrats, the corrupt clock-watchers, cited in the report. In fact, the civil service in question, the one who failed the spotlight and smell test, was produced by a prestigious university in the United Kingdom. And the civil service it was talking about has the job of running (not too well by the sound of the report) the largest country in Africa. Nigeria.

So if you are in the Nigerian civil service maybe you should shape up. Assuming the report is correct. And if you are one of those trying to do a good job, you can keep hoping that things will change and that the civil service will be reformed.

And if you are an oft-under-attack American civil servant, whose NASA or CIA salary and job are frequently compared to not-quit-so-similar workers at Wal-Mart or Burger King, relax. Just for a little while. This criticism is NOT for you.

Clearly things (especially in the civil service) are tough all over!!!

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Michael O’Connell

In the early 16th century, the Spanish administration of Charles V began binding important documents in red tape in order to separate dossiers that were to be discussed by the Council of State from other administrative documents.

Source: Wikipedia

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