REVOLVING DOOR BUREAUCRAT (RDB) SCHEME

Our government’s top financial managers are political appointees who would never have considered using government accountants and computer science people to design government-wide accounting and financial software standards and processes.  They discounted this very viable, cost effective, and obvious solution to address our government's ongoing inability to generate accurate, timely, and meaningful financial statements for three very good reasons of their own:  (1) they lack the necessary technical accounting and computer science (CS) educations and credentials to lead such a government-wide endeavor, (2) they relied solely on their corporate allies (AICPA firms, financial software companies, and management consulting firms) to fix inherent government accounting and financial system deficiencies, and (3) they were the government’s “deciders” and accountable to no one, including Congress, the American taxpayer, or the government’s 4 year degreed accountants and CPA’s who were systematically eliminated for questioning the legitimacy of their vey flawed decisions.  With no checks and balances in place, the only outcome was the design and implementation of 20 years worth of government-wide accounting and financial systems that had (and have) no possibility of working.

This government accountability RDB scheme is summarized in the following paragraphs along with the timelines and strategies they used to hide their very bad decisions and perpetuate this redistribution of wealth from the taxpayer to the six figure salaried RDB’s (political appointees and GM-15 level managers), their GM-13 and 14 “accountant” managers (also with no college degrees in accounting or CS), and their corporate allies.  This RDB section identifies the inner-workings of the Federal bureaucracy, the inherent weaknesses, and ideas for better critiquing government-wide efforts on an on-going basis.  The first step in this process is to admit the magnitude of this government-wide accountability failure and to hold our government’s managers, no matter their position, accountable for their very questionable decisions.  The magnitude of this 20 year failed government-wide outsourcing initiative has been the gross waste, fraud, and abuse of our tax dollars involving tens of billions of dollars each fiscal year in direct and indirect costs.   Our government’s acknowledged inability to generate accurate financial statements, at any level, places the financial security of this Country in peril. 

A fundamental government accountability failing is the placement of technically unqualified Central Agency (GAO, OMB, Treasury, and GSA) bureaucrats in leadership roles.  Their very important responsibilities include the design, development, and implementation of government-wide accounting and financial system standards and processes that all 24 CFO Act agencies must follow, in accordance with Congressionally-mandated legislation.  Beginning in 1987, these Central Agency political appointees allowed their corporate allies to determine the overall direction of our government’s accounting and financial system initiatives while retaining no ability to question any facet of this government-wide outsourcing effort.   The Central Agencies’ political appointee’s blundered in a number of ways:  (1) in 1987, they made available untested off-the-shelf financial software to all 24 CFO Act agencies even though they were made aware that all government financial statements would still have to be prepared manually since a GAAP-based accounting standard did, and currently does, not exist, (2) in 1990, they outsourced the design of the government’s accounting standard to AICPA firms and required no accounting model to test the logic of those AICPA and private-sector-driven (government-wide) accounting standards, (3) they inititated a pay banding scheme that allowed our government's technically unqualified financial (accountant and CS) managers to determine the salaries of their employees based upon the performance rating assigned by these technically challenged supervisors.  Paybanding was nothing more than an attempt to legally eliminate the government's accountant whistleblowers, along with the whistleblowers involved in the government's other varied disciplines.

Another government accountability failing is the placement of more unqualified accountants, lacking 4 year accounting degrees and CPA certificates, in CFO Act agency management and staff positions.   Filling the 24 CFO Act agency management and staff positions with competent and credentialed professionals is imperative because of the very important roles they perform, including the following: (1) critique the Central Agencies’ accounting (AICPA) and financial software (off-the-shelf) standards and processes, and (2) ensure that their CFO Act agency accounting processes comply with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).  This is important because non-GAAP based accounting processes prevent both the generation of the 24 CFO Act Agency level financial statements or the Central Agencies’ U.S. government Consolidated Financial Statements (CFS).  With no GAAP-based government-wide accounting standard, there is no logic in procuring more financial software that still requires the manual preparation of our government's financial statements, at all levels. 

The most important lead accountant position in each of the 24 CFO Act agencies is the CFO position.  Like any leadership role, the CFO determines the direction his / her agency will take in fulfilling the two fundamental responsibilities noted in the above paragraph.  Therefore, this CFO position should be filled by an individual with the highest accounting (i.e. Certified Public Accountant certificate) and CS credentials.  However, under the current nomination and confirmation process, CFO positions are filled by virtually anyone committed to fulfilling the political whims of the current Administration. 

An October 22, 2007 Federal Times article briefly describes the failed policies of both the Democrats and the Republicans.  Both parties fail to mention the importance they could play in demanding the highest educational and professional credentials of our government's six figure salaried managers and staff, real whistleblower protection, real penalties for our government's self serving RDB's, and the necessary checks and balances to quickly identify and address the blatant abuses of both parties.  A number of high profile Democrats identified the need for transferring all contractor jobs back to the government; these decisions require input from qualified bureaucrats and not your run of the mill "go along to get along" political appointees.  Under George Bush, John McCain, and the other Republicans, the admitted goal is the outsourcing of all government functions.  There is ample evidence to show that both of these political strategies have never worked because these political strategies are implemented by eliminating all legitimate voices of dissent.  The most obvious example is the recent WMD fiasco and the resultant elimination of all dissenting CIA, FBI, and NSA whistleblowers.  Now, another very real tragedy is being uncovered involving internal threats to this Country's financial security that include the systematic elimination of our government's credentialed accountants to hide all levels of corruption, gross incompetence, and wrongdoing surrounding this, and previous administration's, 20 year failed outsourcing effort. 

To illustrate the point of a government-wide dumbing-down effort of our government's finance offices, consider the make-up of EPA’s current “financial management” team.  EPA’s CFO and his staff of political appointees have little, if any, backgrounds in accounting and thus no ability to either critique the Central Agencies and the private sector’s technical policies or to ensure that EPA’s processes are in conformance with GAAP.   Their political goal is simply to implement the failed outsourcing strategies of current and past administrations and eliminate those who question that strategy.  Then, these technically unqualified financial management bureaucrats are rewarded, upon retirement or sooner, with high level RDB positions with AICPA firms, financial software companies, or management consulting firms.  These RDB's have one thing in common; they are a drain on our tax payer's wallets both as overpaid bureaucrats and then, again, as overpaid corporate executives and contractors.  

There is no better testament to the 20 year failed outsourcing strategy of our government, via the Central Agencies and each of the 24 CFO Act agencies, than in David Walker's last 10 consecutive  years of written Congressional testimony.  In that testimony, Mr. Walker acknowledges that our government has no ability to generate accurate financial statements, at any level.  If that is true, then why has EPA been given the green light to procure another financial software package for $84 million when the federal government, and EPA, is still preparing its financial statements manually.  To provide some insight into the gross lack of credentials of EPA's management team, including the CFO, view the Documentation Section in this website.  This section identifies their lack of credentials, their dumbing down efforts to hide all levels of gross incompetence, and their violation of no less than seven Congressional acts, including lying to Congress, to hide all accounting deficiencies on their annual FMFIA reports to support their clean and unjustified audit opinions.