REVOLVING DOOR BUREAUCRAT (RDB) SCHEME

Our top political appointee financial managers would never consider using our government’s credentialed 4 year degreed accountants and Certified Public Accountants (GS-0510 series) to design government-wide accounting and financial software standards and processes.  They discounted this solution to address our government's financial management-related weaknesses for three reasons:  (1) these political appointees, Senior Executive Service (SES) and Executive Service (EX) financial managers, lacked the necessary technical accounting and computer science (CS) educations and credentials to lead this government-wide effort, (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 twenty-plus years of failed accounting and financial software standards and processes.  After spending untold billions in very flawed private sector accounting (AICPA) and off-the-shelf financial software standards and processes, the sad fact is that this government still prepares its financial statements manually.  That is, after manually adjusting and readjusting the very flawed automated financial statements that are generated; these government-wide failures are consistent with the deficiencies reported in the last eleven years of GAO’s written Congressional testimony.  The only thing lacking in that testimony was GAO’s refusal to admit any responsibility for its own failures or those of its Central Agency partners (OMB, Treasury, and GSA) or their corporate allies. 

Please remember, that the Central Agencies forced these untested accounting and financial software standards and processes on all 24 CFO Act agencies and the DOD when they knew these standards were flawed.  Then, OMB required all 24 CFO Act agencies to use management consulting firms to fix the very accounting and financial system deficiencies that the Central Agencies and 24 CFO Act agencies effectively created.  These actions were a win-win for our RDB’s and their corporate allies and a lose-lose for the American taxpayer.