The Department of Energy IG did something similar to my old office, the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. They criticized us for not having internal controls documentation (https://www.energy.gov/ig/articles/inspection-report-doe-oig-25-26) and plans. Well, it's like, we were busy awarding projects...spending time writing all these policies would have slowed the project work down.
I think that career officials have to design programs with the end goal in mind while also accepting that the GAO and IG are going to criticize them no matter how many guardrails are established. Treat the criticism like you did: an inside joke. Because that's all it really is.
The centralized hiring tracker stands out as something most agencies should copy. Too often, different teams use their own systems and nobody has a complete picture of where things are stalled. The Excel tracker you describe is smart because it gives everyone transparancy without needing some expensive software rollout. Hiring in 67 days versus the 100 day average is a real acheivement when you're scaling that fast.
The Department of Energy IG did something similar to my old office, the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. They criticized us for not having internal controls documentation (https://www.energy.gov/ig/articles/inspection-report-doe-oig-25-26) and plans. Well, it's like, we were busy awarding projects...spending time writing all these policies would have slowed the project work down.
I think that career officials have to design programs with the end goal in mind while also accepting that the GAO and IG are going to criticize them no matter how many guardrails are established. Treat the criticism like you did: an inside joke. Because that's all it really is.
I've been enjoying this series. Well done!
Thanks Keith!
The centralized hiring tracker stands out as something most agencies should copy. Too often, different teams use their own systems and nobody has a complete picture of where things are stalled. The Excel tracker you describe is smart because it gives everyone transparancy without needing some expensive software rollout. Hiring in 67 days versus the 100 day average is a real acheivement when you're scaling that fast.