Government Is So Inefficient and Poorly Managed

The Office of Management and Budget reporting on tracking for Recovery Act funds:

Of the 74,244 prime recipients required to file last quarter, just 352 failed to file a report last quarter — that’s 99.5 percent participation.

Of the 352 who failed to file, 89 percent of them — or 312 — were first-time non-reporters.  Often one-time non-filers have technical problems reporting, so the relevant agency contacts them with a warning letter that also offers the necessary technical or other assistance.  Other cases of first-time non-reporting have been as simple as internal company or organization miscommunication or personnel changes.  In the vast majority of these cases, the recipient simply resolves their internal technical or staffing issue and files the next quarter.

Of the remaining 40 non-reporters, 32 failed to comply twice, 4 failed to comply three times, and 4 failed to comply four times.  Each of these cases is aggressively pursued by the relevant agency with punitive action ranging from withholding or rescinding funds to litigation, if necessary.  You can take a look at the action being taken in each of these 40 cases HERE . We take these cases seriously, but overall, they represent .1 percent of Recovery Act recipients and involve less than .001 percent of total Recovery Act funding.

That’s the kind of reporting (the quality of the data, cogency of the report, and the great results being reported) that I only dreamed of seeing when my partner and I had our last shop running at its well-oiled best. And we were only managing eight or ten employees! (Yeah: plus dozens of contractors, but still, revenues and profits per employee were pretty off the charts.)

It’s the kind of quality management and operations I experienced in my one brush with Medicare.

The solution to bad government is … good government.


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3 responses to “Government Is So Inefficient and Poorly Managed

  1. Chris T Avatar
    Chris T

    It’s convincing people benefiting from bad government to change that’s the hard part.

  2. Ted K Avatar

    I don’t know if your blog format allows this. I’m gonna try to post a Youtube video which contains all details on spending cuts in the recently announced Republican Budget Plan. It is originally from Think Progress and I found it on Andrew Sullivan’s blog. here goes…..

  3. Asymptosis Avatar

    Ted, didn’t come through. But I see you have it on your blog, here:

    http://grahambrokethemold.blogspot.com/2010/10/republicans-finally-come-out-with-their.html

    Un-be-effing-lievable