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Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Lurita Doan is Back!
Lurita Doan is back in the news. I know, I can't believe it either. But wait until you hear why and what she is saying now. It seems she is headlining a 15-minute segment on Federal News Radio (1050 AM in DC) where she will share her views on, get this, government leadership. I'm not making this up. That's like having Jack Abramoff lecture on ethical/legal congressional fundraising tactics. The segment, entitled "Leadership Matters," will run at 7:28 am on Tuesday mornings, according to this Federal Times article from last week.
Doan's got a snappy new photo (at least I think it is new) up on the Federal News Radio Leadership Matters website and she's gotten through two segments so far, both of which have some unbelievable jewels that I would be remiss if I didn't ridicule.
The first commentary was on business "guru" Peter Drucker and how to institute cuts to government programs, I mean management reform. The first thing about this commentary is that it seems Doan really believes government is a business. While there at least could be an argument that the General Services Administration, the agency she used to run, should be structured like a business, government is not a business. It isn't. Citizens are not "customers." And pretending these things are true and assuming you can apply successful business practices to government and things will work just fine isn't a good idea. For example, Doan says:
But with a little more Drucker, leaders at all levels can see the wisdom of taking the harder road of moving resources, both financial and human capital, to where they can bring the most value, to redeploy these resources to programs that offer the biggest possible value to American taxpayers, and terminating programs that have continued for years even thought they no longer deliver the originally promised results.
I almost don't know where to being here. This is just too ironic. Let me give it a shot - as Ms. Doan says, nothing happens until you commit to it.
Doan tried to "move resources" to where they can bring the "most value" while at GSA. She interfered twice with contract proceedings while heading up the agency, first to give a no-bid contract to her friend (see here and Washington Post coverage), and then to force the government to continue a contract with Sun Microsystems after evidence had been uncovered that Sun was overcharging the government (see here, here, and this excellent Washington Post coverage).
Doan also tried to "redeploy" resources away from the GSA Inspector General's office, a practically unprecedented move in government, because she was tired of that office launching investigations into her pretty blatant misconduct at GSA Administrator (see here, here and here). After being widely criticized for these actions, Doan fell back on the claim she was simply trying to cut the GSA's budget and save taxpayers money. Is this the type of cuts Doan is thinking of when she recommends the new administration "[put] the responsibility for cutting the budget squarely on the shoulders of each agency head" later in her commentary?
Finally, Doan went so far as to break federal law by attempting to use federal resources (both "financial" and "human") to help elect Republicans to federal office. (see here, here, here, and yet more Washington Post coverage).
None of these decisions were "wise," nor did they "bring the most value" to American taxpayers. Maybe that's why President Bush, of all people, ended up firing Doan with only a few months left in his presidency. You know things are bad when Bush won't stand up for you - case in point - he's still campaigning for indicted Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK).
I'll have to save my reactions to Doan's second commentary for another post - there was just too much to say about the first. One final note. Doan references that there are "barely ten days" to accomplish a more disciplined federal budget at the very end of her commentary. I have no idea what ten days she is talking about here. If you have an idea and can help me out, shoot us an email at budgetblog (at) ombwatch.org.
(h/t to Neil Gordon over at POGO's blog)
Posted by Adam Hughes
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