So a year has passed since I wrote this piece, and close to 4 years since my original article. And now we can add the massive VA scandal to the list – a scandal that apparently has cost the lives of the very people the VA is chartered to service.
It should be clear to everyone who is willing to look that the corruption is widespread and very deep. The corruption of Barack Obama is well documented, but likely will go unpunished except for the victims of his corruption – that being you and me.
The corruption of Civil Service is sickening and apparent, even to a “sea going corporal.” I will revise the housecleaning number in my post from 15%-20& upwards to 25%-30% with upwards of 75% of the firings coming from the highest ranks of Civil Service both in the Departments headquarters as well as at the local level. And let these firings be a clear warning to the younger, and hopefully less corrupted, to chart a new course that aligns with their title “Civil Servant” – a servant of the people, and not a thief.
Like (hopefully) most Americans I have been following the unfolding scandals enveloping our Federal Government. And (hopefully) unlike most Americans I follow these scandals with a bit of personal interest based on direct exposure to several cases of what I would have to label “Waste, Fraud & Abuse.” I have written about these earlier in “Me and the Solyndra Flare-out.”
In summary, the Navy Civil Service (not the contractors) was deliberately abusing their power and authority, and wasting funds by creating very costly and unnecessary new systems in order to protect a segment of work that was threatened by a replacement acquisition.
I resisted this internally with memos, whitepapers and alternative proposals … meetings, and at one point made my case to the Civil Servant boss at NavAir in Washington DC who was in charge of all of our projects. All to no avail until the “pork” project…
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A Yearning for Publius 
Don,
My career was in DOD as a federal civil servant. I started as a lowly electrician apprentice and rose to be a GM-14 Maintenance Department Head with over 1200 employees in my department servicing every naval base, hospital, and station in the greater San Diego area. Where I found waste I tried to eliminate it but found it wasn’t easy. I was countered not just by the HRO but also by the U.S. Navy Captain that commanded the Center. It is not easy to fire or discipline civil service employees. And, yes, I agree with your suggestion to get rid of civil service unions. Although the union cannot strike they can, and do, create slow-down’s and hinder change. I had several temporary employees that were used to “doing a days work for a days pay” on the outside that couldn’t work at the slow pace that full-time employees demanded. They were chastised for “making others look bad”. I eventually was “reassigned” to another department when that Captain displaced me with a fellow drinking buddy. I retired several years later when I found I could no longer stand the “politics” within the command.
Keep up the good work.
Ron