| Comment Number: | OL-10509875 |
| Received: | 3/15/2005 8:06:13 PM |
| Subject: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| Title: | National Security Personnel System |
| CFR Citation: | 5 CFR Chapter XCIX and Part 9901 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
Seeing the general information about NSPS that was provided on the website is my first indicator that this will not be a system that will be beneficial to employees. When government agencies only publish bullets about something this big that they want to implement it immediately sets off alarms for me. One of my initial thoughts on this issue is “Don’t we ever learn?” Don’t we learn from the results of groupthink at NASA that led to the Challenger disaster? Don’t we learn from the results of groupthink at CIA that led to a war in Iraq for non-existent weapons of mass destruction? This system will only encourage “YES” people. No one will want to rock the boat. Why would anyone think that DOD would be any different than NASA or the CIA. We are almost there but not quite, this system will get us a lot closer. Page 3 of the presentation “Why NSPS?” identifies that DOD has over twenty years of successful experience with testing personnel flexibilities. If they were so successful these flexibilities would have been embraced by the majority of DOD that were not part of the pilot programs at such places as SPAWARS and China Lake. I could spend a lot of time going page by page commenting on this proposed regulation, but I know that it will be a waste of my time. The people with the power have already decided to implement this plan and they will do as they see fit. The effort of receiving and the illusion of possibly incorporating public comments into the plan is just a block that must be checked to be able to say, “We did that.” The out in the open dismantling of employee rights and union rights is astounding. This country was built on the backs of workers, and unions played an integral part in that. To take away unions from government employees will hurt everyone. As a country we are already trying to destroy unions and now this destruction will fall on civil servants. The drafters of these rules assume that the individuals who sit as supervisors are competent, capable and effective as supervisors. Fortunately, there are some, unfortunately, in my experience, there are far too many that are not. And this system places the responsibility of implementation on them. If they were competent in their supervisory responsibilities they would be handling their personnel manners in accordance with the regulations of the present system. Most of them, however, are not competent and often choose to avoid any part of their supervisory responsibilities. This will not change with implementing a new system, as the people in supervisory positions will not change. The loss or constricting of independent thought that this new system encourages will hurt our country and our national security. This system will result in government employees becoming yes people to their managers and that will be a disservice to all Americans, to our military personnel and won’t help National Security at all. This system has nothing to do with National Security. In the end National Security will be hurt not helped if this system is implemented as is. Get the unions involved, get the employees involved. And don't just pretend as has been done in the past. Buy in by government employees and unions will make it easier to implement.