| Comment Number: | OL-10511060 |
| Received: | 3/16/2005 1:53:02 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:
The only long-term benefit--if one wishes to call it that-- that I can infer from these regulations is a return to the pre-(1876?) situation where the manning of the Civil Service was totally at the whim of each new administration. The Civil Service will become progressively more subject to the whims of each succeeding administration's political appointees--too many of whom will have utterly no clue as to how things should work at each agency. The changes, as now formulated, will give entirely too much power to these people. The government's day-to-day operations will resemble nothing so much as an enormous weathervane. The complaint advanced by proponents of the new regulations that too much deadwood is allowed to exist in the current system is rubbish. Where such deadwood do exist among civil service personnel, it is virtually always due to one cause: supervisors failing to do their job (not wanting to rock the boat, protection of a friend or ally, empire building, etc.). If the local chain of command is doing its job from day one, it's no problem. The short answer is, the current system has some problems which are best addressed by fine tuning--not an overhaul. If the current administaration is genuinely concerned with hiring the best possible people for open jobs, then they should start with actually having human eyes looking over applicants' information--not relying on a software package to do the work for them.