Restoring Accountability to the Executive Branch

Presented to the Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University

By: Philip K. Howard

The federal civil service system is broken. This is not a controversial statement. A 1989 report by the Volcker Commission on civil service found a “quiet crisis” in federal civil service, characterized by “an erosion of performance and morale” and the “inability to recruit and retain a talented work force.” Pride had been replaced by resignation. The Commission found that seven of ten federal employees who witnessed fraud, abuse, or waste did not even bother to report what they saw. The second Volcker Commission in 2003 found deep resentment at “the protections provided to those poor performers among them who impede their own work and drag down the reputation of all government workers.” More recently, the Partnership for Public Service, a federal civil service reform group, describes the system as “a relic of a bygone era.” . . .

Read the full paper here.