Federal Government Knows about Hiring Practice Corruption, but Won't End It

Here are excerpts from a 2003 Government publication called "Reforming Federal Hiring: Beyond Faster and Cheaper" It shows that they know there is massive abuse.

"Hiring highly qualified people is one of the most important factors in developing a successful organization. Accordingly, the overall purpose of a hiring system is to identify, attract, and hire the candidates who can best meet the needs of the organization. Because the Federal Government must be answerable to the American public, it is particularly important that its hiring decisions be based on merit and support the public’s interests.

"On the other hand, making selections that are influenced by non-merit factors can result in hiring candidates who do not possess the skills necessary to perform the job. Poor selections can result from taking shortcuts in: defining the needs of the job; recruiting from the best sources; or assessing candidates. These poor selections can then ultimately increase costs and decrease productivity.

Public Notice and Recruitment: Excepted service positions do not require “public notice” as defined in the competitive service. This means that agencies are not required to notify OPM of vacancies for which applicants outside the agency may apply and are not required to post those jobs on USAJOBS. Nevertheless, these positions are still subject to the merit system principles (in what way?).

"Our research suggests that information about excepted service positions is frequently difficult to find. These positions are often not posted on USAJOBS or the agency’s Web site because they are not required to be posted. For instance, MSPB surveyed Federal Career Interns, and a quarter of them reported that it was difficult to find out about internships in their agency.82 Furthermore, agencies that hired career interns cited college recruitment as a leading recruitment method.83 While college recruitment can be an effective recruitment strategy, it can exclude from consideration qualified individuals not currently pursuing a college degree.

"To address inefficiencies and inequities in the Federal hiring system, the Government has created a number of sanctioned alternatives to the competitive examining process. For instance, the Federal Career Intern Program and other excepted service hiring authorities do not require traditional competition in which applicants are rated and ranked. However, some of these alternatives can impede fair and open competition and advancement based solely on relative ability. In addition, they can result in unsound hiring decisions and can actually create disincentives to invest resources in good recruitment and assessment practices.

"While excepted service appointments do not require agencies to follow competitive examining procedures, the process is still in a real sense competitive (yeah sure!). Applicants submit an application, and their qualifications are evaluated against what is needed to perform the job (Not a chance these days!) . However, recruitment and assessment rules are not as proscriptive as those in the competitive service. Unfortunately, this fact can also serve to reduce fair and open competition and advancement based solely on relative ability.

Social Security Regional Commissioner Responds to Nepotism Charge

Well, I wrote my Senator, Herb Kohl, and he contacted the Chicago Regional Commissioner, James Martin. Mr Martin sent me a letter in response to The Congressional inquiry. Not surprisingly, he states "I want to assure you that our recruitment methods fully comply with all Merit System principles". At the end of the paragraph he gets down to business telling me of all the different "hiring authorities" they have and says "Our managers determine which job announcements should be placed on the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) public site: www.usajobs.gov" (We already know that the answer is few if any at all).

In his second paragraph he discusses the position in LaCrosse filled by Ryan Kulinski, son of the Milwaukee Downtown Office manager. He explains how the aforementioned Federal Career Internship Program allows federal agencies to recruit "exceptional" candidates for a 2 year program of training and development assignments. I guess we should be comforted to know that most of the people hired by Social Security are so "exceptional". Certainly (in Mr. Martin's world)no average American off the street could be as "exceptional" as the friends and relatives of managers, so why let the average American know about these important jobs.

He goes on to mention that the managers of Social Security Offices go to "recruitment outreach events or activities" and develop by that method the pool of candidates from "members of the public". Going to job fairs excuses all questionable selections. Here is what really happens: The managers, wanting to get out of the office (why stay and manage), go to job fairs at colleges. They might even get a free lunch. Beforehand they tell the people whom they want to apply to go to the job fairs. They then take the resume's of the attendee's who want to be considered. They then toss those they have no interest in, and hire whomever they wish with no real oversight. That is democracy Mr. Martin style.

And so the nepotism and cronyism goes on. Agencies become more corrupted by this pernicious inbreeding and we all see service go down the toilet as favored government hires (exceptional in Martin's parlance)bask in their sixty thousand dollar a year jobs, while the average person's child, newly graduated, wonders why he or she can't get a job. Does Senator Kohl or any of our congressional representatives care enough to assure that any American can have a fair chance at employment in the Government? The answer, I fear, is probably not. At least we could save some of the taxpayers money by taking down the usajobs website, since it doesn't do what it purports to do.

The "Conscience Clause"

I want national health insurance. I want it so bad I would cut off my left arm to get it. I want everyone to have access to medically necessary health care without having to worry about going bankrupt. I want President Obama to work on this as a national priority, but today's news makes me fear this will never happen. You see, I am against abortion. I don't believe the government should mandate that doctors perform abortions, and in many states there are "conscience Clauses" that allow doctors morally opposed to abortion and fetal stem cell research to practice their life saving skills without having to endanger their immortal souls. President Bush, who said he was pro-life, waited until the end of his term to promulgate a conscience clause order. Now Obama intends to rescind it. The problem is that by taking that action he is amalgamating the enemies of free universal health care.

For centuries the church has been at the forefront of efforts to care for the sick. Note the names of so many hospitals: "Lutheran", "Saint Mary's", etc. These people and institutions of faith have put their money where their mouths are to bring health care to our nation. What will they do if they are mandated by federal law to perform abortions? That fear alone is enough to cause all people of faith to decide that, even though the need for universal health care is great, we cannot attain it at the cost of government dictates forcing violations of the sanctity of life. How many doctors does Obama want to drive out of the medical profession? Don't we have a shortage of health care professionals? What if all the church run hospitals and clinics close rather than accede to the dictates of the government? I beg you President Obama, don't do this. Work for what we really need. Work for free universal health care for the sake of the children, the old, the sick, and the poor and bankrupt. Do this as your legacy, but don't cripple the effort at the start by raising the specter of federal tyranny.

Social Security News: How Many Employees Will Social Security Hire And How Will They Be Hired?

http://dennis1950.blogspot.com/

hiring

I am vice president of Local 1346 of the American Federation of Government Employees. Although I retired from my job in September 2008, I was just re-elected for a new term. I am glad of this because I want to continue helping my union fight discrimination in the federal government. You would think that federal employment would be free of illegal discrimination, but you would be wrong. You would also think that since the public pays for the governments employees the process for getting a job would be open and above board. You would be wrong again.

Our union is trying to fight what I consider insidious nepotism and cronyism in the Social Security Agency's hiring, but I want to make it clear that any opinions expressed here are my own. Rather than follow established merit based hiring practices, Social Security is exploiting a loophole in the law called the Federal Career Intern Program (FCIP) to hire about two-thirds of all new employees, and guess what, lots of those hired are relatives, friends, and children of the managers. One manager hires another managers kid and promotes him quickly up the ladder. If this keeps up government jobs will be the "property" of a selected few families and friends. Under this "FCIP" program, managers don't have to make a public job announcement (so that any qualified and talented American can apply). They can find the job "candidates" any way they want, and they can hire them secretly and with no consideration of merit. Is this the American Way? Apparently the Management of Social Security Administration in Wisconsin and elsewhere thinks so. Here is a bit from a letter our national union president sent to the commissioner of Social Security:

"AFGE also received a number of reports from employees complaining that managers have used FCIP to hire their relatives, friends, neighbors, fellow church members, etc. Examples are the FCIP hire of Ryan Kulinski, son of Milwaukee Downtown District Manager Mark Kulinski or the FCIP hiring of Mark Fansler, nephew of Seattle Area Director Steve Dymale. Both Kulinski and Fansler were not only FCIP hires but they were quickly selected at the first opportunity to higher graded positions instead of highly qualified veteran employees who were not related to management."

No, the commissioner has not replied. I have been told that both Kulinski's are mad about this publicity, but you would expect that. If you don't think this is right, call or write the commissioner of Social Security, Michael Astrue to tell him what you think. If you live in Wisconsin, you can contact the Area Director, Robert Pagan, who has presided over this hiring binge and speaks approvingly of it as "Legacy Hiring".

At our recent semiannual union meeting several employees of Mr. Kuklinski's Milwaukee Downtown office came to express fear that their boss would retaliate against them for our president bringing his cozy little arrangement for family job security to a public forum. Mr. Kulinski also apparently sent an employee who is his buddy to the meeting to try to shout down our local president when she tried to explain that we are seeking fairness and equal opportunity in federal hiring. Several managers have apparently told their employees that they can forget seeing any of their friends or relatives hired if the union wants to make an issue of this. Don't all American citizens have a right to compete for government jobs, even relatives of current non-management employees? I think they do so long as all citizens have access to apply, and current employees do not try to influence the hiring process.

It is amazing what kind of trouble you can get into when you expose these kinds of things. I am retired, but not knowing the extent of the insider network in the federal government, I cannot say that I will not be targeted. There is no doubt that those still working are at risk if they oppose the illegal acts of others. If you doubt that the events I have just described are illegal you can look it up online at the website of the Federal Government's Office Of General Counsel: http://www.osc.gov/ppp.htm. And so the fight goes on for truth, justice, and the American way.