And Sydney Brillo Duodenum knows of what he speaks because he is a prune that on any given day, is surfing the web while rubber stamping bureaucratic make work with one eye on the clock.
Obama Victory Provides a Chance
To Renew the Vitality of Federal
Service
Washington, D.C.—The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) looks at the victory of Sen. Barack Obama as the next president of the United States as a major opportunity to turn the public conversation toward a much-needed discussion of how federal agencies may best serve the public, the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees said today.“Federal agencies have been understaffed and underfunded and federal employees have been marginalized by the current administration,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “As our new president prepares to lead our country, NTEU stands ready to work with him and the congressional leadership on ways to strengthen federal agencies to help them better meet their critical missions and serve the American public.”
NTEU will work with the Obama administration and Congress on a number of measures that will help federal agencies focus more on delivering services to the American public and less on wasteful contracts, consultants and near-constant changes of personnel systems, President Kelley said.
These include finding savings and increasing accountability by ending inefficient contracts and bringing work back into federal agencies; providing adequate resources to agencies, including sufficient staffing levels, and the necessary authority to achieve agency missions; driving agency resources to the frontlines; and increasing productivity at our agencies through the use of partnership and other collaborative efforts.
“Federal agencies need to be refocused on mission-critical efforts, and put aside distractions that have stymied progress in the past several years,” President Kelley said, adding that any civil service changes, including alternative pay systems, should be linked to increasing the potential for reaching agency missions.
“NTEU also will work with the Obama administration to provide to every eligible federal employee full collective bargaining rights,” said Kelley.
“Frontline federal employees know how to get the work done, how to make improvements in their agencies and best serve the American people,” President Kelley said. “It is time for positive change in federal agencies that starts with listening to suggestions and working cooperatively with employees.”
After eight years of Bush administration efforts to contract out federal work and institute new personnel systems that diminish employee rights, many federal agencies are facing plummeting morale among their workers, President Kelley said. “I am confident that by working together we can turn this around.”
“President-elect Obama has said that he wants to make public service ‘cool’ again,” President Kelley said. “This will become increasingly important as the so-called ‘retirement wave’ of federal employees crests in coming years. NTEU looks forward to working with him to turn back the tide of negative perceptions about the federal workforce and make public service a viable and desired career path for young workers.”
