"Office of Internal Investigations Visit" Topic

OIG scheduled a visit. Wanted to talk to all the personnel involved in "The invisible toys program" as part of project A & B and the restructuring.

First the manager told everyone that they had to be available for the meeting that was to occur in two weeks. Then we were to be provided e-mails that we all needed to read regarding the possible questions they might ask. He sent three e-mails, each with several attachments. Then he planned a meeting to ensure that everyone was aware of the OIG meeting and that everyone was aware of the substantive content of the meeting and possible questions that the OIG might ask. He didn't want to influence the responses to OIG, however, he wanted everyone to be aware of the information that might impact any answers that one might provide to the OIG.

The meeting was rescheduled to the following week. The manager repeated all of the above steps again.

The OIG panel was composed what seemed to be a grizzled old guy (like me), another experienced individual, and three young persons, who all looked like a high school debate team.

The meeting lasted an hour, part of which the old guy and I referred to several things that the young panel members had no idea what we were talking about. Since much occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, well before they were born.

Useless panel questions:
- do you know what the others think about the restructuring? No, not really as that would be second hand info anyway, you may want to ask those individuals.
- what do others think about project A? that would be second hand info anyway, you may want to ask those individuals.
- what do others think about project B? that would be second hand info anyway, you may want to ask those individuals.

After the Spanish inquisition that revealed NAFT, since I had nothing to do with it anyway, the Manager came running up. Please send me an e-mail on all the questions they asked, not your responses, just as many of the questions that you can remember. Then he scurried off, like a rat seeking a treat in a maze.

Yessir, this is clarity and truthfulness in government…

If you take someone's annual salary and double it to account for their workspace, benefits, supervision, and other costs, then divide by two thousand, you have rough idea of their per-hour cost.

Now multiply the number of hours required by the number of people involved and you have the total cost of the operation you describe.

But the important thing is… actually, I don't now what the the important thing is. I've seen these things happen and I know everyone is convinced they're important and much effort is expended but I can never tell how the world is different afterward.

Like war, everyone would be happier if we didn't do this, and yet we do it, as we have always done.

I wonder to what extent they were just going through the motions meeting a requirement that allows someone to put a check in the box on a form that no longer is applicable to anything at all.

While in the Navy, at one command, when filing your post travel report, you had to use a specific NCR form, and make 5 copies of it (not photocopied, all on NCR paper). It was slow and tedious as pressing hard enough for the impression to go all the way to the bottom of the pile for the fifth copy made for slow going.

I once went around to the various offices that required a copy of the form. the answers were the same in each one:

me "what do you do with the information on the copy of the travel form I submit"
them: "we put the copy in a file for the fiscal year"
me "that's what you do with the form, what do you do with the information?"
them "no idea. never did anything with any of the information. we just file the forms"

Andrew W., I did staffing studies, but it was quite a
while ago (early 90's).

We figured labor and burden (the items included in your
post) at 138 % (an employee's salary for the category
at which we were looking), so a 50,000 dollar/year
employee cost the company $119,000. USD this also factored
in future benefit costs (pension, etc.) and did lead
to dramatic changes in the pension program (401K now
the standard versus non-contributory pension plans all
paid for by the company)

I've found that if you tick the box to say you have filled in the form, but don't bother to ACTUALLY fill in the form, nobody ever notices…..

Oh, a report will be filed, but nothing will be done. Look at how little has happened at the VA despite the close personal interest of Congress. It's like a clip of a polar bear attacking a walrus I saw on Nature. The walrus is so big and its hide is so thick that the bear bites and claws it without effect while the walrus just keeps moving forward until the bear gives up in frustration and walks away.