If the Department of Homeland Security were a high school student, it would be in severe danger of getting left back.
For the second consecutive year the department has received a failing grade from the House Government Reform Committee for network security. The government as a whole received a D-plus, the same grade as last year.
“This year, the federal government as a whole hardly improved, receiving a D-plus yet again,” said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., chairman of the committee. “Our analysis reveals that the scores for the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, State — the agencies on the front line in the war on terror — remain unacceptably low or dropped precipitously.”
On the other side, the Department of Labor, the Social Security Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency were among seven agencies receiving a grade of A.
So why do these departments vary so widely in the geeks they attract — including network designers/admin? Or is it strictly management?
Government has an unlimited power to tax and borrow money, so it has no incentive to be efficient or competative like a private organization or business would.
but this still leaves the question: why are some govt entities more efficient than others? Do some branches attract or foster more technically competent employees than others? notice, the ones generally considered more “conservative” – defense, homeland security – did far worse on this scoring basis than did those resulting from “liberal” effots like EPA and Social Security. Weird coincidence? A result of a biased scoring effort? dunno.
That businesses are efficient, or at least more so, than the government is a comon myth that has no bearing on reality. You think that most private businesses are more efficient because you are not privy to their dirty laundry.
I’ve worked for DHS and their main priority is getting funds and spending them on meetings, lunches and trips. Actually doing something like protecting the US from terrorism is on the agenda as a showboat for Congress but in reality they don’t really accomplish squat.
Firstly, I suppose this means that it will be more difficult to attack the EPA than the Pentagon (again!). Secondly, if the government was as efficient as business it would have no need for a whole new Department of Homeland Security, it would have laid off 10% of its workforce and reorganized. Lastly, in the world of “No student left behind”, DOD, HS, Justice, and State will no doubt be promoted.
I can tell you why the security services have a problem with recruiting geeks. Geeks like their drugs. So if a geek wants a government job they will stay away from anything having to do with security or law enforcement.
DHS was never intended to do anything more than placate dumb voters. Those dumb voters never read articles like this.
I can say that the geeks at work at securing government resources, at least on the military side of things, are some of the best I’ve run across. The management, on the other hand, rivals the Pointy-Haired Boss for the incompetence award. The red tape required to make changes in network security systems is just ridiculous.
A private company can be as inefficient as it wants to be, but the people in charge shouldn’t then be surprised if they go out of business. That is a fate the government doesn’t have to worry about.
And I’m not convinced that a low administrative cost percentage for organizations that deal with hundreds of billions of dollars really means a lot. 2004 it cost the SSA approx. 4.6 billion dollars in operating expenses just to provide retirement and disability benefits. All that just to collect money, maintain a database and mail out checks.
Improbus that doesn’t explain why this government department does so much worse than other government departments.
Hey, you limosouine liberals dont now wat yer talkin bout. Yur tryin to ruin Amerka. Tha Bush adminitration is protectin us Americun citizuns. He’s a war president. Thuur havn’t been no attacks since Sept 11. That means he’s doin his job raght. I’ll give up ma raghts if it means I’ll bee safe. Tha PATRIOT act is tha best thing congress evar didded. Ma homeland needs ta bee safe. I’ll keep ma guns fore when the A-rabs or the Chinks try to take over ma land.
***This is written with a high level of sarcasm and facetiousness***
Goverment is basically ineffcient. I agree with Mike about the administrative cost percentages when dealing with these huge goverment buracracy’s handling billions of dollars. An *A* here might be an *F* in anyother non-goverment agency.
Home land Secuity is a farce and a smokescreen. As someone above said, it was set up to make people think the goverment was doing something to protect them, nothing more.
There can not be a comparison between government and private business. The two models are too different. For the same reason, a family home budget can not be compared with either. Anyone who tries to compare them is too full of male bovine excrement to understand basic economics.
A private business does not need to stand up to the scrutiny that public agencies do. Costs may be written off without thought or repercussions. Public agencies must account for every dollar because it is OUR money they deal with. Private companies will do what they need to to turn a profit. Public agencies do what is required to fulfill their mandate. A private company is only financially responsible to the CEO while public agencies are ultimately responsible to the electorate.
Now why are the “security” and law enforcement agencies failing? I think Milo and Joshua hit the nail on the head. They are only there to placate the sheep and enrich the Administration’s friends.
Why did the Department of Labor, EPA, and the Social Security Administration get A’s while Homeland Security got an F? How the hell are we supposed to know since we don’t know:
— the criteria used to judge each system
— the purpose that each system is supposed to serve
— the type and quantity of data being shared and/or protected
— the number of “outside” systems that must be given access rights to sensitive data
I do know that EPA’s website belongs on my list of ten worst designed. Trying to find information that you know is there can be an hours-long journey through obtuse byways and links. Maybe that’s how they got an “A” for security, all of their links are carefully designed to force you to spend hours in fruitless search, only to end up where you started.
Now….if we could just get the Pentagon to do that Smith.