The federal spending rant...

Bodhisattva

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Just a curious question, is Six Sigma practiced at all in any of the places you’ve worked in government? While it’s not perfect and is primarily used for manufacturing, it can be utilized to eliminate inefficiency in any process.
Interesting you bring that up. LSS training? Yes. LSS put into practice? No.

Lots of examples, but one particular experience involved getting the requirement (and the needed documentation) in place for service contracts. Nothing is ever streamlined - just the opposite. The government responds to inefficiency by requiring more oversight (in the form of more documentation). This one document in particular my team had to do had to be signed/approved by a dozen people - only a few of whom are in our building. Most of these unknown people are flung in various places all over the country. Don't know who they are or why they are gatekeepers on our service requirements. It would take at least six months to get this one document fully approved.

Why so long? Various reasons. Mainly because the people who receive this document want nothing to do with it. (The people who run a particular fiefdom want to touch these requirements because it justifies the existence of the fiefdom. The schmuck who actually has to do the work is annoyed by having to do something that has nothing to do with his job.) "I'm in Arizona. Why do I have oversight on something going on in Arlington, VA? I'm busy with my stuff. I'm putting this document on the bottom of my to-do list." And since one guy has to sign before the next guy even sees the document, you can see why it takes so long before Guy #12 gets to it. Another reason is that Guy #4 has switched jobs. And the automated system is not set up to send it to New Guy #4 (or even realize that the original guy is no longer around). Plenty of opportunities to have a broken link with this particular Rube Goldberg Machine.

So I (and my team) bring up the obvious to our top leadership: this process is ridiculous. The solution from on high: send my team to LSS training. This was silly because one fiefdom cannot make another fiefdom do anything. Giving my team efficiency training to something we already know is inefficient (and to which we already know how to largely fix) is not going to do anything to the other various fiefdoms. But, whatever. So, we stopped what we were doing to periodically go to one of our conference rooms for training. Funny thing: the in-house guy that was to train us – Mr. Efficiency – never showed up on time, if at all. (He is a total oddball - worked with him on other various projects - and has the attention span of a toddler.) At the end of all this we were tasked to come up with a solution. The solution was known to us – and everyone else because we told them – a long time ago. So, we formally documented the problem/solution again: (1) the inefficiency is with the unwieldy system of unnecessary approvals; (2) the solution would be to get rid of most of this unnecessary documentation and oversight, not add more; (3) require the necessary oversight and approval to be timely; (4) and so on …. Obvious stuff.

The result …. My team and I got certificates (almost everyone has LSS training – or at least the certificates - in the office), and were able to note that come annual review time. My supervisor got to put on her accomplishments for her annual review that she sent my team to training. (Supervisors love to say they identified a problem and sent their underlings to training. Problem solved!) She also got our report, which she presented as her own to her supervisors. (Lots of layers in the government.) And I’m sure her bosses got to take excessive credit for this entire event.

What substantively happened to fix this particular problem? Nothing (just like my team and I knew would happen from the very beginning because we see stuff like this play out all the time).
 
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Bodhisattva

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My dad was an officer in the Air Force in the late 80s/early 90s. Every year they would get new furniture at tax payer expense and throw out the old furniture that was perfectly in working order. I spent eight years as an ** contractor with five on base. We were a team of 9 people and spent hundreds of thousands each year of unnecessary spending in September so we'd get the same amount or more next fiscal year. There is nothing resembling government inefficiency, waste, fraud and abuse in the private sector. If a company makes poor decisions, it fails or cheats its customers/shareholders. If the government makes poor decisions, it taxes everyone more to make up the difference or doesn't and prints more money reducing our purchasing power. Entitlements will soon go bankrupt but won't be reformed until its too late.
At the end of every fiscal year it is not uncommon to buy lots of furniture or laptops that are not needed. Got to spend all that money so you can ask for more. Everyone has VOIP phones that are practically new, yet I'm hearing there will be an order for $300k worth of new phones soon. It's just money.
 

Bamaro

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Oct 19, 2001
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At the end of every fiscal year it is not uncommon to buy lots of furniture or laptops that are not needed. Got to spend all that money so you can ask for more. Everyone has VOIP phones that are practically new, yet I'm hearing there will be an order for $300k worth of new phones soon. It's just money.
Civil service sucks.
 

Bamabuzzard

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At the end of every fiscal year it is not uncommon to buy lots of furniture or laptops that are not needed. Got to spend all that money so you can ask for more. Everyone has VOIP phones that are practically new, yet I'm hearing there will be an order for $300k worth of new phones soon. It's just money.
If all these middle class people with kids weren't getting bigger refunds this wouldn't be a problem. They're bankrupting the country.
 

TIDE-HSV

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If all these middle class people with kids weren't getting bigger refunds this wouldn't be a problem. They're bankrupting the country.
Their cap on state and local taxes will absolutely rape me, from my preliminary figures. I can't figure out why it's not affecting more of your "upper middle class" taxpayers you've mentioned...
 

Bamabuzzard

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Their cap on state and local taxes will absolutely rape me, from my preliminary figures. I can't figure out why it's not affecting more of your "upper middle class" taxpayers you've mentioned...
I'm wrapping up the last of my returns today and tomorrow. I'll specifically go back through those clients and look at them. I normally do around 100-125 returns per year. Off hand I cannot remember the percentage of those that are in your tax status. I know it has effected them, but I can't recall any that have fell into the "rape" category, compared to their previous years results.
 

DzynKingRTR

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I'm wrapping up the last of my returns today and tomorrow. I'll specifically go back through those clients and look at them. I normally do around 100-125 returns per year. Off hand I cannot remember the percentage of those that are in your tax status. I know it has effected them, but I can't recall any that have fell into the "rape" category, compared to their previous years results.
After doing my taxes, I feel pretty violated.
 

Bamabuzzard

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Capital Gains Tax plus not cut enough thru my employer. I have resolved the latter. FYI not a fan of capital gains tax.
I had a guy get fighting mad this morning when I called him and told him he owed $1,053 on his federal return. However, I explained to him that even with him having to cut a check, he still paid in less taxes than last year. His total tax liability was less than last year. The difference is he got a refund last year and didn't this year. But if you look at tax liability, he paid less in taxes. But he felt that since he "owed" on his tax return he paid more in taxes. But that wasn't the case. Oh well, I can't solve the problems of the world. LOL!
 

DzynKingRTR

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I had a guy get fighting mad this morning when I called him and told him he owed $1,053 on his federal return. However, I explained to him that even with him having to cut a check, he still paid in less taxes than last year. His total tax liability was less than last year. The difference is he got a refund last year and didn't this year. But if you look at tax liability, he paid less in taxes. But he felt that since he "owed" on his tax return he paid more in taxes. But that wasn't the case. Oh well, I can't solve the problems of the world. LOL!
Once it was explained to me that I still came out with a much larger gain than I had to pay back, it made me less mad. Still did not like having to cut a substantial check. I had the money to pay, just didn't have to like it. I have never had stocks before last year. Now that I know what I know, I can plan for it. This will make it less of a shock next year.
 

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