DoD Budget Cuts. [n.] 1. Less of more
I saw an article in Defense News this morning that said that the DoD is safe for now from budget cuts. For those outside the Beltway (and unfortunately many inside as well) that translates into the notion that the Defense Department will skate by again by avoiding the “cuts” threatened by the Budget Control Act of 2011 ( commonly referred to as Sequestration). But for those in the know, that just means the DoD can look for more of an increase in money than currently scheduled. For all of the hubbub about “cuts”, one must understand that in DoD budget parlance,...
Read MoreDoD IG Report to Congress
The DoD Inspector General released the semi-annual required report to Congress on its activities from April through September 2013. There are plenty of reports with bad news and some not-as-bad news (I don’t think IG reports ever are better than the not-as-bad category, hence the need for an IG, I suppose). I focused on the the Financial Management section of the report. The first thing I found interesting is that in the introductory narrative, while acknowledging “some” progress towards audit readiness is being made by the Department, there was no mention of the audit...
Read MoreDoD to Focus on Ethics Training
It seems as if every time I read the Defense press over the last few weeks there has been something about ethics, leadership, scandal or illegal activity. So I’m not surprised that the CJCS should say that the issue of ethics in the military has his “full attention.” General Dempsey’s staff says that the focus on ethics is not due to any of the recent issues (right…..), but rather the result of a natural rhythm of post-war transition. I guess that means that since we are pulling out of Afghanistan and still licking our wounds from Iraq (even as it inevitably...
Read MoreCheating Nukes
The fact that half the officers with the Nuclear Keys at Malmstrom AFB appear to be connected in some way to the emerging exam cheating scandal gives me the heebie-jeebies. SECAF James is admirably stepping up to get things turned around. This article in AF Times says SECDEF Hagel and SECAF James are convening the inevitable commission to admire the problem. Among other things they are going to consider are cultural issues, differences between testing and training, accountability, professional training, core values, incentives, et.al. WOW! But I don’t think these folks decided to cheat...
Read MoreLeadership: What Works!
There has been a lot about leadership in the news lately (Check out yesterday’s comments). I read this morning in the Army Times about one retired general’s efforts to improve his post-military image by hiring an image consultant! I would rather focus on what’s going right and hope, that in doing that, we could actually fix what is going wrong. One thing is for sure: You should spend your time fixing those things you already know are wrong before trying to figure out what else is wrong. Federal agencies and companies spend lots of time and money on conducting employee...
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