WASHINGTON (AP) – You can take our word for it. Americans don’t trust each other anymore.
We’re not talking about the loss of faith in big institutions such as the government, the church or Wall Street, which fluctuates with events. For four decades, a gut-level ingredient of democracy – trust in the other fellow – has been quietly draining away.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20131130/DAACV0QO2.html
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission logo adorns an office door at the SEC headquarters in Washington, June 24, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
(Reuters) – The Securities and Exchange Commission is not the best place to work among federal agencies in Washington, according to a new study by a government watchdog.
The SEC’s organizational structure “has not been conducive to motivating and encouraging a high level of performance,” concluded the Government Accountability Office in a report released on Thursday.
“Many staff indicated that morale is low and a significant percentage characterize the atmosphere of the agency as one of distrust,” the GAO said.
The GAO’s report was required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, whose three-year anniversary is this month.
The study was mandated following several high-profile lapses at the SEC during the financial crisis, including its failure to detect Bernard Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme.
An Office of Personnel Management survey of federal employees ranked the SEC 19th of 22 similarly sized agencies based on employee satisfaction.
The GAO laid out several areas in need of improvement, including workforce planning, performance management, communication and personnel management assessment.
While the SEC has taken some steps in most of these areas to improve, the GAO urged the agency to do more.
Some of the findings in the GAO’s report are consistent with complaints often lodged by the SEC’s Chapter of National Treasury Employees Union.
In addition, the GAO’s survey found that many employees still view the culture at the SEC as “siloed” – where one division does not talk to the other.
This was highlighted several years ago by the Madoff and Allen Stanford Ponzi scandals, where examiners and enforcement lawyers failed to properly communicate and may have missed opportunities to detect the schemes.
The GAO said the SEC is actively working to create a comprehensive workforce plan and is trying to close skill gaps to hire people with more financial industry expertise.
Still, the GAO said, the SEC lacks a transparent process for leadership succession and many interviewed did not see “much incentive” to be promoted into management positions.
In a letter responding to the GAO study, SEC Chair Mary Jo White said she recognizes there is still “work to do in these areas” and that she is “committed to ensuring that process continues.”
The SEC agreed with the report’s recommendations, she said. She added that the SEC is taking steps toward addressing workforce competency gaps and improving intra-agency communication.
She also said the SEC has successfully implemented pay-for-performance for non-bargaining unit employees, and is still in the process of assessing the impact of the new system.
An SEC spokeswoman declined to make any additional comment.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission logo adorns an office door at the SEC headquarters in Washington, June 24, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
(Reuters) – The Securities and Exchange Commission is not the best place to work among federal agencies in Washington, according to a new study by a government watchdog.
The SEC’s organizational structure “has not been conducive to motivating and encouraging a high level of performance,” concluded the Government Accountability Office in a report released on Thursday.
“Many staff indicated that morale is low and a significant percentage characterize the atmosphere of the agency as one of distrust,” the GAO said.
The GAO’s report was required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, whose three-year anniversary is this month.
The study was mandated following several high-profile lapses at the SEC during the financial crisis, including its failure to detect Bernard Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme.
An Office of Personnel Management survey of federal employees ranked the SEC 19th of 22 similarly sized agencies based on employee satisfaction.
The GAO laid out several areas in need of improvement, including workforce planning, performance management, communication and personnel management assessment.
While the SEC has taken some steps in most of these areas to improve, the GAO urged the agency to do more.
Some of the findings in the GAO’s report are consistent with complaints often lodged by the SEC’s Chapter of National Treasury Employees Union.
In addition, the GAO’s survey found that many employees still view the culture at the SEC as “siloed” – where one division does not talk to the other.
This was highlighted several years ago by the Madoff and Allen Stanford Ponzi scandals, where examiners and enforcement lawyers failed to properly communicate and may have missed opportunities to detect the schemes.
The GAO said the SEC is actively working to create a comprehensive workforce plan and is trying to close skill gaps to hire people with more financial industry expertise.
Still, the GAO said, the SEC lacks a transparent process for leadership succession and many interviewed did not see “much incentive” to be promoted into management positions.
In a letter responding to the GAO study, SEC Chair Mary Jo White said she recognizes there is still “work to do in these areas” and that she is “committed to ensuring that process continues.”
The SEC agreed with the report’s recommendations, she said. She added that the SEC is taking steps toward addressing workforce competency gaps and improving intra-agency communication.
She also said the SEC has successfully implemented pay-for-performance for non-bargaining unit employees, and is still in the process of assessing the impact of the new system.
An SEC spokeswoman declined to make any additional comment.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
Another week, another controversy in official Washington.
At the moment, 35 percent of voters consider recently exposed National Security Agency surveillance efforts as the most serious. The Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservatives is No. 2 on the list, followed by concerns about the Obama administration’s handling of the incident in Benghazi last fall in which the U.S. ambassador to Libya was murdered. The Justice Department’s secret probe of reporters’ phone and email records is seen as the top concern by only 9 percent.
Competing for attention with the controversies are ongoing policy disputes over immigration, gun control and full implementation of the national health care law.
While each of these stories has its own cast of characters and internal dynamics, it is now possible to identify a unifying theme.
President Obama, whose deeply held faith in government is unwavering, unintentionally provided that moment of clarity last week. In attempting to dismiss concerns about the NSA disclosures, he said,
“If people can’t trust not only the executive branch but also don’t trust Congress and don’t trust federal judges to make sure that we’re abiding by the Constitution with due process and rule of law, then we’re going to have some problems here.”
We have a problem.
Just 30 percent of voters nationwide have that much trust in government officials when it comes to these surveillance efforts.
Only 24 percent now are confident that the federal government does the right thing most of the time.
This popular distrust of government is the theme that ties all the recent news stories together. It’s driving all the current policy debates.
On immigration, there is broad popular support for comprehensive immigration reform. Most Americans believe legal immigration is good for the country, but most do not trust the government to enforce any provisions in the new law that would improve border security and reduce illegal immigration. Only 7 percent believe that enforcement is “very likely” to happen.
This is not just Republicans grumbling about Barack Obama in the White House. The same skepticism was there when George W. Bush was president. Unless the government does something to address the border problem, it will be there for the next president, as well. Because of that distrust, prospects for passing serious immigration reform this year are slim indeed.
Similarly with gun control, Americans overwhelmingly like the idea of requiring background checks for those who want to purchase a gun, but they are very suspicious of where the president and New York
Mayor Michael Bloomberg want to go from there. If voters were convinced their plan was for background checks and nothing more, it would have enjoyed broad popular support.
The president’s health care law is facing the same challenge. New mandates will soon force people to buy more expensive insurance plans. Advocates say they’re not really more expensive because they provide more coverage. But most Americans are uncomfortable with trusting the government to decide an appropriate level of coverage. They’re also suspicious of all government cost estimates.
Many in Washington are frustrated by the public distrust. They dream of public relations programs to overcome it. What is needed, though, is for the government to change its behavior, so that it can earn the trust of the people it serves.
