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— Domani Spero
We have previously posted about the case of FSO Joan Wadelton. (See Joan Wadelton’s Case: That’s One Messy Promotion Scorecard, Next Up – It’s GAO Time!; Joan Wadelton’s Appeal Makes it to FSGB 2011 Annual Report to Congress; GAO Examines Foreign Service Promotion Process — Strengthened But Documentation Gaps Remain). She is now on her tenth year of a legal dispute with the Department of State’s Bureau of Human Resources (HR). She recently guest posted at WhirledView and put her views on the record “about how to correct the systemic failings that I have encountered over the last 10 years in the Bureau of Human Resources, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the Office of the Legal Advisor.” Quick excerpt below:
The pervasive lack of oversight has led to near total impunity for those guilty of incompetence, cronyism and corruption within State. A small group of career officials has taken advantage of this to gain control of the bureaucracy’s administrative functions. Their pernicious influence has persisted for years.
The longevity of the group has been made possible by its control of the personnel system. Senior managers at State stay in place for years – and when they do retire, they are rehired in a lucrative pay status, allowing them to remain in senior positions for more years. Thus, the same people turn up repeatedly in ambassadorships and assistant secretary and deputy assistant secretary jobs.
Not only does this discourage fresh thinking, it has bottled up the personnel system at the top. With the jobs at the higher ranks endlessly filled by the same people, the cohort five or 10 years behind them in the career service cannot move up to become the next generation of leaders. And as a consequence, many FSOs are forced to retire at the peak of their expertise.
Members of this inner circle have used their control of HR to give themselves and their friends promotions, prestigious assignments, cash bonuses and jobs for family members. Conversely, they have used HR as a weapon against employees they dislike – including removing them from promotion lists and blocking plum assignments and cash bonuses – no matter how qualified those disfavored people might be.
Ms. Wadelton was a Foreign Service Officer from 1980-2011. She served in Africa, Latin America, Russia and Iraq. In addition to assignments in the State Department, she was an advisor to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a director of the Office of the US Trade Representative.
Continue reading Time to Fix the State Department.
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Related articles
- Time To Fix The State Department (whirledview.typepad.com)
- A Blast From the Past: How to Purge a Bureau? Quickly. (diplopundit.net)
- An Invitation to the State Department, and Defining “Dedicated Service to the United States” (dissenter.firedoglake.com)
- No Publicity Zone – 2012 Judicial Actions Involving Foreign Service Grievance Board Rulings (diplopundit.net)
