GOVERNING LAKE WOEBEGON:

Two-Thirds Of Federal Workers Get a Bonus (Christopher Lee and Hal Straus, May 17, 2004, Washington Post)

The disclosure of the figures brought varying reactions. Some civil service specialists said the proliferation of bonuses reinforces a common belief that many federal workers are rewarded for little more than showing up. Some agency and union officials said it was evidence of a talented workforce that performs admirably, and often at salary levels inferior to those of the private sector.

For the Bush administration, the numbers underscore the challenge President Bush faces in his drive to revamp personnel systems to more strongly tie pay to performance, an endeavor underway at the departments of Defense and Homeland Security. White House officials have called the federal pay system broken, saying it rewards civil servants for longevity rather than how well they do their jobs. The Post undertook a wide-ranging analysis of federal bonuses after obtaining detailed pay records from the Office of Personnel Management through a Freedom of Information Act request. he records covered all civilian federal employees, except for those whose data was excluded for security or technical reasons.

Paul Light, a professor of government at New York University, said he doubts the public will swallow the notion that merit was the driving force behind the awards.

"I don't think Americans think that 60 percent of federal employees could possibly be so well above average that they would earn a bonus," Light said in an interview. "This is just going to further confirm what many Americans believe, that the federal government is somehow an island unto itself."

May as well fire the other third, they must be grotesquely incompetent.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 17, 2004 3:10 PM