"Waste, fraud, and abuse": A hollow and hypocritical critique

Seth Rosenblatt

There are many critiques of the public sector by those in the private sector; some have validity, while others ring hollow. I have written virtually examples of both, simply a great illustration of the latter is the oft used criticism that governments – including our public schools – are guilty of "waste matter, fraud, and corruption." It harks back to a quote allegedly by Otto von Bismarck that "laws, like sausages, finish to inspire respect in proportion equally we know how they are made." It does indeed seem that the work of our public schools is like sausage-making: ho-hum, sloppy, and ugly at times.

Why is that? One of the biggest reason lies in a key tenet of government: openness. We encounter the sausage-making because nosotros're allowed to! As someone who has worked for many companies and led many teams over the last 25 years, I encountered countless painful decision-making processes; however none of them were visible to the public (let alone involved the public)!

Business interactions are by and large hole-and-corner. Compensation levels of about employees are secret; strategic plans are secret; computer lawmaking is secret; and the discussions at board of directors meetings are by and large secret. Most companies make all employees sign non-disclosure agreements, and there are countless examples of "settlements" (with non-disclosure clauses) with quondam employees who either performed some human activity of misconduct or accused others of doing practise. The ability to choose what information is fabricated public and what is not is a cornerstone of capitalism. It allows companies to compete with each other, to shape their overall message to the market, and to manage their employees in the well-nigh flexible style. So, in every company at that place is enough of sausage-making; it's just not visible to almost of us.

Contrast this corporate secrecy to our public school districts, which by well-nigh measures are an open book. Board meetings are held in public. All contracts, salaries, and projection bids are made public. There are merely a few exceptions, including areas such as student bailiwick, employee discipline, and discussions of lawsuits. From a businessperson's perspective, these disclosure requirements would exist anathematic – it would be impossible to run a business that mode. Merely government's credible lack of efficiency and flexibility is part of the toll for openness. And, after all, equally these are public institutions funded with tax dollars, would nosotros expect something less than transparency?

Only in addition to not recognizing this real stardom in the procedure of governing versus managing a business organization, the criticism of "waste, fraud, and abuse" rings hollow considering it is hypocritical. Just because we don't hear near such mistakes or misconduct in the individual sector every bit much, that inappreciably means it doesn't exist, or even exist on a much bigger scale. Think Enron, Lehman, BP, Halliburton, Long-Term Capital Management, et al. – and these are just the ones that got caught!

Anyone who has had any significant business experience has personally witnessed all forms of bad behavior, everything from padding expense reports to lying to customers to actual fraud. In any organisation of humans – public or private – at that place volition be those who abuse the organization. It just so happens that the private sector has more than tools to hide it. I have personally witnessed all of this bad behavior in my business career. Merely, ironically, considering I am also under non-disclosure agreements, I tin't give specifics – some matters become settled outside of the public centre. So, I constitute it incredibly peculiar that ane of our onetime candidates for governor and then oftentimes invoked the "government is full of waste, fraud, and abuse" mantra when she must have been witness to much greater foibles in her concern experience.

Lastly, I would argue that the notion of "waste" is in the eye of the beholder. If you lot are personally not in favor of government spending money on high-speed track, so from your bespeak of view it's a "waste matter" of money, whereas proponents would consider it an "investment." That perspective is completely independent from whether the money is spent "efficiently" to achieve its outcome. If yous don't support the outcome in the first place, then it'southward "waste" to you lot. Public institutions take the burden of a much broader grouping of "shareholders" – the entire taxpaying public – who of course volition rarely agree on the outcome of any particular initiative.

Through my straddling of both the private-sector and public-sector worlds, I have noticed that nearly people don't think through the implications of some of these key differences on how an organization can exist managed. Although these contrasts should not exist used as an excuse to defend poorly performing public institutions or instances where there are indeed waste, fraud, or abuse, only making blanket and hollow accusations actually detracts from the word of the existent issues facing our public schools.

Seth Rosenblatt is the president of the Governing Board of the San Carlos School District. He also serves every bit the president of the San Mateo County School Boards Association and sits on the executive committee of the Joint Venture Silicon Valley Sustainable Schools Job Forcefulness. He has two children in San Carlos public schools. He writes frequently on problems in public didactics, in regional and national publications besides as on his own blog. In his business career, Seth has more twenty years of feel in media and engineering, including executive positions in both startup companies and big enterprises. Seth currently operates his ain consulting house for technology companies. Seth holds a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth Higher and an Thou.B.A. from Harvard Business Schoolhouse.

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Source: https://edsource.org/2012/waste-fraud-and-abuse-a-hollow-and-hypocritical-critique/18690