Poorly Managed Government Agencies

johnnydepth

Average Sized Member
Nov 14, 2015
1,686
451
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winnipeg
Having recently become semi retired I have moved into a consulting position to keep myself busy. In so doing I'm now in almost daily contact with
various government agencies. I know people complain about the government for many reasons, but I truly am in disbelief at how poorly organised and managed
some of these agencies are, not to mention the mistakes that are made.
Am I expecting too much or have other people noticed this?
 

westwoody

Well-known member
Jun 10, 2004
6,458
4,041
113
Westwood
I see people managing very large high value projects, but with little or no academic trading.

Some places are very well run and have senior executives with MBA or similar. Others have people with grade 12 managing them.

There is constant government meddling as well. Best candidates for job are passed over in favour of politically correct or politically motivated choice.
 

overdone

Well-known member
Apr 26, 2007
1,459
158
63
Am I expecting too much or have other people noticed this?
all you need to do is try to deal with a gov't agency/worker

phoned more than one dept, never got even basic competence most of the time

didn't matter if it was fed/prov/municipal

that's why I laugh when people use the argument of "cutting services" lol

what service :rip:
 

jgg

In the air again.
Apr 14, 2015
2,454
381
83
Varies now
all you need to do is try to deal with a gov't agency/worker

phoned more than one dept, never got even basic competence most of the time

didn't matter if it was fed/prov/municipal

that's why I laugh when people use the argument of "cutting services" lol

what service :rip:
This why you cut people and positions, it won't effect service. They are doing nothing anyways.
 

take8easy

Well-known member
Jul 27, 2014
4,528
721
113
I think it is wrong to paint all the departments with one color. In my opinion there is just one institution that is mismanaged. It is the Govt.

:)

T8E
 

dumass

Active member
May 1, 2018
305
196
43
(1)Well managed government agencies
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Revenue Canada


(2)Poorly managed government agencies
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All others not listed in (1) above
 

80watts

Well-known member
May 20, 2004
2,420
627
113
Victoria
Yes. Senior Civil Servants manage the government agencies. And it all goes downhill from there. Most senior civil servants are politically savy (having to duck each change in government). but they are the government. The expertise.

A newly elected official put in charge of an agency has to depend on these civil servants. The elected official should do his homework on his department, and what his subordinates are trying to pawn off under him (look at the BC legislative scandal).

An Ambitious person gets attached to a politician and before the politician leaves(or gets canned), he transfers to some other bureaucratic department (sliding sideways) skipping the long line of others waiting in the ranks....

A government department has certain responsilbilities it has to do (Fisheries- follows the fisheries Act etc; most have them listed on their websites with links to references too).

Government workers are not just office workers, they have to go out into the field. Visiting other places. This involves travel and hotels. (major budget exponet).

Most government agencies are underfunded to the job they have to do. Yes they do wasted money on stupid things. but anything to please the boss == right....

Underfunded and Under Equipped. Makes job satisfaction not likely.

Then there are the gov slugs.. the ones who answear the phone and listen to assholes yelling and complaining about things..... Yup they have attitude.... Can you fiqure out why??

Then there are the gov slugs (under union)... Sorry not my job.... Frustrating.....

Then there are the government contractors: Look up MERC system for fed government requires for contracts. These contractors hire mid management supervisors at sub-par wages to look after sub-par underpaid (min wage) employees to do the contract. Contractor makes the money. The employees do a so-so job and the mid management supervisors take all the shit and do what they can, within the limits of the contractor.

Now the civil servants that write the contracts don't know what the fuck they are doing, because they lack the job experience because they (were the political bum boys who transferred), so contracts get screwed and if certain things n the contract were not stated, they don't get done unless a add-on is applied to the contract. So the contract becomes larger than expected because of oversight of the civil servant. So the budget is affected for that department.

Yes money is wasted that way under contracts.

The Harper government was trying to consolidated alot of the government contracts to make it cheaper. Look at email for government departments. Treasury Board controls the finances of every gov dept. Enforcing rules of buying equipment and supplies. There are contracts for paper, pens, pencils- all standardized now. So if someone wants a super-dooper pen, they have to buy it from there own budget or know the item number for the more expensive item. And yes the senior civil servant uses different pencils and pens then the low person on the totem pole (after all rank/position has its priveledges).... Its still very much a class system of rank and priveledge. The Harper government was calling the First Nations out on how they spent their money. With Trudeau it went out the window. The chiefs were ripping off their own people, paying themselves high salaries among the 5 or 6 people that covered their own asses, meanwhile complaining to their people its the whites mans fault for the way you live.....

There might be a rule out there in government land about travelling more than 12 hours. If traveling more than 12 hours on a airplane you have to take business class. So Senior staff get business class, and the lowly peon gets standard fare. So flying from Halifax to Vancouver, the senior guy get business (serveral stop overs) and the peon gets standard (serveral stop overs) ; both on the same flight....hhmmm...?? business class cost 3X as much and those senior people fly way more often than the peons.... try video conferencing....

lots of loopholes to cut. But your average government worker is working for you. Like any organization there are good people and lazy people. Their jobs depend on the materials and resources they have at hand, which in these days is not much. The hard budgets cuts of the 1990's has had its affect on the overall government systems to maintain government departments responsibilities and in places have failed. (The major budgets cut jobs because salary is a big budget user; so government dept lost experienced personnel).

if every government worker was ethical and worked for the public good (look at the bc legislature scandal), there still wouldn't be enough money to do all the things each gov dept is supposed to do. As the public we should expect that the workers are working for the good of all Canadians.....to be fiscally responsible to Canadians, but some are greedy....
 

storm rider

Banned
Dec 6, 2008
2,545
6
0
Calgary
They are ALL poorly managed.It is the Government....be it Federal/Provincial/Civic.....it just does not matter.

You are talking about the Public Sector who are not accountable.They get their wages which are over paid.They get their benefits which are disgusting.They get their "defined benefit" pensions that are indexed to inflation......and all at the expense of the tax payer.

Here in Alberta for the Provincial Government as well as For the City of Calgary they employ 1 manager for every 3 workers.....tack on the assistants for the mangers and it gets bloated.....and none can be fired even for gross negiligence due to unions.

At least 70,000 people have been laid off in the Private Sector in Alberta over the last 5 years......no lay offs in the Public Sector though....I think they added 40,000 jobs in the Public Sector actually and they were not nurses or doctors.


Come the next hustings in Alberta we need to get back to the Klein years of fiscal conservancy and cuts in spending.....and in doing so say "fuck you" to the public sector unions.

SR
 

80watts

Well-known member
May 20, 2004
2,420
627
113
Victoria
Klein's a politician. Under his administration most of those AB gov workers would of been hired?

Wasn't it his Conservatives who handed out multi million dollar contracts for roads that didnt go anywhere? and is that why you have an NDP government? because the people of AB voted those conservatives out.

Alberta's enconomy depends on oil and the oil sands.... when the price goes down, so does the employment...... I guess now you will be looking at sales tax to cover all those 70,000 people who will be on welfare after EI runs out.... if the price of oil does not come back or you don't expand your economy into other areas... but that is not your problem, it the people of AB 's problem....

When the oil is flowing everything A OK. Now the bushwackers come out and accuse everybody of this and that..... human nature....

The problem with gov departments are the politcians in charge of them.... The departments direction comes from the elected officials who are put in charge of the department. the senior civil servants have to follow their directions unless they are in direct conflict with Canadian Law.....

The source of of social system goes back to WW2 or earlier.

During WW2 all industry was organized in effort for the War. In Canada people had to go without the luxury comforts, food was short, so people were encouraged to grow their own food. Women went to work in industry. The men went to War. The politicians greatest task was to find war material and to keep Canada from breaking apart over the French/English issue.

When the men came back and most had their fill of seeing war. They did not want the war they saw in Europe to come home to Canada...

We ended up with a social system to look after wounded veterans and others that couldn['t work.

We ended up with universal health care in the late 50's.

We ended up with social welfare in the 60's. although there were other types before that from the 20's. During WW2 there were soldiers families that needed to be taken care of because the man was away at war.

Unemployment insurance in the 70's?? (not sure when that actually came available).

And civil servants looked after all of it. Politicians asked for it and the civil servants made it happen...

If you take the politicians out of the picture (when parliament is out) the civil servants run the government. Oops they are the government ....... In Canada we vote political parties out, but every thing stays the same..... Ever wonder why??

Don't get me wrong there are some complete assholes that work in government. Their fellow employees hate them and would love to kill them, but there is this thing called due process and it takes alot to fire someone that is in a union. In other words they have to fuck up really badly.... Has something to do with treating with everyone fairly.

Confused yet, it probably gets worse. With every change in government (elections) the priorities for a department changes with the political wind.... Money that should be going into infrastructure and capital equipment now goes to pet projects, the political promise of the day.

The majority of the gov money goes out in government contracts. Ever wonder why that retiring general/senior civil servant is now the vice president of a company that has a big large fat contract with the government, or his kid is now going on a scholarship to an expensive school??? Sorry thought there were rules/ethical regulations against that.

Index for Inflation does not happen until certain criteria are met. Usually Medical. or after a set formula of time.

The best pensions goes to the politicians. They have to have 5/6 years of service or elected twice. 100% pension.
 

overdone

Well-known member
Apr 26, 2007
1,459
158
63
(1)Well managed government agencies
---------------------------------------------
Revenue Canada
you clearly haven't tried to deal with them lately, lol


there was a report by the Auditor General recently talking about their incompetence lol
 

storm rider

Banned
Dec 6, 2008
2,545
6
0
Calgary
To 80watts.

Albertans did NOT vote for an NDP Government in 2015.The NDP got elected due to a protest vote gone horribly wrong after the late Jim Prentiss told Albertans to "look in the mirror" and also that the right of centre vote was split down the middle
between the PC's/Wildrose.In every riding where the NDP won it was a victory on the thinnest of margins and I looked at the results in every riding.I could not see the names on the NDP website as it had gone dark and all information was deleted
as they did not want the public to see what kind of reprensible people had been elected to office.A couple of real doosies made the highlights such as Deb Drever the ditz beerbox bimbo who had been a college student for 8 years and had no degree
as well as the guy whose video on youtube where he swears allegiance to Hugo Chavez got zapped......nothing but the typical SHITE Socialists that represent the NDP commies in general.

Come the next hustings Rachel Nutley and her band of destroyers will be kicked to the curb as Albertans are not stupid enough to re-elect a bunch of pigs at the trough who have run the Province into the ground whilst rewarding their party insiders
like that eco-nutjob Tzepporah Berman and others.

SR
 

westwoody

Well-known member
Jun 10, 2004
6,458
4,041
113
Westwood
The best pensions goes to the politicians. They have to have 5/6 years of service or elected twice. 100% pension.
Serious question: without good pension and perks, how do you attract " the best and brightest " to politics?

Someone who is an organisational genius and has created a billion dollar company is not going to give it up for four years of peanuts as an MP.
And you don't want some crook getting in just to fatten their wallet.
A blue collar guy might have the best intentions but he can't give up his job.
How do you get people with talent and integrity?
 

storm rider

Banned
Dec 6, 2008
2,545
6
0
Calgary
Serious question: without good pension and perks, how do you attract " the best and brightest " to politics?

Someone who is an organisational genius and has created a billion dollar company is not going to give it up for four years of peanuts as an MP.
And you don't want some crook getting in just to fatten their wallet.
A blue collar guy might have the best intentions but he can't give up his job.
How do you get people with talent and integrity?
That same mantra is touted/spewed by the pigs at the trough that work for "charities" such as the United Way....where the top brass get 7 figure salaries for being good at fundraising.....the mantra being "If you dont pay top wages you dont get top people" and it is espoused by those at the top.At the same time those "charities" spend 85-90 cents of each dollar raised on "administration costs" and spend the rest on the people they supposedly "help".

Funny how that works.

SR
 
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