Next Step for Outgoing DCAA Director
By Robert Brodsky
Tomorrow is April Stephenson's last day as director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency. But, Stephenson, was has been under fire from lawmakers for a pair of damaging GAO reports on DCAA operations, appears to have landed on her feet.
According to an internal e-mail obtained by Government Executive, Stephenson will begin a new role on Monday at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, assisting in a review of the department's Enterprise Risk Management program. Stephenson will also be tasked with providing recommendations for improving the program.
"By effectively embedding risk management techniques into our day-to-day operations, DFAS will be better equipped to identify and prevent events that might affect our ability to carry out our mission and to meet our established goals," wrote DFAS Director Terri McKay. "Ms. Stephenson's career has provided her with the unique combination of leadership, auditing, accounting, and finance knowledge and extensive experience necessary to be successful in this assignment and add value to our great organization. I know you will give Ms. Stephenson your full support as she takes on this new assignment."
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Government Executive Staff Correspondent Alyssa Rosenberg takes a look at news affecting the management and operations of the massive federal bureaucracy.
What a sick feeling I have after reading all the comments from the previous article.
In the real world, she would be fired. Only in the Government can someone like this survive and continue to make her 150K!
DFAS Sam Posted Thursday, November 5, 2009 12:33 PMGee, that's funny, I didn't know DFAS needed their veteran workforce gutted too. With the experience and leadership she brings, in no time, she'll have DFAS malfunctioning just like DCAA, that rank little agency she just got run out of.
Fran Posted Thursday, November 5, 2009 12:42 PMHere is how April’s strategy would work when pasted on DFAS:
Currently under Reprisal Posted Thursday, November 5, 2009 1:16 PM1) Mission of negativity: “Enterprise Risk Management must not be sacrificed for any reason”. April delivers the leadership of what you must not do. You will be expected to figure out on your own what you “must do.”
2) Risk management by reprisal: scan the offices for morale issues, identify those who would disclose errors in Operations, accuse them of “retaliation and hostile work environment”, and reassign to a “do nothing” job on detail without any paper trail. After they leave the Agency, Risk Management has been accomplished.
3) Independence policy: DFAS commitment to pay contractors within 30 days may provide appearance of contractors dictating the Government how to do their jobs, thus causing independence impairment. Some payments may require extensive management reviews which could increase payment processing time from 30 days to one year and longer.
4) Leadership by example: to ensure accurate cloning of April’s leadership style, leadership training and hiring outside of DFAS would not be allowed.
5) Risk-based planning: change the old metrics to a new version and call is “risk-based planning” approach. The new metrics is better because it would be called “risk-based” and would show that DFAS can process only 65% of payments compare to old metrics that strived for processing 100% of payments. Why overwork?
Is this a joke? No wonder why people fear the Government controlling healthcare 100 percent.
Unique combination of leadership? Do they mean enabling the people who tried to destroy the whistle blower?
Can't make it up Posted Thursday, November 5, 2009 8:38 PMI am tired of people bashing Stephenson. Now people at DFAS are blogging negative comments and they do not know her. She is a great person that took the fall for years of issues at DCAA that were not her doing. People like Fran blog negative comments every day. Fran had no dealings with Stephenson, she is just upset that 3-4 years ago she was removed for incompentence. Stephenson had nothing to do with the Thi Le case and Le stated so in the 2008 hearing. Stephenson gave it her all and works harder than anyone in DCAA and made more improvements at DCAA in the last year than all of the prior 15 years. She made a difference, but took the fall for the Comptroller. Congress wanted improvements and the Comptroller wanted to be a hero and show he made change. So he reassigns Stephenson. I also believe that Stephenson's whistle-blowing with the Commission on Wartime Contracting on lack of oversight by the Army and DCMA played a major role in her reassignment. DFAS is lucky to have Stephenson. Any doubt, go to the POGO web-site and read the Case Study on DCAA and Stephenson. Very clear that she was reassigned for whistle-blowing.
Mike Posted Thursday, November 5, 2009 8:55 PMNow we can see that the higher DOD echelon does not have the will to "do the right thing" i.e. release poor performing managers.
After all, that was the purpose for force feeding the rank and file NSPS, was it not? To allow mid level managers the mechanism to jettison poor performers?
Apparently, the SES corps cannot "eat their own dog food" by following principles it expects everyone else to follow.
US Posted Friday, November 6, 2009 10:51 AMI worked for Stephenson at a facility, her leadership was poor and she made poor decisions. One example is.. Hiring 100's more employees at near the end of the year to keep "Man-Hours" up, even though these employees had little or nothing to do, but Stephenson's budget had to be kept up. I watched some new employees do nothing but read the paper day in day out for months, till the new fiscal year started. Maybe she (Stephenson) should have saved the government some salary and realized that the work could have been accomplished with the employees she had. I am so glad she is out of a leadership position, I am dancing!!
Worked for Stephenson Posted Saturday, November 7, 2009 10:14 AMWelcome Mr. Fitzgerald!!! Please change this broken and sick agency called DCAA. The problem is not bad audits, it's bad management from SES to 13's. Auditors are being blamed for clueless management.
Glad April is Gone Posted Monday, November 9, 2009 4:43 PM