Friday's Fax reveals a weakness of the Civil Service setup that is used for most positions in the government now.
The Chairman of a US House subcommittee on criminal justice has charged the US Agency for International Development (USAID) with setting up a pro-prostitution group in India and lying about it to Congressional staff.
In his February 6th letter to Randall Tobias, US Global Aids Coordinator, Representative Mark Souder, goes on to charge USAID personnel with deliberately setting up a non-governmental organization (NGO) precisely to hide deliberate violations of a federal law which forbids US financial support of pro-prostitution activity.
It came to light some months ago that a group in Indian called Sampada Grameen Mahila Sansthat (SAMGRAM) was working to stop other groups from helping underage girls out of prostitution. It was further charged that SAMGRAM was receiving US financial assistance, a violation of the US Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003, which forbids US funds from being used "to promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution of sex trafficking." USAID has denied the charge and a USAID staff member told Congressional staff that such inquiries by the subcommittee were "destructive."
In his letter, Souder says he has come into possession of documents that "prove that USAID money financed the pro-prostitution SANRAM though a second organization called Avert, which was established with the assistance of four USAID employees as a pass through entity." He further charged in his letter that "USAID held the ex-officio Vice-Chairmanship of Avert since its inception."
The Bush Administration has been in the leadership of global efforts to eliminate human sex trafficking. The charges demonstrate how there can be a disconnect between the wishes of an executive administration and the entrenched bureaucracy.
USAID has refused to publicly comment on the charges leveled by Representative Souder. USAID did not respond to the Friday Fax's request for comment.[1]
Unfortunately, this flaw was not exactly unforeseen by the "Progressives" who put it in place. I would go so far as to say it was expected. The Progressives were upset that many government positions were held by those who were incredibly unqualified to do the work they had been appointed to do. To solve this, they set up the Civil Service system. The basic idea was that a president could appoint whoever he liked to a class of job, say a ton of postal workers, and then declare it a Civil Service position. That meant that the appointment became more or less permanent, the next president would not be able to appoint someone new. The benefit to the Progressives was that after that appointed official retired (or was promoted), the next person would have to be someone who had passed the Civil Service exam and demonstrated that [s]he was qualified for the position.
From this the flaw should be evident. The entire system becomes dependent on those who have passed the test using their skills to further the Administration's agenda rather than their own. No president declaring a position part of the Civil Service would really consider this a down side: his own friends were guaranteed tenure. The Progressives did not really consider this a downside either: They trusted those with skills more than the (often corrupt) politicians who appointed them. Politicians had, after all, proved that they did not care about the ability of an appointee to do the work.
The end result is that politicians come and go, while the career Civil Service and Foreign Service do their own thing, secure in the fact that it is very hard to fire them.
- TheFactIs.org. "Congressman Accuses USAID of Establishing Pro-Prostitution Group in India and Lying About It" Friday Fax Volume 9, Number 8 2006-02-10. http://www.thefactis.org/default.aspx?control=ArticleMaster&aid=1481&authid=11