Random bit of trivia for anyone who read about the John Kamensky talking about "steam trap, which is a metal valve that takes dirt out of steam lines in buildings" and was confused. Steam traps do not take dirt out of the steam. By definition, steam is pure. What steam traps do is get the water out that is constantly condensing out the steam. If you don't do this, water will build up in your steam lines and the steam will push it creating a water hammer effect that can blow apart your steam lines. What he is correct about is that a leaking steam trap costs a lot of money (how much depends on how badly it is malfunctioning and the size of the trap). And I guess that is all someone at this level needs to understand.
I am someone down in the trenches in a State Agency who lived through the introduction of a credit cards into a state agency for similar reasons that Mr. Kamensky lays out. One of things he does not get into because he is above all that is how all things are related in complicated ways that people not in the system might not understand. For example, in the pre-credit card days, you had mechanical stores and bigger business office staff to handle all the procurement. Going to cards enabled all that infrastructure to go away. But they did not do away with all the laws and regulations that were predicated on the old system being in place. Just to give one example, the State controls that are still in place demand that the person doing the purchasing be different then the person doing the receiving of the goods so as to limit the chances of collusion. But when you are a maintenance guy buying things from a hardware store with a card you are the purchaser and the receiver. The powers that be try to get around this violation of what is required by making everyone fill out purchasing logs and having someone else sign off on everything that was purchased with a card. This sign off is supposed to be done as close as possible to time of purchase but that don't work out very well in a lot of cases. It also means that there is more time spent by maintenance staff doing paper work at the expense of their core function. On top of that, there is a bunch of other purchasing rules that maintenance staff routinely violate mostly because they are maintenance guys and not dedicated purchasing staff who can keep up on the rules. On the balance, I think the introduction of cards was a net benefit for the taxpayer. But some 20 years after the use of cards is routine, the laws and regulations have not caught up with how things are actually done and there were issues that the cards created that are not as simple as there was some corrupt use of them. When you are in the system and see how everything is connected, you understand why reform is so hard because so many things are connected that are not obvious to outsiders.
As someone who has worked within government most of my life, I really appreciated the perspective and applaud such an in depth interview. Just one of those interviews where you wished you were sharing a pint and able to interject. Thanks for the thoughtful work.
If the governments are going to depend more on contractors, which is not necessarily a bad idea, it would be good to come up with ways to make them as efficient and honest as possible. At minimum the govt should prioritize working with non-profits with public books and limits on both pay and conveyance. No millions for working for the public and none of the schemes like the ways that charter schools essentially work to funnel public money to real-estate investors.
Great interview! I really appreciated his candor and specificity. Santi, at one point, you drew a conclusion from doing two years of Statecraft interviews, and I was wondering if you might post something in the future with more themes you've noticed from your interviews.
Random bit of trivia for anyone who read about the John Kamensky talking about "steam trap, which is a metal valve that takes dirt out of steam lines in buildings" and was confused. Steam traps do not take dirt out of the steam. By definition, steam is pure. What steam traps do is get the water out that is constantly condensing out the steam. If you don't do this, water will build up in your steam lines and the steam will push it creating a water hammer effect that can blow apart your steam lines. What he is correct about is that a leaking steam trap costs a lot of money (how much depends on how badly it is malfunctioning and the size of the trap). And I guess that is all someone at this level needs to understand.
On a more on topic note...
I am someone down in the trenches in a State Agency who lived through the introduction of a credit cards into a state agency for similar reasons that Mr. Kamensky lays out. One of things he does not get into because he is above all that is how all things are related in complicated ways that people not in the system might not understand. For example, in the pre-credit card days, you had mechanical stores and bigger business office staff to handle all the procurement. Going to cards enabled all that infrastructure to go away. But they did not do away with all the laws and regulations that were predicated on the old system being in place. Just to give one example, the State controls that are still in place demand that the person doing the purchasing be different then the person doing the receiving of the goods so as to limit the chances of collusion. But when you are a maintenance guy buying things from a hardware store with a card you are the purchaser and the receiver. The powers that be try to get around this violation of what is required by making everyone fill out purchasing logs and having someone else sign off on everything that was purchased with a card. This sign off is supposed to be done as close as possible to time of purchase but that don't work out very well in a lot of cases. It also means that there is more time spent by maintenance staff doing paper work at the expense of their core function. On top of that, there is a bunch of other purchasing rules that maintenance staff routinely violate mostly because they are maintenance guys and not dedicated purchasing staff who can keep up on the rules. On the balance, I think the introduction of cards was a net benefit for the taxpayer. But some 20 years after the use of cards is routine, the laws and regulations have not caught up with how things are actually done and there were issues that the cards created that are not as simple as there was some corrupt use of them. When you are in the system and see how everything is connected, you understand why reform is so hard because so many things are connected that are not obvious to outsiders.
As someone who has worked within government most of my life, I really appreciated the perspective and applaud such an in depth interview. Just one of those interviews where you wished you were sharing a pint and able to interject. Thanks for the thoughtful work.
If the governments are going to depend more on contractors, which is not necessarily a bad idea, it would be good to come up with ways to make them as efficient and honest as possible. At minimum the govt should prioritize working with non-profits with public books and limits on both pay and conveyance. No millions for working for the public and none of the schemes like the ways that charter schools essentially work to funnel public money to real-estate investors.
Great interview! I really appreciated his candor and specificity. Santi, at one point, you drew a conclusion from doing two years of Statecraft interviews, and I was wondering if you might post something in the future with more themes you've noticed from your interviews.