Inside Washington: Bonuses flow despite low morale

[December 08, 2008]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Three top executives in the office of the Pentagon inspector general received cash awards of about $30,000 for outstanding leadership even though their agency has a history of weak management and strained relations between employees and supervisors.

The three were recognized in October with Meritorious Executive Presidential Rank Awards, a prestigious honor for long-term achievement in government service. The recipients get the hefty bonus -- 20 percent of their annual basic pay -- and a framed certificate signed by President George W. Bush.

Award candidates are rated in several categories, including their ability to lead people and get results. The nominating forms for Patricia Brannin, Charles Beardall, and Donald Horstman, obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act, glowingly describe the performance of each manager.

For example, Horstman, deputy inspector general for policy and oversight, is a "master communicator" who personally mentors his employees. He has "engendered an unsurpassed sense of purpose and dedication," his nominating form says.

But a confidential survey of employees in the inspector general's office found a disillusioned work force in Horstman's department and others. Employees are not committed to their jobs, their teams or their supervisors, according to the survey conducted in June by the Corporate Leadership Council, a business research company in Arlington, Va.

Brannin is deputy inspector general for intelligence. She has been with the inspector general's office since 1983. Beardall is deputy inspector general for investigations and has been with the office since 1996. Horstman joined the organization in 1994.

There are about 1,500 employees in the inspector general's office, which is located near the Pentagon in Arlington, Va. More than half of those employees responded to the Corporate Leadership Council survey. The departments run by Brannin, Beardall, and Horstman have about 600 workers. It's not clear how many of those were among the respondents.

Overall, the survey, which was requested by the inspector general's office and obtained by the AP, shows about a third of the work force is "disaffected," describing employees who are weak performers and who do as little work as possible. The bulk, nearly 66 percent, are classified as "agnostics." They don't shirk their work, but they don't go to great lengths, either. The rest, less than 5 percent, are "true believers" -- the high performers completely dedicated to their jobs, according to the survey.

The office is rated as "high risk" when compared to dozens of other public and private organizations surveyed last year by the Corporate Leadership Council.

The June survey of the inspector general's office indicates not much has changed since 2002, when an independent review team examined the organization and found serious problems in leadership and management. Employees felt their supervisors did not trust them, help them to be successful, or give them enough responsibility, the review found.

"No member of the team has seen an organization, civil or military, manned by so many talented people, so ill served by its senior leadership," said the review done by Military Professional Resources, Inc., a defense contractor in Alexandria, Va. "This level of management displays all of the malignant attributes attributed to entrenched bureaucracy."

The awards for Beardall and Brannin were recommended by former Pentagon inspector general Claude Kicklighter, who resigned suddenly in July after only 14 months as the office's top official.

Horstman's award was recommended by Kicklighter and Richard T. Race, a senior investigator and Kicklighter's acting chief of staff. Race quit in February after pleading guilty in federal court to violating banking laws. He had made several deposits to a credit union account in amounts intended to evade a federal reporting requirement on transactions over $10,000.

Federal agencies submit nominations for presidential rank awards in January to the Office of Personnel Management. A lengthy review process follows and winners are announced in October. Money for the awards comes from the nominating agency's budget.

Kicklighter, who now works at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., did not return telephone calls. Race could not be reached for comment.

Gordon Heddell, who was named acting Pentagon inspector general when Kicklighter left, declined through a spokesman to comment on the awards or the performance of the managers he inherited.

"Those award nominations were endorsed by a previous inspector general for each person's performance going back over a period of years," spokesman Gary Comerford said.

Heddell was disturbed by the Corporate Leadership Council's findings, which were being tabulated as he took over the office. He had been inspector general at the Labor Department since 2001.

In an Oct. 14 to office staff, Heddell said he and other top managers "must, and will, do better."

Citing privacy restrictions, the inspector general's office refused to provide exact salaries for Brannin, Beardall and Horstman. However, Comerford said they are in the Tier 3 level of senior executive service, which has a salary ceiling of $172,200 per year. They all could make less than that, so the size of the cash award each received could vary.

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On the Net:

Pentagon inspector general's office:
http://www.dodig.mil/

[Associated Press; By RICHARD LARDNER]

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