There Is an Epidemic of RIGD Hitting the State - Ken Block
Ken Block, Guest MINDSETTER™
There Is an Epidemic of RIGD Hitting the State - Ken Block
Symptoms include poor decision-making, inept management, inattention to detail, lack of transparency, dereliction of duty, lack of accountability, and a general disregard for the public's needs and concerns.
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The diagnosis: Rhode Island has a nasty case of Rhode Island Government Disease (RIGD).
Over the last year, we have watched a major bridge close to traffic because it was about to fall, impacting nearly a hundred thousand commuters and countless businesses. We have watched state employees outright lie about some bridge issues. We are absorbing the body blow of a massive data breach that exposed the confidential financial information of up to 350,000 of us, courtesy of a highly troubled state computer system. And our governor has shown no interest in looking at how RI state employees might have contributed to these problems.
Governor McKee has not taken the simple step of apologizing to us for the state’s shortcomings. Worse, he bristles at questions that probe state employee culpability (or his role) for any of this mess. State employees’ jobs are to ensure that our government delivers the services we all pay for. They have failed miserably.
It is galling that our elected and appointed officials lack professionalism and follow-through. No one seems to be focused on the basics and continuous improvement, and instead, we lurch from self-inflicted crisis to crisis.
There were years of warnings that the Washington Bridge was in trouble, just as years of audit reports told anyone who cared to read them that the state’s computer systems were not well-protected from cyber attacks. Rhode Island bureaucrats and technical managers did not head off these crises. Does the governor’s office make any effort to ensure that the executive branch manages the issues identified in these reports and fixes them promptly? The evidence shows this is not happening.
The failure isn’t just within the executive branch of government. The legislature owns the office of the Auditor General, which produces detailed, annual audits of how our government operates. The legislature also has the responsibility of overseeing the executive branch’s performance. Why do we not have legislative Oversight Committee hearings that zero in on deficiencies identified by the legislature’s Auditor General or DOT inspection reports that highlight the same problems year after year after year?
Where is the accountability and follow-through? If I had to bet, the legislature and governor spend far more time fundraising than worrying about serious deficiencies in how our government works. Grubbing for money trumps protecting RI citizens from their government’s ineptitude.
This is the crux of Rhode Island government disease: Go along to get along, produce far below-average results, and hope that the public’s short attention span provides necessary cover when things go badly awry.
We need to professionalize Rhode Island's government. In private industry, in response to problems like the DOT and Health and Human Services crises, there would be a massive restructuring and replacement of management and employees. In the real world, failure and poor results have consequences.
We need to rid our state of Rhode Island government disease.
I offer the following to anyone in authority in RI government to use freely at their next press conference:
“On behalf of the State of Rhode Island, I apologize for our government's failings and shortcomings. It is unacceptable that a bridge decayed to the brink of failure right before our eyes. We were negligent when we failed to ensure that our computer systems were adequately protected from cyber-attacks. We are furious that UHIP, 8 years after it went live, still cannot correctly implement one of its core duties to ensure that those receiving benefits are eligible to receive them. We are now working hard to address these issues and will regularly update you on our progress. I will quickly tell you where we went wrong, fix the problems, and fully update you on our findings. I will remove managers who watched as the state failed its citizens. The money we spend and the work we do is yours, the citizens of our state. Our government will become far more transparent with the public regarding how we spend your money and perform work for you. We have lost our way, but I promise you we are entirely focused on quickly getting back in your good graces. It has taken decades for us to get here. I am setting a goal of one year to set things right.”