‘I’m offended as an American taxpayer that the federal bureaucracy…is so profoundly dysfunctional,’ Writes Former HHS Official

The results of government bureaucracy are
all too apparent—wasted resources, endless delays, pointless
expenditures. From the outside, bureaucrats often appear to
cheerfully function inside a cruel and inefficient loony bin. So
how gratifying (if not reassuring) it is when an escapee from the
system tells us that the view is no better from the inside.

David E. Wright
came from academia in 2011 to
take over the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS)
efforts against research misconduct at the Office of Research
Integrity. Just over two years later, he’s out of his own accord,
and saying that, while he enjoyed working with “brilliant
scientist-investigators” he describes most of his responsibilities
as “the very worst job I have ever had.”

ScienceInsider
obtained a copy of his February 25 resignation letter to Dr.
Howard Koh, M.D., Assistant Secretary for Health. Among other
disappointments and roadblocks he details, this may be my
favorite:

In one instance, by way of illustration, I urgently needed to
fill a vacancy for an ORI division director.  I asked the
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health (your deputy) when
I could proceed.  She said there was a priority
list.  I asked where ORI’s request was on that
list.  She said the list was secret and that we weren’t
on the top, but we weren’t on the bottom either. Sixteen months
later we still don’t have a division director on board.

Wright also cites Max Weber to note
that “public bureaucracies quit being about serving the public and
focus instead on perpetuating themselves. This is exactly my
experience.”

He’s concerned, too, that “decisions are often made on the basis
of political expediency and to obtain favorable ‘optics.'”

Ultimately, the former director writes, “I’m offended as an
American taxpayer that the federal bureaucracy—at least the part
I’ve labored in—is so profoundly dysfunctional.”

Wright’s tenure as a government employee ends March 27, after
which time he’ll publish the daily log he kept as ORI Director.

But while Wright may be out, the bureaucracy he escaped lives
on, and on, and on…