Inflexibility, Inability to Get Things Done, 'Circular Responsibility' Impede Action

The Government Accounting Office is charged with having periodic looks at the FAA, under the legislation that was supposed to have been yet another "fix" for the FAA.

Its report (GAO-03-542) is full of frustration. The FAA was supposed to have gotten off the dime and addressed known shortcomings in the ATC system, for instance, and one of its tools, approved and financed by the Congress, was supposed to have been a Chief Operating Officer. 'Who is that person?' you ask. You've never heard of her, because she's never been hired.

Administrator Marion Blakey (below) has, of course, spent lots of money on two consulting firms to help find a COO; but nobody apparently knows just who that person's boss would be after hiring -- so no hiring has been done.

Who's on First?

The GAO notes, "...the subcommittee has encountered obstacles in carrying out its responsibilities, the greatest of which has been FAA’s inability to hire a chief operating officer. Without a chief operating officer to initiate actions that the subcommittee is responsible for reviewing and approving, the subcommittee’s influence has been limited. According to the subcommittee, a major difficulty in hiring a chief operating officer has been uncertainty about the position's responsibilities, reporting relationships, and performance measures." If the FAA can't figure out who's going to be the boss, nobody's going to agree on hiring an executive.

Additionally, the GAO noted that unqualified people seem to be running things on the FAA's governing subcommittee. "Other obstacles that the subcommittee has encountered include its members’ limited experience with aviation and with FAA’s acquisition and budget processes; [and] turnover on the subcommittee..."

It's not all the subcommittee's fault, though; the FAA seems as intransigent here as it often does, to those of us on the outside. Another obstacle cited by the GAO is, "...according to the subcommittee, FAA’s lack of flexibility to move funds between and within accounts." Rigid accounting is easier for accountants; it doesn't do much for the people who depend on funds, and, theoretically at least, have the strategic vision and authority to use them.

Sometimes, career "get-alongers" at the top of organizations find that it's hard to run a specialized, unfamiliar mega-bureaucracy by getting everybody together to agree on things. Each department and work group tries very hard to make its own work easier; the overall goals tend to get lost.

Now everybody's getting in on the act, again...

Since the FAA, like a recalcitrant child, seems to be unwilling to take on the responsibility it must, to get things done, GAO now reports that, "The Congress, the administration, the subcommittee, and other stakeholders have proposed changes to the subcommittee’s organization and oversight responsibilities that they believe would improve the performance of the air traffic control system." Inaction invites intervention; and, bad as the top of the FAA may be at things related to aviation, Congress inspires no confidence that it knows better.

Stay tuned.

FMI: www.gao.gov/new.items/d03542.pdf