What can one learn from this ... Managers in the Federal Government don't make profits, they look for efficenties, they deal with qualitative measures and not quantitative measures ... they write evaluations that get changed higher up the chain of command, they think in missions and values and in this case a lack of values and no respect for the mission or the importance of Human Capital. Take away the pay for performance, take money, influence and power out of the equation and this situation would be about what businesses did not get loans, what grants didn't get to communities for business development. These are the real things that should matter in the SBA, its their mission. Any new pay system needs to focus on the workforce's ability to meet key values (that is the motivation in a profitless work enviornment) they should learn to use those values to support mission accomplishments and they should have oppertunitites to advance based on a competative process that picks the person who is the best (that is where you get pay for performance). A stable, fairly compensated workforce who are value driven and mission focused is what this country needs and expects. Freezing pay, holding promotions back and limiting career oppertunities is short sighted and as inaproperate as this example of executive power gone amuck. Let Congress not perform in a way that will make them look as inaproperate as these executives. SO CONGRESS, step up, be strong, cut fat, cut waste, cut abuses but don't create a work place that will never again attract the brightest and best, if you do, this is a great example what the leftovers will do once promoted to postions of leadership. Just one person's thoughts.

Thank you WTOP for having at least the guts to listen to these employees (whistleblowers) and report this story. The Administrators and Mr. Swain statements are canned statements. I hope that the public do not fall for it. The corruption is out of hand at SBA because the people involved in the corruption have called the IG's bluff, EEO's bluff, OSC's bluff and EEOC's bluff. SBA should be under intense investigation from all of these entities because the corruption was reported to them over and over again. Not one of these agencies/offices investigated the allegations because they do not know how to investigate. Documents were given to IG, OSC, EEO and the Office of Hearing and Appeals. These investigative bodies do nothing either because they don't really know how to do their jobs, they are so fearful of losing their cushiony positions/or being retaliated by the top officials and some, like the IG and especially EEO are in bed with OGC. OGC was named in the complaint and so was the Director of EEO. If the president or congress or the FBI ask any of the above to show proof of an investigation of these complaints, they would have no proof. I say to these organizations; It is not an investigation when all you do is take an affidavit from the accused- who denies everything and the case is closed. None of the investigating agencies did anything to investigate the charges. Yet, these people are being paid over $100,00 a year for a job they do not do or even know how to do or perhaps you have to turn a blind eye when you may be guilty of the same. Being paid good to do NOTHING! This is what we reap when we create jobs and hire people because we like them, because they'll my friend or they worked on someone's campaign, they are family or girlfriend or boyfriend. Fair and equitable do not have a place in SBA. This is what happens when there is no accountability. Nothing good comes out of corruption. It only serves to tear down the government and our country. It has a domino effect. SBA's hiring practices should be investigated immediately! The American people should be highly upset and call for a REAL investigation into SBA. It is CRIMINAL to go into an automated system to change applicant’s scores in order to keep them off of a certificate and should be grounds for immediate termination. The same with the tampering of veteran's scores to remove them from within reach on the certificates so that managers at SBA can hire who they want. SBA and Capital Access under SBA especially need to be investigated by OPM and the FBI. They should be investigated and it should be cause for immediate termination when it is found what the officials have done. What was not discussed but also should be investigated is removing permanent personnel from their positions and giving the positions to politicals and giving high paid positions that are bogus to people who worked on the president's campaign. What should be investigated is why so many consultants getting paid up to $500 a day, but SBA sent them to expensive training to train them (training a consultant??)What should be investigated is how the stimulus money was used illegally and how most of the stimulus positions were filled with friends and friends of politicals and how they then converted many of them to permanent positions once they hired them under the American Recovery Act just before the positions were to terminate. The performance management system at SBA is criminal. People are being rated without standards; majority of the agency is not on standards. Kelly Robinson and Kevin Mahoney should be required to answer for this. They both make well over $100, 00 to do their job. An investigation should be required of their positions and how they too were hired. Their selections are both questionable. The budget office of SBA is crying for an investigation. Furthermore the office that the President mandated to be put into place before the stimulus money was used never happened. Mr. Kevin Mahoney refused to establish the veteran's office as mandated by the President and OPM. There is documentation to support these allegations but is there anyone out there who cares???? SBA is a candy store with a "For Free" sign on it. We hear of the corruption of District of Columbia Government but the Federal Government is being hypocritical because corruption is ingrained in the federal workplace. Speaking of the bogus positions created in this article; SBA should be questioned and investigated as to why there are hundreds of attorney positions, hundreds of IT positions, the number of Senior Executive positions and the large number of political positions on board need to be investigated by OPM. OMB/FBI needs to look into contracting fraud at SBA. In addition it should be investigated as to why SBA did not follow the regulations of the President of the United States that called for an office to be established for our veterans???? Kevin Mahoney, Chief Human Capital Officer, refused to establish this office. It is a shame that in front of a camera people want to be so patriotic but shut the camera off and too many times they hate to see a veteran on a certificate. They have such a low opinion of the men and women who fight for our freedom. OPM need to find out what Mr. Kevin Mahoney is doing. Why was he reassigned to a lesser position in OPM and allowed to be in charge of another agency. There should be a public outcry of this foolishness and wasteful spending of American Taxpayers money. The public should demand answers and find out how and why people are allowed to break the law, violate the law and be allowed to stay in their positions or move to other agencies. These whistleblower complaints were also sent to various congressional offices and they apparently had no interest in the corruption because there was no response. Why would you not be interested in finding out what is going on in SBA? Is it because people care more about bringing shame to their political party then honesty and justice? Ask yourself why is it that the people who expose the corruption continuously get thrown out of their positions and jobs, slandered, forced to pay for attorneys that they can’t afford and the ones that violate and break the law remain in their positions. Where is the employees/whistleblower's protection? I encourage the American public to let the president, congress, OPM and whoever else knows that SBA should be truly investigated and demand real accountability. The other investigated entities should also be investigated and held accountable for getting paid but not doing their job. Finally, If I walked into the 7 eleven and stole a piece of bubble gum then it is a crime of shoplifting and there are serious consequences for my actions such as a ride in the police car, a court date, a monetary penalty, a charge on my record and disbarment from the 7-eleven. What makes so many people turn a blind eye to millions of dollars being stolen daily by federal workers?????

A: An "act" put on annually by Federal Agencies to delude employees into believing they have nothing to fear in disclosing wrongdoing. This article talks about the popular and increasing abuse of the broad discretion granted agencies to direct the reassignment of employees. The pendulum has just swung too far on this one. Agencies have even forgotten that it is illegal and they are getting sloppy about even trying to cover it up. No PDs - no problem, no SF-52 putting you in the position - it’s a minor error and omission, no real job duties, responsibilities or accountability - That’s not the dream job, it’s a hades that causes everyone else to hate you as a non-contributor and perceive that you deserve whatever fate put you in the limbo of a job that includes the word “Special” somewhere in the job title. The discretion agencies have here and the myth that it is not an "adverse action" despite the fact that as the recipient of a directed reassignment your career advancement potential is over is just to limitless. The organization brands you, shuns you, and puts the rest of the employees on notice that you have been excommunicated from the favor of the leadership. After a directed reassignment you might as well have leprosy (except that when you have leprosy people will at least talk to you on the phone). The idea here is to create a fake position because real use of the performance system to deal with real problems has real limitations and protections built into it. The key word here is “real” if an employee is a real problem you have real options in the federal performance system as it is. The use of fake positions to dump and destroy Whistleblowers is just the hubris of unlimited power to spend money without accountability on parking employees out of the way of a retaliator who does not have any real issue to address with a Whistleblower who does.

Upper management at SBA continues to act the same way as their managers taught them. An upper level manager was shown the door seven years ago but not for doing these same things that are not right but for other accusations of misconduct. Favored directors accused of sexual harassment are transferred to another office rather than shown the door and in some cases multiple times. Not much has changed in the last 20 years.

Where are the "Republicans?" President Obama needs to pick people who represents him and his cabinet more carefully. As usual the Democrats have distroyed another federal agency. I thought my agency was bad, "not" sounds like SBA is at the top of the list for corruption. I don't know how Administrator Mills has allowed such criminal activity to happend under her watch. She should be called on Capitol Hill and questioned before Congress. This is in out cry and a waste of my taxpayers dollars. The Rupublicans need to shut SBA down!

You obviously were NOT paying attention!!! Let us say this again in smaller words for the slow REPUBLICAN... THIS agency was like THIS under the REPUBLICAN administration. Which in case you can't remember was the last 8 YEARS!!!! This article is talking about things that have BEEN going on. I don't think your political party...(same party that started the recession) can FIX this problem. Since they were there when it was going on. I mean I see you are REALLY excited about being a donkey but don't be an a**.