What accountability means in the real world

What accountability means in the real world

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/01/22/the_quality_of_accountability_121317.html

"Benghazi offers an example of both lack of accountability and faux-countability. As Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins pointed out in comments filed with the Senate intelligence committee report, the attack was preventable, yet no one has been disciplined for failing to prevent it. Collins singled out Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy, who testified that the threat environment in Benghazi was "flashing red" yet failed to ensure that a facility he approved there had adequate security."

If no breakdown in a system can be identified, that cause a bad outcome, that doesn't mean one doesn't exist. To demand proof that some individual is responsible, is unreasonable. To identify the smallest portion of the organization which contains the responsible person should be sufficient.

The Romans had a way of dealing with such sub units who demonstrated failure. It was to decimate them. That involved breaking the division into units of 10 individuals, and allowing each group to select one of their group to be deemed responsible and to have the other nine beat him to death.

I propose a similar situation for the State department. Rather than killing the selected scape goats (10% of the staff) , he would just be fired with no chance of further Federal employment.

This is practiced in the real-world all the time.




Dave Farnsworth