That 2009 sustainability plan that was crafted with input from across the farming spectrum by the various state agencies and industry folks, is a perfect example of what is amiss at the Division.
It is basically shelved except for data collection and updating the report.
The Division will tell you that their time is worth $56 an hour and change (if your FOIA is in excess of five hours) so how much has been wasted with that ridiculous plan? How many hours are expended collating that data, writing the reports, updating the charts...on a plan (outline, really) that has produced zero results?
If the plan is referred to with derision and mocked among the employees at the Division, you can be certain it has no credibility within the Ag community either. This waste, is just one tiny facet of what is wrong with Alaska Ag on the Division side. Once the program was put forward, it continues on into the future, without considering whether it provides real value to the citizens of the state.
The 2002 legislative audit was a scathing indictment of management, and it seems no progress has been made since.
Read the audit yourself...and consider where the Division is now, 15 years later:
http://legaudit.akleg.gov/docs/audits/special/dnr/30017rpt-2003.pdf
Of course, any audit is only as good as the oversight and attention it receives from the legislature, and the public. The last one produced no fundamental changes or improvements, because...well, because they do things the way they've always been done, naturally.
Time for another legislative audit, don't you think?
2 comments:
An economic legislative audit would be a waste of time and money. Such a review would cost more than this satellite agency's annual operating budget while providing a similar investigative summary to that of 2003. There has been little change since 2003 (poor leadership, poorly represented programs, and lack of program transparency) and if the outcome is business as usual then lets not waste any more money.
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