Coast Guard chief stresses importance of focusing on employees

The leader of the Coast Guard on Tuesday attributed problems, including recent revelations of troubles in a massive fleet modernization contract, to a lack of focus on employees.

Adm. Thad Allen said in a speech Tuesday night that there were not enough employees with the expertise necessary to oversee the Deepwater program, a $24 billion joint contract with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to replace aging equipment. Both The New York Times and The Washington Post ran stories last week detailing costly delays and equipment damage.

"We created a cultural cleavage," Allen said, where employees could not voice differences of opinion in a proper way on the contract.

His focus on the importance of employees rather than financial or technology management came in a keynote address at a symposium on a new report from The George Washington University about the importance of "human capital" in the federal government.

Allen said the most important part of managing employees is making sure every employee feels an attachment to the mission of the agency. Whether employees are procurement officials, rescue swimmers or charged with cleaning up oil spills, "they're protecting the homeland," Allen said.

He said there has to be more integration across the agencies within the Homeland Security Department. To that end, he said DHS officials are beginning talks on a Homeland Security Academy that would train employees, and on possible joint-duty requirements that would require employees to work in various agencies across the department to receive promotions.

On pay for performance in DHS, Allen said the budget process needs to be fixed so that employees know they can rely on yearly raises once Congress doesn't have control over them.