ABSTRACT
Some HR failures are relatively easy to prevent and correct; others are systemically problematic. For example, the HR department usually prevents an agency head's attempt to improperly reclassify a position to gain an employee higher pay. If the misclassification practice is systemic, as it was in the Veterans Affairs Agency, is more problematic to discover and prevent.
Regarding selection, vetting should be thorough but is made more problematic if an agency privatizes the service. Now the organization must expend resources to oversee the contractor's work. Without such oversight contractors, like USIS, can run amok.
Regarding compensation, a well-grounded system will prevent both manipulation of the compensation system and paying contractors outrageously high amounts.
Governments sometimes choose to underfund their pension and OPEB obligations. They put their proverbial heads in the sand, piling up massive debts, and courting bankruptcy. Detroit, for example, went to the very brink of bankruptcy before taking Draconian measures. Applying financial triage, the city, its unions, and bond holders clawed back from the edge of bankruptcy.
