Today, the Washington Post looked more deeply into the security breach of passport records last week of Presidential candidates and U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain by non-government employees.  The article describes how the number of contract employees to government employees “exploded” in the last year when the U.S. Passport requirements for travel to Canada and Mexico changed thereby increasing the number of applications to the State Department.  

The companies contracted out by the State Department provide administrative employees to handle the processing of the passport applications on the clerical side.  However, “the people who review the documentation and approve or deny the application are federal employees” as well as those handling the printing and scanning of the information.  It seems to me that the breaches happened because the contractors are not held to the same standard as the Federal employees, yet they handle the exact same sensitive, private and personal information about all citizens, whether high profile or not.  In addition, the companies that provide the contract employees are making a big profit.  Is our personal and private information for sale?  In this case yes.  And it is your tax dollars paying for a company to profit rather than a well-trained government employee to manage your private information.

So how does this relate to the Public Service Academy?   Well, the Academy will not only train civil servants, but hold them to the highest standard of discretion when interacting with citizens or their information because there is no profit involved.  In fact, the Academy will serve as a symbol for excellence in federal, state, and local government service jobs and return some dignity and respect to the the public sector!  What do you think?