See the government. See the government move slowly.

Sometimes I wonder what my government does with all the money I send them. I’ve been following the background check process of the Federal Government, hoping that I’d learn something about how to use background checks more effectively. Boy was I looking in the wrong place.

There’s an article in Government Executive about how “by Oct, 27, 2007, federal agencies were supposed to complete background checks for employees with 15 years’ or less experience and begin issuing new identity cards.” Want to guess how many Federal agencies met the deadline?

The answer is none. Zero. Not one. And this was a deadline that was set in 2004!

Now, in business, if nobody could make our deadline, we would assume that the problem was the deadline, not the people. But this is the government we’re talking about.

Not only has the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the ones responsible for the deadline, not acknowledged that the deadline might be a problem, they haven’t changed anything about the background check program. Not only do the background checks need to be completed but “new identity cards must replace the standard employee flash-card badges by Oct. 27, 2008.”

So, if you are a Federal agency, you’re supposed to get the background checks done and then get the new cards done. No changes to the deadlines. But of course, if the DHS isn’t enforcing the deadline and nobody’s making it, you could say it’s not really a deadline.

One of the great things about working in business or a not-for-profit is that you can do important things quickly. Aren’t you glad there are services like SentryLink to help you do that?