Whatever happened to public servants?

[Zoe]

This link is to a news article at Yahoo, so it may not last long:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/fc?cid=34&tmpl=fc&in=US&cat=Health_Care

Laura Meeker of the Associated Press:

The Bush administration’s top Medicare accountant has calculated how millions of senior citizens would be affected by bringing private managed care into the program, but the administration won’t release the information. <snip>

The administration’s Medicare chief threatened to fire his top actuary, Rick Foster, if Foster released his calculations to Capitol Hill Democrats who requested the analysis, officials said.

Medicare chief Tom Scully said in an interview Wednesday that Democrats had no right to request the information from Foster in the first place.

“They don’t have the right on the Hill to call up my actuary and demand things,” said Scully, chief of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. **“These people work for the executive branch, period.” ** (Bolding mine)

Scully said he would release the analysis “if I feel like it.”

Medicare spokesman Peter Ashkenaz said Foster is working to update his original memo based on changes being considered by House Republicans so the original version is not relevant. <snip>

Democrats responded by pointing to legislative language approved in 1997 that specifically requires the top Medicare actuary to answer questions from Congress. <snip>

If someone works for the Executive Branch, aren’t they still public servants? Aren’t members of Congress part of that public? What gives Scully the right to release this information “if he feels like it.”

Surely this information cannot be a matter of “National Security.”

[Daerlyn]

Whichever branch he works for aside, since when does anyone in business or government get to do things because ‘they feel like it’?

[Cheesesteak]

Just because you’re a public servant, doesn’t mean you have to ‘step to’ every single time a member of the public says so.

I work for a big company, I’m asked to follow the directives of my management chain, nobody from a different department is allowed to assign me work without my manager’s approval. Now, if that inter-departmental work is part of my normal duties, of course I will do it, if it is not, then my manager should approve before I get working on it. In this case, it seems that the actuary’s manager doesn’t want him wasting his time on Congressional requests, though he may change his mind.

What it comes down to is this, a person should have ONE boss who determines what work they are assigned. They should not respond to random requests for information unless their boss decides it is part of their normal duties.

Now, the last line of your quote suggests to me that these requests might be termed normal duties, as such, they should be done without argument.