. . . why is the administration afraid to release the report from the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) that it received and used to write this report to Congress? I challenged Maritime Administrator Jaenichen almost two weeks ago to produce it, but so far . . . crickets.
The DMDC puts the reports for the other four federal academies on its website. But not the reports for the USMMA.
Here’s how the process works for the other federal academies: First, DMDC produces its report of the SAGR survey it conducted. This is a public document. Then the Department of Defense prepares a document for the US Congress that summarizes the DMDC report and explains the action the DOD is taking to address the findings in the DMDC report. Pretty simple and transparent, right?
Here’s how the process works for the USMMA: The DMDC produces its report of the SAGR survey it conducted. This document is not made public for unknown reasons. Then the Academy prepares a document for the US Congress that summarizes (supposedly) the DMDC report and explains the action the Academy is taking to address the findings in the DMDC report. Then, this summary is sent to MARAD for tweaking spinning. Then the tweaked spun summary is sent to DOT for more tweaking spinning. Only the fully tweaked spun document is sent to Congress. A complete lack of transparency. And with all that tweaking going on, do you think the final document might somehow avoid mentioning anything that is embarrassing to the administration?
The DMDC’s motto is:
“Serving those who serve our country, with the right information, at the right time, to the right people, for the right decisions”
We’ve been critical of the Academy administration because it isn’t basing its decisions on valid data — instead, it is relying upon anecdotal reports that are acquired in an unprofessional and unscientific manner without any concern as to the damage it does in acquiring that information. The Academy administration is
using the wrong information, at the wrong time, to the wrong people, for the wrong decisions.
But that begs the following questions:
Why won’t the Academy release the “right information” from the professionals who prepared it?
What is in that report that the administration wants to keep from the public?
Is it time for another FOIA submission to obtain the desire report?
Oh by the way, did MARAD ever resolve the previous FOIA lawsuit?
The FOIA request was made a few weeks ago. There is a backlog of FOIA requests at DMDC.
Can we FOIA the original DMDC report? Will take time, but will get the ball rolling. It may also trigger questions by those above Marad if indeed the original DMDC report has been fiddled with.
Done by someone a few weeks ago. DMDC has a backlog of over 1000 FOIA requests and says it will take a while to get to this one.