Speaking of stonewalling . . .

. . . 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?