My must read of the day is "Contractors Assign Blame, but Admit No Faults of Their Own, in Health Site," in the New York Times:
Contractors that built President Obama’s health insurance marketplace point fingers at one another and at the government, but each insists that it is not responsible for the problems that infuriated millions of Americans trying to buy insurance on the Web site, according to testimony prepared for a Congressional hearing on Thursday. […]
Cheryl R. Campbell, a senior vice president of CGI Federal, a unit of the CGI Group, the main contractor, said all of its work had been done "under the direction and supervision" of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which she said was responsible for the performance of the federal exchange. […]
She blamed "another contractor" for problems that consumers have had creating secure password-protected accounts. She did not name the company, but government records show it is Quality Software Services Inc., a unit of the UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation’s largest insurers.
Is it absurd to wish that adults would actually take responsibility once in a while?
In hearing after hearing, government officials and company executives blame other people and dance around basic questions. In situations like these no one is ever blame free—by all means tattle on others who messed up. But start with owning up to errors you made!
No one likes to make mistakes, but admit to the ones you are responsible for before you point the finger at others. You can’t control other people, and you can’t change what they’ve done or will do. It’s a much better use of time to own up to your mistakes and create a plan to fix them. The person who does that is someone I’d want to work with. And it’s someone I long to see at just one congressional hearing.