How Would You Rate the Integrity of Data Produced by Federal Agencies?

What do you think about the integrity of data produced by the Federal agencies? Do you trust it? Do you feel comfortable making decisions with it?

Recently, the New York Post reported the following:

“A field supervisor in the Census Bureau’s Denver region has informed her organization’s higher-ups, the head of the Commerce Department and congressional investigators that she believes economic data collected by her office is being falsified.

And this whistleblower — who asked that I not identify her — said her bosses in Denver ignored her warnings even after she provided details of wrongdoing by three different survey takers.
The three continued to collect data even after she reported them.

When I spoke with this whistleblower earlier this year as part of my investigation of Census, she told me that hundreds of interviews that go into the Labor Department’s unemployment rate and inflation surveys would miraculously be completed just hours before deadline.
The implication was that someone with the ability to fill in the blanks on incomplete surveys was doing just that.

The Denver whistleblower also provided to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform the names of other Census workers who can spill the beans about data fraud in other regions.”integrity of data?

There are often innuendos that the data produced by the federal agencies lacks integrity. Several years ago Jack Welch claimed that labor data was falsified to help the Democratic campaign. While Welch had reason to be concerned about the data, his allegations were not addressed.

In Colorado there have been claims that elected officials have tried to get state agencies to falsify data and that in some cases they were successful. While the inferences came from credible sources, the innuendos were never addressed, hence they were never verified.

Colorado’s state agency that works with the Census department is the State Demographers Office (They are not the regional Census office) They have a positive reputation for making sure Colorado is fairly and accurately represented in the various surveys.

Generally speaking, state and federal agencies go to great lengths to hire people with integrity. At the same time, the temporary Census workers have thankless jobs.

State and federal agencies are no different than other organizations. Despite their aspirations to hire only quality employees, they sometimes employ workers who do not do the right things.

In defense of the federal agencies, over the past ten years they have been asked to provide more detailed data on a more timely basis with smaller or restricted budgets. As a result they sometimes produce preliminary data that does not always make sense. Such discrepancies are not an issue of integrity, but rather flawed methodology. Usually when the agencies revise their data, it aligns with what is happening on the street.

Despite the limitations of our state and federal data, we are fortunate to have so many data series to work with. Many countries have do not produce statistics or they have limited data to make decisions on.

It is great the whistleblower is being heard. If the innuendos are true, hopefully they will be addressed. The most damning part of this situation is that it destroys the integrity of the federal agencies that produce the data. Even worse, it is disturbing to think that public and private entities used data to make critical decisions and prepare budgets and policies that was intentionally and knowingly flawed.  The integrity of the data we use on a regular basis is important!

Hickenlooper Proposes Closure of Fort Lyon Correctional Facility

Governor Hickenlooper recently proposed closing the Fort Lyon Correctional Facility as part of cost cutting measures to bring the state budget into balance. The facility employs roughly 200 workers.

For those in the metro area companies come and go and the loss of a company with 200 employees often goes unnoticed, unless a person works there. Approximately 1.2 million people work in the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield MSA, so a loss of 200 jobs would be 0.02% of total employment- not even a bleep on the radar. Bent County residents obviously have a different perspective.

A short lesson about the county will provide insight into their point of view. Bent County is located in Southeast Colorado east of Pueblo, between Otero and Prowers County. Approximately 6,500 people call the county home. Between 2000 and 2009, Bent County population actually increased by about 650 people, or an annualized rate of 1.2%. While this is less than the rate of growth for the state, at least it is positive. Not all rural counties in Colorado have seen their population expand over the past decade.

A review of Census data (Quickfacts) shows that there are about 2,000 households in the county and 2,400 housing units. There is a higher concentration of minorities (Black, American Indian, and Hispanic – terms used by the Census Bureau ).

About 65% of the population (which include prison inmates) are male. As is the case with many other rural counties, Bent has a lower concentration of people under the age of 18 and a higher percentage of workers over the age of 65.

In 2008, median household income for the county was about $33,000 compared to $57,000 for the state. As might be expected from these income levels, approximately 29% of the population lives below poverty level.

With that background let’s look again at the importance of the correctional facility. Fort Lyon is Bent County’s second-largest employer. (Note: Many Colorado rural counties are the home to correctional facilities).

Data from the Colorado Office of Labor Market Information  (QCEW) reported that in 2009, Bent County has 1,303 covered workers (workers on payrolls who paid unemployment insurance) in 88 establishments. Only 560 are private sector employees.

At that time the top employment sectors were as follows: local government (451), state government (234), retail (68), hotels and restaurants (65), federal government (58), health care and social assistance (49), and finance and insurance (45). In December, 2009 the county unemployment rate was 8.7% (LMI). The loss of 200 employees in this economy would be devastating!

Should Governor Hickenlooper rescind his recommendation to eliminate the Fort Lyon facility? If so, what other programs can be cut or eliminated to keep the facility in operations? There is no right answer and there is no winner in this situation.

It’s a tough time to be a governor!

 

©Copyright 2011 by CBER.