The US Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, is shaking up the country’s federal government through its disruption of many long-standing programmes. However, in public administration, rooting out waste and corruption requires a balanced approach that emphasises transparency and inclusion. If Doge, led by Elon Musk, eschews these principles in favour of forthright opacity, the damage to American society could take decades to repair.
Organisations throughout history have suffered from waste and corruption, intermittently spawning efforts at “cleaning house” by a new incoming principal. However, the key question that stakeholders should be asking themselves is: is this drive to improve efficiency an attempt elevate the organisation’s performance? Or is it a front for an attempt by the new boss to remove adversaries from the organisation regardless of their impact on efficiency?
The Soviet Union became the poster child for this latter, distorted approach, taking the form of sporadic purges.
At times, the accusations levelled against those purged were entirely fictitious, with the general public unable to access the data that would allow them to decide for themselves. At other times, some officials were indeed guilty of waste and corruption, but at no greater a rate than those on more favourable terms with the general secretary of the governing Communist Party.
As a result, their removal simply led to their replacement by equally corrupt or wasteful officials, making the entire exercise useless from an efficiency perspective. Rather than motivating functionaries to innovate in the pursuit of productivity, they were incentivised to cosy up to the political elite.
Bill Clinton and Al Gore showed that downsizing government doesn’t have to be this way
When Mr Musk took over Twitter – now X – he supposedly laid off about 80 per cent of the staff. This extreme brand of downsizing harked back to the crude method of studying brain function pioneered by the French physiologist Pierre Flourens, whereby he would surgically remove parts of the brain and then observe behaviour to determine the functions served by each part.
Mr Musk had the choice of actually asking people what they do – Flourens could not speak to parts of animal brains. However, he preferred the swiftness of the “keep firing people until something stops working” approach. Regardless, as the owner of the social media platform, from a legal standpoint, it was his organisation to control as he saw fit.
The same is not true of the US federal government, which is owned by all American citizens. While President Donald Trump announced his intention to establish Doge under Mr Musk’s leadership during his election campaign, voters ultimately voted for the incumbent for a wide range of reasons that were not necessarily related to the department. Moreover, even if it were a single-issue vote, Mr Musk did not provide a detailed plan up front that can be used to legitimise his actions.
Of particular concern is the extreme opacity of Doge’s processes: similar to a government intelligence service, where the only person that stakeholders even know works in the organisation is the head. Mr Musk intermittently posts on X highlighting a case of waste or corruption that he detected, but beyond what he chooses to share, Americans are completely in the dark.
As of the end of last week, Doge dismissed more than 9,500 workers who handled a range of functions from managing federal lands to caring for military veterans. An additional 75,000 workers – about 3 per cent of the government’s civilian workforce – have taken a buyout. There have been reports that the speed and breadth of these cuts have left White House staffers frustrated over a lack of co-ordination.
It is, of course, early days yet. But some critics have said Mr Musk’s modus operandi has the hallmarks of a Soviet-style purge, whereby programmes and personnel considered unimportant to the new president’s agenda are removed, regardless of whether they are associated with corruption or incompetence.
Former president Bill Clinton and his deputy, Al Gore, showed that it doesn’t have to be this way. In 1993, Mr Clinton launched the National Performance Review with the aim of boosting efficiency, cutting bureaucracy and empowering frontline workers. It yielded a 400,000-person reduction in the federal workforce, shrinking the government to its lowest level since the 1960s.
Critically, the processes adopted by Mr Gore when heading the review confirmed that this was a noble endeavour rather than a purge. They engaged all federal employees in a dignified manner, with the then vice president personally chairing town hall meetings and taking notes, making them feel like partners rather than intransigent sloths. Progress reports were regularly made available to the public, ensuring transparency. The people implementing the review were known and accessible to voters.
Moreover, the entire process was bipartisan due to the realisation that every element of government had waste. In fact, one of the exemplars that was used to inform policy was the state government of Texas, which was a staunchly Republican entity, despite the president and vice president being Democrats. Doge’s actions, on the other hand, have left congressional Democrats worried that the current administration is encroaching on the legislature’s constitutional authority over federal spending.
If the fears that Doge is just a ruthless purge are confirmed, it will fundamentally change incentives in federal government. Civil servants will fixate on a clientelist form of government where an incoming administration fills government entities with loyalists, causing severe damage to the quality of public policy.
The US lived through this during the 19th century, until industrialists and the general public formed a large coalition that eventually uprooted the clientelism. Repeating this cycle of corruption at a time when the US has a formidable geostrategic rival in the form of China would be self-defeating.
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
More on Quran memorisation:
Movie: Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster 3
Producer: JAR Films
Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Jimmy Sheirgill, Mahie Gill, Chitrangda Singh, Kabir Bedi
Rating: 3 star
Gran Gala del Calcio 2019 winners
Best Player: Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus)
Best Coach: Gian Piero Gasperini (Atalanta)
Best Referee: Gianluca Rocchi
Best Goal: Fabio Quagliarella (Sampdoria vs Napoli)
Best Team: Atalanta
Best XI: Samir Handanovic (Inter); Aleksandar Kolarov (Roma), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Kalidou Koulibaly (Napoli), Joao Cancelo (Juventus*); Miralem Pjanic (Juventus), Josip Ilicic (Atalanta), Nicolo Barella (Cagliari*); Fabio Quagliarella (Sampdoria), Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Duvan Zapata (Atalanta)
Serie B Best Young Player: Sandro Tonali (Brescia)
Best Women’s Goal: Thaisa (Milan vs Juventus)
Best Women’s Player: Manuela Giugliano (Milan)
Best Women’s XI: Laura Giuliani (Milan); Alia Guagni (Fiorentina), Sara Gama (Juventus), Cecilia Salvai (Juventus), Elisa Bartoli (Roma); Aurora Galli (Juventus), Manuela Giugliano (Roma), Valentina Cernoia (Juventus); Valentina Giacinti (Milan), Ilaria Mauro (Fiorentina), Barbara Bonansea (Juventus)
HAEMOGLOBIN DISORDERS EXPLAINED
Thalassaemia is part of a family of genetic conditions affecting the blood known as haemoglobin disorders.
Haemoglobin is a substance in the red blood cells that carries oxygen and a lack of it triggers anemia, leaving patients very weak, short of breath and pale.
The most severe type of the condition is typically inherited when both parents are carriers. Those patients often require regular blood transfusions - about 450 of the UAE's 2,000 thalassaemia patients - though frequent transfusions can lead to too much iron in the body and heart and liver problems.
The condition mainly affects people of Mediterranean, South Asian, South-East Asian and Middle Eastern origin. Saudi Arabia recorded 45,892 cases of carriers between 2004 and 2014.
A World Health Organisation study estimated that globally there are at least 950,000 'new carrier couples' every year and annually there are 1.33 million at-risk pregnancies.
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
SPECS
Toyota land Cruiser 2020 5.7L VXR
Engine: 5.7-litre V8
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 362hp
Torque: 530Nm
Price: Dh329,000 (base model 4.0L EXR Dh215,900)
Saturday's results
Brighton 1-1 Leicester City
Everton 1-0 Cardiff City
Manchester United 0-0 Crystal Palace
Watford 0-3 Liverpool
West Ham United 0-4 Manchester City
Know your camel milk:
Flavour: Similar to goat’s milk, although less pungent. Vaguely sweet with a subtle, salty aftertaste.
Texture: Smooth and creamy, with a slightly thinner consistency than cow’s milk.
Use it: In your morning coffee, to add flavour to homemade ice cream and milk-heavy desserts, smoothies, spiced camel-milk hot chocolate.
Goes well with: chocolate and caramel, saffron, cardamom and cloves. Also works well with honey and dates.
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ovasave%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20November%202022%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Majd%20Abu%20Zant%20and%20Torkia%20Mahloul%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abu%20Dhabi%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Healthtech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Three%20employees%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Pre-seed%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24400%2C000%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
FIXTURES
All games 6pm UAE on Sunday:
Arsenal v Watford
Burnley v Brighton
Chelsea v Wolves
Crystal Palace v Tottenham
Everton v Bournemouth
Leicester v Man United
Man City v Norwich
Newcastle v Liverpool
Southampton v Sheffield United
West Ham v Aston Villa
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
