[guest post by Dana]

It’s come to this: A government agency, believing employee ratings are too discriminatory, has opted to eliminate the process altogether. As a result of the decision, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will award all employees a gold star – regardless of their performance reviews.

The CFPB, which oversees transactions in the financial sector for the federal government, decided to no longer conduct employee reviews because there were just too many apparent “significant disparities” between the races, ages, and locations of its employees.

According to American Banker, this new policy is set to cost over $5 million dollars, as it will now pay employees as if they received the highest evaluation score. The previous system ranked staff on their performance from a scale ranging from one to five, with five being the best score a CFPB staffer could receive after a review of their work on the job.

One wonders about the timing of such a decision involving such a costly change in procedure.

This development comes right before the agency is scheduled for a Wednesday hearing to investigate allegations that it practiced retaliatory actions towards certain employees. News reports have circulated that the alleged “discriminations” were race-based and that the CFPB implemented their new policies to alleviate that problem.

Apparently, the belief is that only racism can explain any disparities in employee evaluations.

It should be noted that CFPB Director Richard Cordray justified the change in procedure, saying there were broad-based disparities in the way performance ratings were assigned.

“These differences indicate a systemic disadvantage to various categories of employees that persisted across divisions, offices, and other employee characteristics.”

–Dana

The L.A. Times tells us:

The CIA’s top official in Kabul has been publicly identified by the White House in an email accidentally circulated to thousands of journalists as part of President Obama’s surprise Memorial Day weekend trip to Afghanistan.

Whoops! Oh well. These things happen, as the Times reminds us:

In 2003, another CIA operative, Valerie Plame, was publicly identified by I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a top aide to Vice President Cheney, in an apparent attempt to discredit her husband, who had publicly raised questions about the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq.

Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice, but his sentence was commuted by President Bush.

Wait . . . what?!

I could have sworn the leaker was a fella named Richard Armitage.

Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage said yesterday that he believes he was the initial source for a 2003 newspaper column by Robert D. Novak that disclosed the CIA’s previously secret employment of Valerie Plame, the wife of a prominent critic of the U.S. war in Iraq.

That’s from 2006. This has been known for, what? 7 1/2 years?

Um, L.A. Times?

Thanks to G.H.

UPDATE: Another day, another correction. The linked article now begins as follows:

FOR THE RECORD

CIA name disclosure: An article in the May 27 Section A stated that former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby disclosed that former intelligence official Valerie Plame worked for the CIA. Former State Department official Richard Armitage said he was the first to disclose that Plame worked for the agency.

Kudos to G.H. for catching this.