From Fox News: When senior State Department officials set out to trim the agency in the “biggest reorganization since the Cold War,” they couldn’t get a total headcount on employees — for months, they say.
“It took us three months to get a list of the people that actually work in the building,” one senior State Department official told reporters during a briefing at Foggy Bottom on Monday, defending the job cuts that detractors have claimed will damage U.S. diplomacy.
“They couldn’t tell you how many people worked here,” the official said. “It’s sort of scary as a taxpayer and as a public servant to think that we don’t even know how many employees we have. This is a national security agency, you know. Who are these people?”
The reorganization will result in a department with about 3,000 fewer employees. Around half of those took a voluntary buyout, and the other half were given reduction in force (RIF) notices.
The report says Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s closest advisors evaluated more than 700 domestic offices within the State Department, finding “duplicative” or “inefficient” jobs.
Department had multiple HR offices accepting faxed records for new hires.
“It’s crazy that a department that’s tasked with so many critical diplomatic, national security functions, with a $50 billion plus budget is running its affairs that way,” an official said.
'It's sort of scary': Officials flag surprising revelations from deep State Department cuts https://t.co/iidd7xgvnD
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