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Show thenr x.0 .ENTERPRISE An interview with by Sybil Liberty the RCA (Robert Bynum, associate commissioner of social security for program operations announced he had cut the error rate in social security payments to the disabled from 25 percent to 6.3 percent. Part of the decline resulted from a change in the way the agency defines an error, he said. Washington Star Dec. 1977.) Sybil Liberty: Congratulations, Mr. Bynum. Robert Bynum: Thank you. It is gratifying for a public servant to save the American taxpayer almost two billion CAPITOL HILL LOCATION TWO TO FOUR BEDROOM TOWNHOUSES TWO AND ONE HALF BATHS INDIVIDUAL TWO CAR GARAGES TWO LARGE INDIVIDUAL DECKS dollars. JOE CORNWALL S.L. That is remarkable decline in errors in just two years. I note that part of the decline was a result in your agency redefining an error. R.- B. That is correct. S.- L. What part of the decline is attributable to that? R.- B. Well, the final figures aren't in yet. S.- L. WOODBURNING FIREPLACES GREEN HOUSES BRICK CONSTRUCTION W SOUND ISOLATION 1500 T0 1800 SQ FT MINIMUM MAINTENANCE FEE 277-48- 59 ASSOCIATED MORTGAGE & REALTY EXCHANGE COMPANY EXCLUSIVE AGENTS 487-085- 9 Just a ballpark figure. The Bureau of Red Tape handled that, and they are reverification program to conducting an extensive two-yecorroborate their initial findings. S.- L. Isnt that the bureau whose error rate was recently slashed from 79 percent to 50 percent? R.- B. I believe so, but the director Phineas Q. Bumble-crotc- h would be the best authority on that. S.- L. Perhaps you could tell me how your agency redefined R.- B. ar an error. R.- B. Of course. We felt it was meaningless to cling to outdated definitions that have no viability in todays complex, computerized society. Errors mean different things to different people. Wc now have seven catergories. S.- L. What is first? R.- B. Wc call it honest mistake. Wc have people in our department who have made the same honest mistake every month for 20 years. We didnt feel these loyal employees error. should bear the stigma of committing a S.- L. How did you define honest? R.- B. I must admit we had some difficulty in that area, but we had some help from an expert in the field, the former director of the C.I.A., Richard Helms. S.- L. What is the next catergory? We discovered R.- B. The lunch or coffee break mis-cuthat our employees were under tremendous pressure just prior to their breaks. Many were fearful that their processing of payments might run into their break time. Accordingly, any mistake made within 10 minutes of breaktime is not considered so-call- ed e. an error. That certainly would help the percentages. What is the next category? R.- B. The overloaded employees faux pas. S- .L What docs that mean? R.- B. Working as a public servant entitles an employee to certain minimal benefits. All of our employees are entitled to 30 days paid vacation, plus accumulated sick leave of 24 days a from our year and time off for good behavior. We found that staff of 6000 people, we averaged 2000 people a day working. for Obviously those people could not handle the work designed errors 6000 people. Therefore, we decided that any made when 2000 people or less were working would be reclassified as an overload employee faux pas. S.- L. How many claims a day are handled? R.- B. Based upon a fully staffed organization of 6000 people, wc average three claims a day per person. S.- L. That doesn't appear to be too many. R.- B. Its not the per person output that is important, its the volume you have to consider. S- .L What is the next catergory? R.- B. Other government employee error. S.- L. What is that? R.- B. You must realize that a great number of government information. Any agencies arc involved in providing us with mistake that occurs because another agency provides us with the wrong information is now classified as other agency When your child turns 18... well hand you up to $5,917.23 for college. With no strings attached. S.- L. so-call- ed goof. And the remaining catergories? and confidenR.- B. They arc classified as secret, top secret tial. I am not at liberty to discuss them. S.- L. What then constitutes the 6.3 percent error rate? R.- B. All of our checks arc placed in the hands of the U.S. discussion postal service for delivery. There was a great deal of whether this should be classified as other agency goof, but we felt that too much of a slash in our error would embarass other other departments. Six percent of the checks mailed never reach the recipient, but we decided wc had io accept some responsibility, and that accounts for the remainder. S.- L. That hardly seems fair. R.B. We may redefine that catergory in the next year or two and cut our error rate from 6.3 percent to .3 percent. S.- L. Capitol Thrift and Loan would like to introduce you to an amazingly easy way to save for your child's college education. We call it our "College Education Account." And here's how it works. Say you have a new baby. Or are expecting one soon. If you put $1 ,000 into a College Education Account when your baby is born, your deposit will grow to $5,917.23 in 18 years.41 So when your baby is ready to go off to college, you'll have your original $1 ,000 deposit. Plus an extra $4,917.23 in interest. With no strings attached. 10 Interest Capitol's College Education Account pays up to 10 interest (compounded quarterly). At that rate, you can earn a surprisingly large amount of interest even if you start an account for older children. (See the table.) SEND THIS COUPON TODAYI Come In Now Let us help pay for your child's college education. Start a College Education Account today. At Capitol Thrift and Loan. 'Assumes alt interest is held for compounding The College Education Account is protected up to a maximum of $10,000 by the Industrial Loan Guaranty Corporation of Utah, a private corporation which is not an instrumentality of the State of Utah or of the federal NOTE: government. Look how fast your College Education Account grows. During this length of time 3 years 6 years 9 years 12 years 15 years 18 years . . Your $1,000 deposit will grow to . . . $1,296.50 $1,782.44 $2,432.54 $3,271.49 $4,399.79 $5,917.23 |
