The bloated, feckless Office of Personnel Management (OPM) — what is effectively the federal government's HR department — is asleep at the wheel.

A significant portion, if not the majority, of private-sector American workers in the post-pandemic economy have returned to the office — but not federal employees.

Rather, per reporting in the Federal Times, only one out of every three federal employees is back in the office — despite President Biden himself declaring the pandemic over almost a year ago to the day.

Although OPM requested last April that that federal workers get back to the office — at the prodding of Rep. James Comer and the grassroots conservative movement — a majority have simply not complied.

(Imagine for a moment what would happen if a private-sector firm told its employees to return to the office and they simply refused.)

Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), for one, has had enough, declaring that "frustrated Americans are being put on hold while too many federal employees are phoning it in" in a recent speech delivered on the Senate floor, citing unanswered calls and similar basic customer service failures by the Department of Veterans' Affairs, the Social Security Administration, and other agencies with significant real-world impacts on seniors and veterans.

These deficiencies fall squarely at the feet of OPM, which is tasked with the administration of the federal workforce.

Beyond the affront to taxpayers and the mockeries made of their jobs, OPM's ineptitude and blatant disregard for efficiency also pose a substantial national security risk.

Back in 2015, OPM was victimized by one of the most significant cyber-attacks in world history, suspected to be conducted by Chinese actors.  North of five million individuals' fingerprints were stolen as a result.

This was not the first time, nor will it likely be the last, barring significant changes, that the federal bureaucracy failed to secure the data it manages.

For instance, a report published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security, Labor, and the Treasury have yet to implement critical cloud security practices to safeguard data vital to national security:

Until these agencies fully implement the cloud security key practices identified in federal policies and guidance, the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of agency information contained in these cloud systems is at increased risk.

Forcing absentee federal employees back into the office and at work on behalf of the taxpayers who foot their salaries is the bare minimum.  What we need, in fact, is a massive overhaul of the entirety of OPM operations.

But rather than giving up the responsibilities it has demonstrated its incapacity to carry out without compromising national security, OPM has sought greater power and authority.  This cannot be allowed to stand.

Were OPM a private-sector enterprise, it would have gone bankrupt long ago due to its incompetence.

It's long past time to allow the private sector to pick up the slack in terms of patching up the glaring national security deficiencies within the current OPM system.

Per reporting from Townhall, in comparing the track records of the public versus private sectors in terms of stewardship of government data, the imperative to transfer greater responsibilities in this vein to the latter is clear:

On the July 2022 Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) scorecard, the OPM received an F for cybersecurity. That didn't surprise anyone familiar with the significant security flaws the OPM has experienced throughout its existence, which culminated in a judge-settled $63 million settlement in October for the most significant breach in government history that occurred on its watch, affecting over 21 million Americans.

Compare the OPM's abysmal track record with the glowing records of private sector companies that also manage employment listings for the federal government, like Monster Government Solutions (MonsterGov), and the truth becomes clear as day. Less of the public sector is more, especially when it comes to privacy protection.

In addition to the unacceptable inefficiencies and security lapses committed by OPM, Rep. Comer, in an open letter to OPM, pointed to the agency's conflicts of interest: "OPM sells hiring-related services to those agencies which it oversees via USA Staffing, even though there are many private firms that assist both the private and public sector with hiring and related human capital acquisition activities."

Given that Republicans hold a majority in the House of Representatives, there is no reason why OPM's responsibilities should be expanding when it should be forcibly diminished and replaced by the more efficient private sector.

It's up to the American people's representatives in Congress to force the issue.

Image via Unsplash.