Quotes About Accountability

Accountability is a two way street. We can't just make it easier for us to fire people; we must make it easier for us to hire people. It takes VA an average of 240 days to complete the hiring process for executives joining VA from outside government. We are losing talented people because it simply takes too long.

I hate to make this point too often, but imagine for a moment George W. Bush were on his sixth vacation, and he was asked about Iraq, and he said 'I'm buying shrimp.' You think that wouldn't be a headline everywhere?

The average person - if you had a situation that hit your family and you needed to do something, you would not just go and take a vacation, or you would not do something that's not related to the task at hand. But in Washington, that just seems to be par for the course.

While everyone is entitled to a little vacation now and then, America's top legal officers should adhere to basic measures to increase accountability and restore the public's trust in government.

No leader will fight for values, for principles, if their government is a value-free vacuum. Moral relativism is morally wrong.

Teenagers who are never required to vacuum are living in one.

Barring some national security concern, I see no valid reason to keep peer-reviewed research from the public. To be clear, by 'peer review,' I mean scientific review and not a political filter.

There are certainly valid reasons for taking a company private, and it's also possible that C.E.O.s perform better when monitored by a small number of owners in a private company rather than by the dispersed and often uninterested shareholders of a public corporation.

Ignorance of the law is not a valid excuse for accused criminals, and it cannot be an excuse for members of Congress.

I think most athletes want to be told when they make a mistake. They don't want to be coddled. They can deal with criticism, especially when it's valid.

I'm angry that the private sector, which is supposed to be in charge of running gasoline into the Valley, doesn't have its act together to deal with a critical situation, so now the public sector has to step in.

In Silicon Valley, when you're a private company, the entrepreneur can do no wrong.

Like Hollywood, Washington, and New York City, Silicon Valley is in a moral crisis after a litany of revelations about predatory behavior by powerful men.

It's been said that members of Congress love receiving pats on the back weekdays in Washington, D.C., but they would benefit greatly from going home regularly to receive valuable slaps on the back of the head in their districts.

The extravagant expenditure of public money is an evil not to be measured by the value of that money to the people who are taxed for it.

I come to work every day thinking I have to earn my job, and I really believe that. I don't have a given right to my job; I need to prove my value in my role every single day.

It is hard to speak the truth about valued national institutions. But when they are not fit for purpose, we must speak out.

I stopped living according to my core values. I knew what I was doing was wrong but thought only about myself and thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to.

Our core values and business ethics will always be paramount in all that we do, and we are always looking to do the right thing and settle claims fairly and accurately.

A great work ethic isn't about working whenever you're called upon. It's about doing what you say you're going to do, putting in a fair day's work, respecting the work, respecting the customer, respecting coworkers, not wasting time, not creating unnecessary work for other people, and not being a bottleneck. Work ethic is about being a fundamentally good person that others can count on and enjoy working with.

Don't let yourself off the hook with excuses.

When you treat people like children, you get children's work.

You nearly killed eight people! I managed to gasp out loud. My count was closer to twelve, returned Havisham as she opened the door. And anyhow, you can't nearly kill someone. Either they are dead or they are not.

2.3.06.02.087: Unnecessary sharpening of pencils constitutes a waste of public resources, and will be punished as appropriate.