He has a reputation for being the archetypal senior civil servant professional, unflappable, and, above all, discreet.
But Sir Gus O’Donnell risked sparking a transatlantic tiff today with an imprudent remark about Downing Street’s relations with the White House.
The head of the civil service, Sir Gus said the handover to President Barack Obama’s administration was severely hindering preparations for next month’s G20 summit.
In an extraordinary blunder, the usually-guarded Sir Gus said no-one in the U.S. Treasury department was answering telephone calls.
He said it meant the Government was finding it ‘unbelievably difficult’ to hold discussions ahead of the meeting of world leaders in London.
Well gee, we can’t expect poor overburdened Geithner to do everything!
And while much ado has been made about the jobs Geithner has yet to fill, check out the list of jobs at Treasury Obama has yet to nominate anyone for:
- Deputy Secretary
- Under Secretary — Domestic Finance
- Under Secretary — International Affairs
- Under Secretary — Terrorism and Financial Intelligence
- Assistant Secretary — Economic Policy
- Assistant Secretary — Financial Markets
- Assistant Secretary (Deputy Under Secretary) — International Affairs
- Assistant Secretary (Deputy Under Secretary) — Legislative Affairs
- Assistant Secretary — Management and Chief Financial Officer
- Assistant Secretary — Public Affairs/Director — Policy Planning
- Assistant Secretary — Tax Policy
- Chief Counsel — Internal Revenue Service/Assistant General Counsel for Tax
- Commissioner — Internal Revenue (five-year terms of office)
- General Counsel
- Inspector General
- Inspector General — Tax Administration
- Treasurer — United States
Those are all positions that require a nominee from Obama and a vetting by the Senate Finance Committee. But I guess nominating people to fill those very important positions is another one of those things he’s just too tired and overwhelmed to do. I mean, it’s not like we need a staffed Treasury department right now or anything.
I ask again; when is Obama going to start taking this job seriously?
