Marking International Anti-corruption Day 2016

9 December 2016 – Today is the International Anti-Corruption Day, with UNODC and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) calling for people across the globe to join a worldwide campaign to raise awareness about corruption and encouraging people from all walks of life to take action against this crime. The slogan ‘United against corruption, for development, peace and security’ urges Governments, the private sector, and the general public to jointly tackle this issue by changing their attitudes and taking action against the problem.

The campaign focuses on how corruption is an impediment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to promote safe societies, end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all, among others.

Corruption affects all parts of society, including government, religious institutions, businesses, charities and the media. Today 9 December 2016, International Anti-corruption Day is a good opportunity not only to denounce dishonesty but also to take positive action.#UnitedAgainstCorruption

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Lawlessness in PGCPS Sasscer.

An increasing number of people believe that we owe it to future generations of people not to undermine the quality of the community’s life. When asked how we are accountable for the moral duties of our descendants, the plain answer is that they are people. Persons have human worth and rights. Our actions and decisions, if not made in good faith, undermine their opportunities for fulfilling lives – whether they live today or tomorrow.

We believe this common sense view is correct.

After the passage of HB 1107 by the General Assembly which was signed into law by Governor O’Malley early last month and goes into effect on June 1, 2013, we want to encourage everyone to join forces here in PG County to support members of the Prince George’s County House and Senate Delegations for delivering incredible legislative success for residents of the County. They did this for sake of the future generations. Prince George’s County was not given to you by your parents; it was loaned to you by your children… let us take care of it for them.

Any choices that exclude Verjeana Jacobs and her husband David as a leader in Prince George’s County Public schools (PGCPS) is a tremendous advantage for our children. The proposal giving additional power will enable Mr. Baker to exercise much needed and long overdue exercise of authority. PGCPS desperately needs this overall and drastic change in direction and Modus operandi. We cannot afford to continue with the present dubious set up which allows the school Board to act disingenuously and with malice. Verjeana Jacobs and company are wasting and maundering people’s time. Their small little games are a distraction to the community, all the time pretending to ‘love to educate’ the children.  The cartel which includes hustlers and con artists, to the ninth degree, parading in the PGCPS solely for the purpose of ‘taking’ money is a disgrace to the human race. The league not only includes PGCPS legal department, Ms. Verjeana Jacobs, Labor relations led by Mr. James Whattam et al but also communications Director. It is a gang of masquerades with nefarious, insidious and capricious intend.  They have perpetrated, air brand rip off schemes unabated for decades clandestinely including a ‘bonanza’ of arrays which includes the PGCPS unions.

The co-opting of the unions into unholy alliance has been severe to the detriment of our students, hardworking staff and families of PG County. The election and elevation of Mr. Baker with enhanced powers is a welcome recipe to an othinus smudging of unending horror show on PGCPS street with the current Board chairperson Ms. Verjeana Jacobs in a starring role as Freddie with popcorn. Unfortunately in our scenario, there is no intermission. Our only hope is on Mr. Baker supported by others to help put an end to the fiasco and bad acting. It is our hope that he will put an end to this unholy alliance

For the most part, PGCPS administration is racist, they like engagement of conmanship, gerrymandering and plain professional misconduct, including nepotism and corruption in conspiracy with others.

Above all, they are willful violators of everything under the sun. Their history, whether on or off the record, demonstrates, if not imputes, incompetent. They do not abide by contracts, laws, rules, etc. They are constantly being sued for egregious violations. Don’t believe us?

http://therealprincegeorges.wordpress.com/2011/11/…

http://pgcares.newsvine.com/_news/2012/11/12/15123…

http://pgcpsmess.wordpress.com/tag/100-million/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y834d8c6ZA

The trivial pursuits and cheer foolishness engaged in by the Board of Education in hybrid situation with the PGCPS Unions, bogs the mind. This set of unethical behavior engaged by the Board of education for Prince George’s County is hurting the taxpayers of Prince George’s County and our poor children. There is something completely rotten about the state of PGCPS. While doing anything but work at their desks, the Board of Ed. admin staff reads the newspaper, novels or plays on their cell phones. Others are selling real estate, meat, jewelry etc. without consequences.  Every now and then, you have bus drivers who appear drunk and sometimes sleeping on the bus. Nevertheless, to implement proper and effective change, We must begin this one at Sasscer. The main rot starts at Sasscer administrative building in Upper Marlboro and trickles down to schools, Bus lots and the Unions. The epicenter of the PGCPS corruption is currently rotating around legal and labor relations departments at Sasscer Adminstartive Building. Something needs to be done to change things for the better. No organization has ever thrived on lawlessness forever.

The Communication Director Mr. Brian Coleman handles school District matters as his own. He plays favorites and does not like County Executive Baker, the Washington post and others who try to expose the situation. (PGCPSLies). He should be the first one to go for unshamely hiding the corruption and for using the school system email to advance his own sick agenda. (See here). The employee should not have used the school system email. This is a clear example of shameful, abuse of authority and willful neglect of duty in order to undermine the government.

The so called Elected School Board, on its own, is a joke.  We all know that and so does Mr. Baker, Governor O’ Malley, the State of MD Courts, etc.

Corruption always starts at the top. The fish always rots first in the head and smells the worst. Remember the last bad fish we had and now causing problems elsewhere? Name the last good superintendent? How many high ranking directors have been caught doing something illegal or sued for civil issues or discrimination? All of this is hush hush.

All in all, the system is broken from the ground up. Our question to you is: “why would anyone highly qualified that is in their right mind want to teach in PGCPS when they can get a job in neighboring counties that have better resources and prospects in every aspect?” We must at least fix the issues identified in our blogs first in order to create a stable enabling environment for a better future for our kids.

Our work lies with those of us who are raising the next generation. It lies in teaching our sons and daughters to become liberated, respectful adults who know that bad leaders who willfully break the law and practice corruption are making a choice, and will be punished.

Barely ten (10) years ago, we could not have imagined thousands of people endorsing a fight against corruption in PG County, let alone Maryland General Assembly voting to make changes swiftly as we have seen these past few weeks, indeed, it has been a major breakthrough. And yet, there is still work to be done. These elaborate systems have taken generations to flourish and allow manipulation to become patriarchy, caste and social and sexual inequality that allow abuse to flourish. But unlike the weather, discrimination is not a byproduct of climate change. It can can be fixed. We need to shelve all the gibberish about status and virtue and “it’s a democratic right to be racist, discriminatory and practice corruption and so forth.” We need to put responsibility where it lies: on men and women who violate the law willfully and on all of us who let them get away with it while we point accusing fingers at their victims.

With respect for the humanity in all persons, they would surely have avoided endangering the conditions of a truly human life for any person, – future or present. By falling short of this moral ideal, we fail in our moral duty to future generations, regardless of who they will be. Since these are moral duties of justice, our breach of them now infringes rights they will eventually acquire.

We conclude that we ought to persist in our common sense view that we do have a moral responsibility to the future generations, and that unless we change our ways, we infringe their moral rights. The PGCPS status quo of continuous unabated corruption, conmanship, gerrymandering and professional misconduct etc. is not the answer! It is up to each one of us to tirelessly strive to save the future for our kids and create peaceful neighborhoods. This is the wakeup call against the status quo. It is not going to be business as usual. It is Mr. Baker’s time with the support of our elected representatives in Annapolis Maryland.

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“The freedoms which democracy brings will remain empty shells if they are not accompanied by real & tangible improvements”  ~ Nelson Mandela

PGCPS Television schedule of Board meetings.

Change needed in PGCPS Office of Communications.

Educational institutions, like all other organizations, require constant monitoring to identify areas for potential improvement. However, educational reforms are often not well implemented in Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS). This results in massive wastage of finances, human resources, and lost potential.

Change may be described as the adoption of an innovation (Carlopio 1998, 2), where the ultimate goal is to improve outcomes through an alteration of practices. However, the process of change is complex, with many different types of change possible. Further, there are a number of differing strategies for implementing these changes, with the success of implementation being highly variable.

Factors that drive change may be internal or external to the environment (Yee, 1998), innovations may be initiated at any level in the organizational structure (Swenson 1997) and reforms may be systemic or local in nature. (Reigeluth 1994).

In this note, we wanted to share this email thread from the Board of Education of Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS). A request for the program schedule of shows on the school television station was twisted to bullying by the Communications Director. Subsequently, the Director embedded “stop bullying banner” on the school District website creating a negative effect within the entire school system. We have had other interactions with the County employees and the complaints are the same in that, whenever a “tax payer” calls, the telephone is slammed down or sometimes called names.

It is shameful that the level of leadership exhibited with the department and the school District system is shameful. We deserve better services. The level of customer service is lacking. Senior staff from the communications department continues to be rude and driven by malice and revenge rather than professionalism. However, we wanted you to read the attached thread and we will let you be the judge. The system’s intent on this is clear. Read more ~~> (PGCPS Communications Department)

(Mr. Briant K. Coleman pictured 2nd from left facing down)

BULLYING CUSTOMERS BY PGCPS MANAGEMENT

The purpose of bullying is to hide inadequacy. Bullying has nothing to do with managing etc.; good managers manage, bad managers bully. Management is managing; bullying is not managing. Therefore, anyone who chooses to bully is admitting their inadequacy, and the extent to which a person bullies is a measure of their inadequacy. Bullies project their inadequacy on to others because of the following:

• a) to avoid facing up to their inadequacy and doing something about it;
• b) to avoid accepting responsibility for their behavior and the effect it has on others, and,
• c) to reduce their fear of being seen for what they are, namely a weak, inadequate and often incompetent individuals, and,
• d) to divert attention away from their inadequacy – in an insecure or badly-managed workplace, this is how inadequate, incompetent and aggressive employees keep their jobs.

Bullying is an inefficient way of working, resulting in disenchantment, demoralization, demotivation, disaffection, and alienation. Bullies run dysfunctional and inefficient organizations; staff turnover and sickness absence are high whilst morale, productivity and profitability are low. Prosperity is illusory and such organizations are a bad long-term investment. Projection and denial are hallmarks of the serial bully.

Bullying is present behind all forms of harassment, discrimination, prejudice, abuse, persecution, conflict and violence. When the bullying has a focus (eg race or gender) it is expressed as racial prejudice or harassment, or sexual discrimination and harassment, and so on. When the bullying lacks a focus (or the bully is aware of the Sex Discrimination Act or the Race Relations Act), it comes out as pure bullying; this is an opportunity to understand the behaviors which underlie almost all reprehensible behavior.

A bully is a person who

• has never learned to accept responsibility for their behavior
• Wants to enjoy the benefits of living in the adult world, but who is unable and unwilling to accept the responsibilities that are a prerequisite for being part of the adult world.
• abdicates and denies responsibility for their behavior and its consequences (abdication and denial are common features of bullying)
• is unable and unwilling to recognize the effect of their behavior on others
• does not want to know of any other way of behaving
• is unwilling to recognize that there could be better ways of behaving.

THE NEED FOR CHANGE

Both internal and external forces drive the need for change. Referring to “change drivers”, large scale forces that produce complex change, notes that “globalisation” of society has produced an imperative for continual reappraisal of practices in order to maintain a competitive edge. In educational terms, this may be interpreted as the need to update practices in keeping with the findings of international research, and to continually conform to national trends.

Internal to the school are the pressures brought to bear by curricular reform. Further, alterations in staff-student relationships from teacher-centered to student-centered create the need for modification of teaching practices, and policies and procedures to support more meaningful educational experiences. All these interactions require good customer services. Good customer service includes the following;

1. You are in business to service customer needs, and you can only do that if you know what your customers want.
2. Be a good listener. Take the time to identify customer needs by asking questions and concentrating on what the customer is really saying. Listen to their words, tone of voice, body language, and most importantly, how they feel.
3. Identify and anticipate needs. Customers don’t buy products or services. They buy good feelings and solutions to problems. Most customer needs are emotional rather than logical.
4. Make customers feel important and appreciated. Treat them as individuals. Always use their name and find ways to compliment them, but be sincere. People value sincerity. It creates good feeling and trust.
5. Help customers understand your systems. Your organization may have the world’s best systems for getting things done, but if customers don’t understand them, they can get confused, impatient and angry. Take time to explain how your systems work and how they simplify transactions.
6. Appreciate the power of “Yes”. Always look for ways to help your customers. When they have a request (as long as it is reasonable) tell them that you can do it. Figure out how afterwards.
7. Know how to apologize. When something goes wrong, apologize. It’s easy and customers like it. The customer may not always be right, but the customer must always win. Deal with problems immediately and let customers know what you have done. Make it simple for customers to complain. Value their complaints. As much as we dislike it, it gives us an opportunity to improve. Even if customers are having a bad day, go out of your way to make them feel comfortable.
8. Give more than expected. Since the future of all companies lies in keeping customers happy, think of ways to elevate yourself above the competition. Consider the following:

• What can you give customers that they cannot get elsewhere?
• What can you do to follow-up and thank people even when they don’t buy?
• What can you give customers that is totally unexpected?

9. Get regular feedback. Encourage and welcome suggestions about how you could improve. There are several ways in which you can find out what  customers think and feel about your services.

• Listen carefully to what they say.
• Check back regularly to see how things are going.
• Provide a method that invites constructive criticism, comments and suggestions.

10. Treat employees well. Employees are your internal customers and need a regular dose of appreciation. Thank them and find ways to let them know how important they are. Treat your employees with respect and chances are they will have a higher regard for customers. Appreciation stems from the top. Treating customers and employees well is equally important.

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