Page 9: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (Q3 2011)

www.maritimeprofessional.com Maritime Professional 9 quickly fill vacancies so that our stan- dard of service is maintained. One ofmy priorities for the NMC is to fill our vacancies as fast as possible, within our established agency guidelines for hiring and contracting, with the best-qualified personnel available. Rapidly filling vacancies results in lower application processing time, reduced inventory, and improved customer service as it relates to medical applications. There is still room for improvement in mariner med- ical evaluations and I and my staff at NMC are taking action to address cus-tomer concerns. Another area of pro- gressive improvement is the Coast Guard?s recently completed conversion of all safety and suitability and profes-sional-qualification evaluators from contractor to permanent GeneralSchedule (Federal) employees. This effort culminated after many months and was a necessary step to stabilize and retain a highly dedicated andtrained workforce. This effort culminat- ed after many months of hard work and helped stabilize our workforce with individuals who can approve creden- tials and make decisions in more rapid fashion. These delegations will improve MP #3 (1-17):MP Layouts 8/17/2011 8:23 PM Page 9