It’s almost like the leaders of those organizations were incompetent.

Such simple statistics and data gathering should be simple for a federal organization.

or its almost like gathering that data is not simple...

> Such simple statistics and data gathering [...]

Simple?! "Sweet summer child..."

On a more serious note, how would one ensure that a government department be sufficiently independent that it can publish data (implicitly) critical of its own political leaders without fear of retribution?

Answers on a postcard, please...