It's the data stupid

When I first came to the Dept. of Agriculture I was given a report to fix up;it was about 20 pages long.It was full of style and grammar mistakes  but the numbers appeared to be about correct.I at first thought that a rewrite would only take about two months.After I rewrote it twice I realized that it now made little sense.The story did not flow any more.I rewrote it a third time and was required to show it to the director-general.He saw the improvements and asked if I was almost done.I told him that I had to just check the numbers and I might be finished by another two months.I started to check the numbers and found quite a few mistakes.I asked the director-general if I could build a database and then pull the numbers out when I needed them.The director -general was quite interested and asked what I needed.I needed five clerks doing overtime for quite a few weeks.He agreed and started building my computerized database and then I realized that all the numbers in the original report were approximate and not exact.Many conclusions were incorrect because the numbers were incorrect.After the database was almost complete I started to get calls from director-generals in the regions ;they were pleased and had questions .After the database was improved and completed the phone calls started to fall off.Then I also found that I needed special data and had to go through my acting deputy minister            to get it.He decided to be very formal and make a request to the Chief Statistician.I was told they would have to create a new statistic or two and would not do it unless I spent a week at Stats.Can seeing how it was done .I agreed and they did it.Now the Agriculture database was looking very good with lots of new users.I pulled out some new numbers and did the last rewrite of the report.That's when my director evaluated my report and found it to be unsatisfactory.Althought the director-general had specifically told him not to,he went ahead.The director-general told me that he would override any phony evaluation I got but he was on a trip for a month and not available.The director in his evaluation never even mentioned the new Agriculture database because he didn't even use it.