The report is based on a year of observations and interviews by Donovan. Here's a taste of some of the bang-your-head-against-the-wall dysfunction that her muck-racking turned up, in her words:

"One case, brought to my attention by the Pension Rights Center's Boston Pension Counseling Project, concerned the widow of a plan participant who was notified by the Social Security Administration that she may be eligible for a survivor benefit from her now deceased husband's pension plan. PBGC was preparing to send a letter to the PRC attorney and the widow telling them that PBGC could not help because it had no records on the plan – yet we found the PBGC did have records showing the plan paid premiums to PBGC for 10 years.

"When the case was brought to my attention by the widow's attorney, I reached out to the Department of Labor (Labor) to find out if its collection of summary plan descriptions (SPDs), gathered under a now-expired disclosure obligation on plan sponsors, might contain the SPD for this plan and shed light on the possibility of a lump sum payment having been previously provided. Labor's collection did include this SPD, and the SPD described a plan that did not provide for lump sums, therefore it was not reasonable to assert that the applicant had likely already received the benefit. My involvement in this case lasted several months – discussions between PBGC and the widow and her attorney lasted four years.

"Furthermore, with respect to the assets of the defined benefit plan, I learned from my own research that the sponsor had re-invented this company in other corporate forms which offered defined contribution plans, but there was no trace of the assets from the defined benefit plan that covered the widow's husband. In fact, the owners of the company were themselves just exiting bankruptcy unbeknownst to PBGC, (which) was shocked to find that they had missed an opportunity to safeguard the assets of all the other defined benefit participants, while they were denying a survivor benefit to this one widow."

There are other similar accounts in Donovan's report. At the same time, she repeatedly strikes hopeful notes about good intentions and better days head for the agency.

I wouldn't count on it.

Instead, what we should hope to see is a thorough investigation by Congress and its watchdogs, for when widows and children are made to suffer because of gross government ineptitude, if not deliberate misfeasance, it's only fair to expect heads to roll.