Who needs consistency?

Ok, so I have a new job, but it is with the same agency, same management area, same general research area. You would think I would know better then to expect consistent policy and procedures, but nope. I finally wrapped up a paper that began before Katrina and assumed that the procedure for reviewing a paper would be the same at the new job as the old job....wrong. Believe it or not it is actually more beaucratic.
You see, at the old position you wrote a paper and had 3 colleagues review it, 2 of the colleagues should work for the agency and the third should be from outside the agency. Turn in the paper, with the reviews and any revisions they suggested, to the unit secretary and it gets approved by the Research Leader....done. The new job is to turn in to the Research Leader formatted according to the journal's requirements, yet it should be double spaced even if the journal does not want that. Oh yeah, this should be a hard copy, not electronic (beats me why). Three reviewers are suggested, but two are all that is needed. They should all be from outside the lab but at least one within the agency and one outside the agency. I don't send the papers out for review, the secretary will send them out with a cover letter from the research leader who must pre-approve the reviewers. A formal response to each reviewer's comments must be written up. Then it is all submitted, again in print, to the Research Leader again. Only then will it be approved to be sent out.

This should be fun.....I love beaucracy!