You Want Accountability? Let’s Start with Performance Management

Nicole Cathcart & Anna Lafferre

Like all proponents of performance management, Obama’s intention to appoint a Chief Performance Officer excited us. Seeing a performance management guru receive that C-level title reaffirmed what we’ve always known—smart performance information is essential to improving government performance and maximizing taxpayer investments. This Administration promised to be a beacon of transparency and performance, and we’ve been hearing from many agencies eager to get started. Now is the time for action, and we have a few essential requests to get this administration moving towards greater accountability.

First, appoint a Chief Performance Officer, already. We realize there were no clear alternates, but with a fast-moving $787 billion recovery act filled with mandates for performance measures and reporting on the table, we need someone in this position immediately. Obama told states to begin spending money as quickly as possible to stimulate the economy, but state managers are having trouble understanding the 400-page stimulus bill. Governors know they will be held accountable for how the money is spent, but they have been given no clear guidance on how they will be measured. Last week, Vice President Joe Biden told state leaders, “If six months from now, if the verdict on this effort is we’ve wasted money, we’ve built things that are unnecessary, we’ve done things that were legal but made no sense, then folks, don’t look for help from the federal government for a long while.” Sounds reasonable, except how will taxpayers know if money has been wasted or misappropriated without giving the states proper accountability guidelines? California, one of the states hardest hit by the recession, is counting on receiving $10 billion in stimulus aid to balance its budget, but right now they have no idea how much they’ll receive. “There’s mass confusion still at this stage,” Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted. We cannot afford to spend this money without accountability.

Next, increase transparency. Although a great platform and idea, Recovery.gov will not be effective without agency reporting — which is not happening. The first agency reports were due to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Tuesday, March 3. Last week, we raised the banner of transparency again when it was reported that numerous agencies failed to return calls for comment on the status of their ARRA reports. Without leadership, OMB remains uncommunicative. When Government Executive contacted the OMB to ask for the results of the March 3 deadline, officials would not say how many agencies met the deadline for handing in their initial reports. There are too many examples of officials requiring closed-door sessions and declining speaking engagements. Transparency drives performance — the two are inseparable. Unfortunately, now it’s beginning to look like our problem isn’t lack of transparency so much as no one knows what’s going on—a troubling turn.

Finally, address the staff shortages facing the federal government for what they area — a critical barrier to implementing ARRA. Obama’s own administration spotlights the problems at The Treasury Department, an agency operating with barely any employees while tasked with many key responsibilities, including disseminating stimulus money. Earlier this month, Paul Volcker, head of Obama’s Economic Advisory Board, stated, “The secretary of the Treasury is sitting there without a deputy, without any undersecretaries, without any, as far as I know, assistant secretaries responsible in substantive areas at a time of very severe crisis.” We are on a path to ineffective spending, and we cannot continue to spend radically without performance standards and reporting. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must extend innovative options to agencies for addressing these workforce gaps. Sharing innovations in rehiring retirees and how to gain direct hire authority should be at the top of the priority list.

And here’s a request to Congress: Get more involved in performance management. Like buying a car when you’re not sure it runs, the disconnect between appropriations and program performance makes no sense. Congress needs their own body, a Congressional Performance Management Office, to issue recommendations based on agency performance reports.

It’s been a tough few months for Obama, and the pace will not slow any time soon. Creating a strategy for improving our economy represented a challenge for any administration, let alone for an administration in its first 100 days. However, without the tools and the workforce for proper execution of ARRA, the Act will not succeed in its goals, and our nation will face even greater challenges in recovering from this economic crisis.

InnoGov wants to know what you think—what do you think are the key first steps in creating a more accountable government in light of ARRA?

Nicole Cathcart is a Senior Manager at The Performance Institute. Anna Lafferre is the Program Director for Government Performance Management at The Performance Institute.

Posted in Performance Wire

Show Me the Money

by Anna Lafferre

Most of us work hard for our money and we like to know exactly where it’s going. If we think we have $100 unaccounted for in our bank balances, we’re going to find out where it went. Imagine losing $787 billion; you’d certainly want to know what happened to it.

$787 billion dollars. That is a sum of money that most of us can’t begin to fathom – what it looks like, what it could buy, how fast it could be spent. Although it’s hard to picture how much $787 billion really is, we do know one thing – it’s a lot of money. More importantly, $787 billion has become a significant number to all of us since it’s the total amount allocated for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

That money is coming directly from taxpayers – our hard-earned cash – and President Barack Obama took measures to ensure those receiving the funds would be transparent to taxpayers on how the money is spent. He created Recovery.gov where citizens can track spending and mandated that agencies receiving funds are required to submit updates on stimulus activities to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The first updates were due Tuesday, March 3. Government Executive magazine contacted the OMB to obtain the results. Shockingly, they came up with very little. Government Executive reports that OMB officials would not say how many agencies met the Tuesday deadline for handing in their initial reports, and numerous agencies failed to return calls for comment.

It is an understatement to say that it is clearly not a good step in the right direction if agencies that control billions of taxpayer dollars can’t be bothered to return calls to update taxpayers on how their money is being spent. What is more worrisome is that these reports are what the OMB and Congress are using for oversight.

“The weekly report will become the basis by which OMB, the White House and Congress conduct oversight responsibilities with regard to the agencies,” said Tom Gavin, OMB spokesman.

From March 3 to May 12, agencies are required to submit weekly reports on stimulus spending; after May 12, they are required to only submit monthly reports. It is imperative that these agencies are accountable and transparent on their stimulus spending, and they can be assured of one thing: taxpayers are definitely watching to see where the $787 billion loss in their bank balance is going.

Posted in Performance Wire

Fixing the Nation’s “Broken System”

by Anna Lafferre

Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard President Barack Obama talk a lot about government transparency and accountability. Building on his campaign promises, Obama created a website where Americans could track recovery act spending, began a White House blog and opened up his websites to comments from citizens.

This morning Obama took steps to act on another of his campaign promises – cutting wasteful spending. In a speech at the Old Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House, Obama outlined steps to reform what he called the United States’ “broken system” of government contracting. First, he instructed Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag to work with cabinet officials and agency heads to develop new contracting guidelines by the end of September. He also pledged to stop outsourcing services that should be performed by the government and open up the contracting processes to small business. He plans to stop no-bid and cost-plus contracts that “run up a bill paid by the American people.” Finally he reinforced his pledge to strengthen oversight to maximize transparency and accountability. He believes these reforms will save Americans up to $40 billion each year.

These announcements followed last week’s White House meeting on the nation’s financial future where officials and lawmakers informed Obama aides that the contracting process had to be handled in a better way. Obama agreed, stating this morning that part of his deficit-reduction plans include reforms in how government does business.

Obama explained that over the past eight years, government spending on contracts has doubled to over $500 billion. He believes that massive cost overruns, fraud and the absence of oversight and accountability are to blame.

“There is a fundamental public trust that we must uphold. The American people’s money must be spent to advance their priorities, not to line the pockets of contractors or to maintain projects that don’t work,” Obama said. “Recently, that public trust has not always been kept.”

Posted in Performance Wire

Treasury Department Lacking Many Critical Employees

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geitner has been tasked with many duties, including disseminating stimulus money. With so many tasks assigned to the Department, it is surprising that the Treasury is operating with barely any employees

Here is the link: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/05/treasury-big-plans-able-execute/

Posted in Performance Wire