You Want Accountability? Let’s Start with Performance Management
By 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.
The Performance Institute 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.