David Perera
GAO Walker: Replace fed structure
Wed Feb 23, 2005 22:29
64.140.158.63
Walker: Replace fed structure
BY David Perera
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2005/0214/web-walker-02-17-05.asp
Looming record federal deficits and entitlement spending that outstrips rates of economic growth requires Congress to fundamentally rethink how government operates, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Today's federal structure, with organizational fractures among departments and duplication of efforts across agencies, should be replaced with an integrated government, said David Walker, U.S. comptroller general.
"We have to get better visibility horizontally," Walker said during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing meant to highlight a new GAO report on government transformation. "We've been adding layers and layering with the presumption that the base is okay. Not only is it not okay, it's unsustainable."
Missing in government today is a push to ask basic questions such as, "How many players do we have on the field? What are they doing? Why do we need this many?" he said.
Some of the existing efforts to make government more accountable have not gone far enough, Walker said. The federal government "lacks a governmentwide strategic plan" to rectify a fragmented structure, the GAO report states. The Office of Management and Budget's Program Assessment Rating Tool, which agencies use to submit program efficiency ratings to OMB, "is a step in the right direction, but by no means is it perfect," he said.
Bush administration efforts at reducing redundancy across the federal departments do not communicate sufficiently with those affected, Walker said. "Their consultation with key stakeholders has not always been very effective," he said.
Partnering with those parties would improve the chances of success, Walker said.
Neither the executive nor legislative branch is well-positioned to carry out the sweeping reforms needed, he said. "Realistically, the executive branch is probably going to change before the Congress, but ultimately I think the Congress is going to have to change in some ways as well," Walker said.
Senators at the hearing concurred that change in Washington, D.C., is needed. "The federal government as we know it today is not sustainable in the long run," said Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) , the Senate committee's ranking Democrat.
Following the hearing, Walker said federal enterprise architecture efforts could facilitate a horizontal review of government functions. "Obviously, enterprise architecture is an important part in being able to exchange information and innovate that information," he said. However, he said, the purpose of enterprise architecture is "to figure out which type of information systems we need, how to integrate those," a view federal architects have been attempting to break.
"Enterprise architecture has been viewed as a roadmap for information technology consolidation, and that's not true," said Norm Lorentz, former OMB chief technology officer. "Enterprise architecture should be used as an analysis tool to determine the redundancy in line of business process, and that's not just technology, but also process management and human capital."
GAO, in the federal enterprise architecture field, has focused on maturing agency architectures rather than measuring their business effectiveness, Lorentz added. GAO officials are in the process of developing new metrics to address that gap.
=============
21st Century Challenges: Reexamining the Base of the Federal Government
This report (GAO-05-325SP) is intended to help the Congress in reviewing and reconsidering the base of federal spending and tax programs.
Absent significant changes on the spending and/or revenue sides of the federal budget, long term deficits will encumber a growing share of federal resources and test the capacity of current and future generations to afford both today's and tomorrow's commitments. Continuing on this unsustainable path will gradually erode, if not suddenly damage, our economy, our standard of living and ultimately our national security. Incremental approaches to budgeting will need to give way to more fundamental and periodic reexaminations of the base of government, ultimately covering discretionary and mandatory programs as well as the revenue side of the budget.
Having identified the major fiscal challenge facing the nation, and given our role in supporting the Congress, we believe that GAO also has an obligation to provide policymakers with support in identifying issues and options that could help to address these fiscal pressures. In this report, we draw on our past and pending work-about 90 percent of which is either requested by the Congress or required by law-- to provide policy makers with examples of the kinds of hard choices stemming from these challenges in the form of questions for elected officials and other policy makers to consider.
CLICK FULL REPORT:
http://www.gao.gov/21stcentury.html
=================================
Where Do We Go From Here?
http://www.gao.gov/challenges/where.pdf
IT'S TIME WE ALL GET ON THE SAME PAGE!!!
=============================================
Data Posted Pursuant to the No Fear Act
Section 301 of the Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (the No Fear Act) requires federal agencies to post summary statistical data pertaining to complaints of employment discrimination filed against it by employees, former employees, and applicants for employment under 29 C.F.R Part 1614. The specific data to be posted is described in section 301(b) of the Act and 29 CFR 1614.704. The summary statistical data for EEO complaints filed against GAO is available below.
GAO Internal Complaint Activity
http://www.gao.gov/about/nofear.html
BY David Perera
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2005/0214/web-walker-02-17-05.asp
Looming record federal deficits and entitlement spending that outstrips rates of economic growth requires Congress to fundamentally rethink how government operates, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Today's federal structure, with organizational fractures among departments and duplication of efforts across agencies, should be replaced with an integrated government, said David Walker, U.S. comptroller general.
"We have to get better visibility horizontally," Walker said during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing meant to highlight a new GAO report on government transformation. "We've been adding layers and layering with the presumption that the base is okay. Not only is it not okay, it's unsustainable."
Missing in government today is a push to ask basic questions such as, "How many players do we have on the field? What are they doing? Why do we need this many?" he said.
Some of the existing efforts to make government more accountable have not gone far enough, Walker said. The federal government "lacks a governmentwide strategic plan" to rectify a fragmented structure, the GAO report states. The Office of Management and Budget's Program Assessment Rating Tool, which agencies use to submit program efficiency ratings to OMB, "is a step in the right direction, but by no means is it perfect," he said.
Bush administration efforts at reducing redundancy across the federal departments do not communicate sufficiently with those affected, Walker said. "Their consultation with key stakeholders has not always been very effective," he said.
Partnering with those parties would improve the chances of success, Walker said.
Neither the executive nor legislative branch is well-positioned to carry out the sweeping reforms needed, he said. "Realistically, the executive branch is probably going to change before the Congress, but ultimately I think the Congress is going to have to change in some ways as well," Walker said.
Senators at the hearing concurred that change in Washington, D.C., is needed. "The federal government as we know it today is not sustainable in the long run," said Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) , the Senate committee's ranking Democrat.
Following the hearing, Walker said federal enterprise architecture efforts could facilitate a horizontal review of government functions. "Obviously, enterprise architecture is an important part in being able to exchange information and innovate that information," he said. However, he said, the purpose of enterprise architecture is "to figure out which type of information systems we need, how to integrate those," a view federal architects have been attempting to break.
"Enterprise architecture has been viewed as a roadmap for information technology consolidation, and that's not true," said Norm Lorentz, former OMB chief technology officer. "Enterprise architecture should be used as an analysis tool to determine the redundancy in line of business process, and that's not just technology, but also process management and human capital."
GAO, in the federal enterprise architecture field, has focused on maturing agency architectures rather than measuring their business effectiveness, Lorentz added. GAO officials are in the process of developing new metrics to address that gap.
=============
21st Century Challenges: Reexamining the Base of the Federal Government
This report (GAO-05-325SP) is intended to help the Congress in reviewing and reconsidering the base of federal spending and tax programs.
Absent significant changes on the spending and/or revenue sides of the federal budget, long term deficits will encumber a growing share of federal resources and test the capacity of current and future generations to afford both today's and tomorrow's commitments. Continuing on this unsustainable path will gradually erode, if not suddenly damage, our economy, our standard of living and ultimately our national security. Incremental approaches to budgeting will need to give way to more fundamental and periodic reexaminations of the base of government, ultimately covering discretionary and mandatory programs as well as the revenue side of the budget.
Having identified the major fiscal challenge facing the nation, and given our role in supporting the Congress, we believe that GAO also has an obligation to provide policymakers with support in identifying issues and options that could help to address these fiscal pressures. In this report, we draw on our past and pending work-about 90 percent of which is either requested by the Congress or required by law-- to provide policy makers with examples of the kinds of hard choices stemming from these challenges in the form of questions for elected officials and other policy makers to consider.
CLICK FULL REPORT:
http://www.gao.gov/21stcentury.html
=================================
Where Do We Go From Here?
http://www.gao.gov/challenges/where.pdf
IT'S TIME WE ALL GET ON THE SAME PAGE!!!
=============================================
Data Posted Pursuant to the No Fear Act
Section 301 of the Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (the No Fear Act) requires federal agencies to post summary statistical data pertaining to complaints of employment discrimination filed against it by employees, former employees, and applicants for employment under 29 C.F.R Part 1614. The specific data to be posted is described in section 301(b) of the Act and 29 CFR 1614.704. The summary statistical data for EEO complaints filed against GAO is available below.
GAO Internal Complaint Activity
http://www.gao.gov/about/nofear.html
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