Management

For the most part, the management section of the budget reflects a continued commitment to initiatives initially detailed in last year’s budget:

“Building a government that works smarter, better, and more efficiently to deliver results for the American people is a cornerstone of the President’s Accountable Government Initiative and a key focus of this Administration.”

Cutting edge technology and innovation is more important today than ever before, as NASA develops missions of increasing complexity to understand the Earth, our solar system, and the universe. We spoke with Dr. Bobby Braun, Chief Technologist at NASA, who was a guest on The Business of Government Hour about NASA’s space technology program, its focus on research and development, forging disruptive innovation, and making a difference for the future. I share with you some of his insights from our conversation. 

Trump teams begin meeting with federal agencies. President-elect Donald Trump has begun to deploy transition teams in three waves to meet with federal agencies.

The mission of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was borne from the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address: to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan.

The Veterans Health Administration embodies that promise of a grateful nation -- providing quality health care that Veterans have earned through their service and sacrifices. Although the covenant with Veterans is immutable, healthcare evolves and so must VHA.

The reform, popularly named LOLF after an August 1, 2001 constitutional amendment, defined a new architecture for the French state budget, articulated in terms of mission, programs and actions.   Unlike GPRA, it changes the entire budgetary process rather than adding results-oriented features to an otherwise unchanged process. 

From John Kamensky: 

Gov Exec: 2010 Census, after all the hoopla:  “On time and under budget” 

Gov Exec: Defense abandons insourcing efforts: “we weren’t seeing the savings we had hoped for.” 

As we have seen in recent years, there has been no shortage of national emergencies—ranging from oil spills to hurricanes to the threat of a pandemic virus.  Having an effective supply chain has become critical in effectively respo

John Kamensky

Blog Co-Author: Haynes Cooney Senior Managing Consultant at IBM Global Business Services

If implemented effectively, these initiatives could result improved efficiency and effectiveness of the federal agencies, and smarter use of taxpayer dollars.

The management section outlines a series of ideas focused on the “what” and “how” of government.

Most “Government Performance Management Systems” suffer from serious conceptual flaws that have regularly proven to be fatal. For example, often there are no consequences for “good” or “bad” performance in government. Thus, even a good performance measurement system is a waste of time.  In addition, performance measurement systems in government lack: (a) upfront prioritization of goals and objectives; (b) upfront agreement on how to judge deviation from targets; and (c) focus on the whole of organization.

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