Sheila Conley: Enterprise risk management properly implemented could strengthen decision making

Sheila Conley, deputy assistant secretary and deputy chief financial officer at the Department of Health and Human Services, is one of 50 new fellows for the National Academy of Public Administration.

How will you use your NAPA fellowship to promote/influence good government?

NAPA provides a unique opportunity to engage with a wide range of fellows, who are knowledgeable and experienced in government management and policy matters.

I am looking forward to tapping into the collective expertise and wisdom of the fellows to help inform and advance the business portfolio at HHS while also participating in efforts to address pressing governmentwide issues, such as reducing improper payments and enhancing program integrity.  It is more important than ever to champion good government initiatives and best practices, many of which can be gleaned from NAPA reports and studies.

What do you think is the most important change the government needs to make in the next 5 years?

Enterprise risk management (ERM) is an emerging discipline in the federal government that, if properly implemented could strengthen agency decision-making, performance and ability to accomplish mission goals.  ERM challenges agencies to develop a risk aware culture, identify and prioritize enterprise risks and establish a risk appetite to help align agency resources with areas of greatest risk.  Successful ERM implementation requires changes in organizational culture, behaviors and attitudes about risk at every level of the agency. While it is critical for ERM to be endorsed by agency officials “setting the tone at the top,” it is also important to assess the “mood in the middle” and “buzz at the base” of the organization to develop a sustainable program that aligns with the agency’s culture.  Depending on an organization’s willingness and ability to enhance ERM, it could take five years or more to achieve the many benefits of a successful ERM program. 

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Former interim IRS chief lands private sector gig

Danny Werfel, the interim IRS commissioner for much of 2013, has landed at the Boston Consulting Group, the firm announced Monday.

Werfel held down one of the more thankless positions in the federal government last year, working to put the IRS on firmer footing after the agency was rocked by controversy over the improper scrutiny given to Tea Party groups.

Werfel said he would explore private-sector opportunities when he left the IRS several months ago, after the Senate confirmed his replacement, John Koskinen.

-Bernie Becker, TheHill.com
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Shared Services Strategy from OMB and Treasury Previewed at AGA’s Third Annual Federal Financial Systems Summit

Over 400 government financial professionals gathered at AGA’s Federal Financial Systems Summit in Washington last week to learn about and to discuss the near-term and future prospects of Federal financial management and systems in a budget constrained environment. The summit provided for an open dialogue between federal agency stakeholders, private-sector sponsors and key policymakers from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) through town hall-style sessions where participants were encouraged to engage each other and openly express their thoughts, ideas and concerns.

Danny Werfel, Controller, OMB and Richard Gregg, Fiscal Assistant Secretary, Treasury, set the tone at the event by declaring a renewed commitment to drive federal agencies seeking to modernize their financial management systems to utilize shared services, where possible. In alignment with OMB’s Office of Electronic Government “Shared First” strategy, OMB and Treasury will be issuing new guidance very soon, and coordinating with agencies to leverage shared services for their core financial systems modernization initiatives.


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OMB delaying budget passback guidance, creating uncertainty

The fiscal 2014 budget is on hold.

Agency officials across the government have not received budget passback documents and likely will not until the White House and Congress agree on deficit reduction steps or both parties give up and let sequestration take place. An Office of Management and Budget official confirmed in an email to Federal News Radio the administration "has held off on passbacks to agencies to determine if adjustments will be needed based on the current negotiations. No decisions have been made at this point regarding budget timing." OMB traditionally sends passback, or budget guidance, which includes both actual spending numbers and policy guidance for the current and upcoming fiscal year, right around Thanksgiving. But several long-time senior agency leaders said they can't remember a time when OMB held up the communications this long.

OMB did provide agencies with initial planning guidance in May, but nothing since departments submitted their spending requests to the White House in September.

The OMB official said they asked agencies for additional information and analysis after September to update the estimates in the Sequestration Transparency Act report. The administration is using the data to finalize calculations of the spending reductions that would be required. The request was of a technical nature. For example, OMB requested the sequestrable federal administrative expenses in otherwise exempt mandatory accounts.

-Jason Miller, FederalNewsRadio.com
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OMB Releases Circular A-11 and GPRA Guidance

OMB Circular A-11:
Agency Instructions for Preparation, Submission, and Execution of the Budget
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/a11_current_year/a_11_2011.pdf

OMB Memorandum M-11-31:
Delivering an Efficient, Effective, and Accountable Government

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2011/m11-31.pdf

Labor, Transportation, VA win kudos for performance reports

The Labor, Transportation and Veterans Affairs departments won accolades for the transparency and accountability of their reports on their performance Tuesday, as officials discussed the possibility that such data could be linked more closely with budget submissions in future years.

The three agencies earned top rankings for overall reporting, transparency and leadership on an annual evaluation of agencies' performance and accountability reports conducted by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. The same agencies were among those at the top of the list last year, too.

The center judges the agencies' reports on their activities, rather than the activities themselves. It found that the 10 agencies that scored "satisfactory" or better on their fiscal 2006 reports accounted for just 13 percent of federal noninterest spending, down from 15 percent the previous year.

At an event announcing the center's findings, researchers and officials discussed the possibility that the Office of Management and Budget will require additional performance information in the congressional budget justification documents that agencies send to Capitol Hill every year.

Some participants questioned whether the performance information would be removed from the annual reports and moved to the budget documents, to reduce the burden on agencies, which are sometimes asked to provide similar information in slightly different formats for the two processes.

But Robert Shea, OMB's associate deputy director for management, said removing the information from the performance and accountability reports is not under discussion, in part because of statutory requirements that it be publicly available.

Shea said it ultimately comes down to what information lawmakers want, noting that performance data "will only be useful to the appropriators if the appropriators want it."

He cited the Education Department as ahead of the curve in sharing performance data with the Hill, and noted that some appropriators have passed language requiring other agencies to use Education's format.

He said updated guidance for next year's performance and accountability reports will be issued through OMB's Circular A-11, to be finalized in June.

- Jenny Mandel, GovExec.com

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