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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Academy urges major management reform at Energy

While the Obama administration is counting on the Energy Department to play a key role in addressing a host of national priorities, including energy independence and economic recovery, a new study by the National Academy of Public Administration raises serious questions about the department's ability to manage existing responsibilities.

In a highly critical report released on Tuesday, the expert panel conducting the study found that the department's mission-support functions, including human resources, contracting and financial management, need urgent attention from Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

The panel was especially critical of staff in the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer, citing poor leadership, inadequate customer support and a lack of strategic vision.

The panel also found significant problems in contracting and financial management, but said the department had made important strides in addressing them over the course of the study, which began in early 2008.

In terms of financial management, the panel noted that the Office of the Chief Financial Officer had developed a more strategic approach to guiding operations than either the human resources or contracting offices. But the department is unique among federal agencies in that it allots appropriated funds to field office managers and field financial officers rather than the assistant secretaries that Congress, the Energy secretary and the public hold accountable for achieving program results.

The panel recommended that Energy change its budget process by distributing appropriated funds to program assistant secretaries and holding those executives responsible for allocating resources to the field.

NAPA conducted the study at the request of the House and Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittees, whose members were concerned about Energy's ability to adequately perform key management functions.

-Katherine McIntire Peters, GovExec.com
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AGA's Radio Show Offers Financial Management Suggestions to the Obama Administration

March 31st - Noon
The Hon. David M. Walker, President and CEO, Peter G. Peterson Foundation
Richard Keevey, Director of the Policy Research Institute for the Region at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University

AGA's radio show, "Your Money, Your Government," will discuss the necessary and suggested focus for the first 100 days of the Obama administration in relation to government financial management with the Hon. David M. Walker, President and CEO, Peter G. Peterson Foundation; and Richard Keevey, Director of the Policy Research Institute for the Region at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University.

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Springer will leave OPM

Linda Springer has announced her resignation as director of the Office of Personnel Management effective Aug. 13, an OPM spokesman said today. Springer told Bush administration officials July 15 of her plans to leave OPM to take a position in the private sector.

OPM Deputy Director Howard Weizmann will serve as acting director, the spokesman said.

Springer became OPM director in June 2005 after being comptroller in the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Federal Financial Management. While in that position, she reduced the turnaround time for agencies to report their year-end financial results from five months to 45 days, OPM said.

She is a principal of the government’s Joint Financial Management Improvement Program and was named a National Academy of Public Administration Fellow in 2006.

-Mary Mosquera, FCW.com
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Think tanks help managers prepare for presidential transition

To help federal managers prepare for the transition to a new administration, a number of think tanks are launching reports, blogs, seminars and other resources.

Nonprofit groups, and not-for-profit wings of big companies have been around for decades, dating back to the founding of the National Academy of Public Administration in the 1960s. But many of them have recently stepped up their involvement with federal agencies. And that trend will continue in the coming years.

The Association of Government Accountants, for example, focuses on financial management. One of the newer groups, Partnership for Public Service — founded in 2001 — is trying to address human resources challenges, particularly the upcoming wave of baby-boomer retirements.

Beyond their research, many of these organizations say their greatest accomplishment is raising awareness of management issues — focusing not just on policy, but process as well.

Managers at these organizations say they’re focused on two major challenges: the upcoming presidential transition, and the baby-boomer retirement wave. The retirement crisis is a longer-term problem, but many groups are trying to give it a higher profile. The Partnership for Public Service has been holding forums for career employees across the country, and the group plans to use feedback from those employees to compile a report for the incoming administration.

-Gregg Carlstrom, FederalTimes.com

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Report: Security agency needs better financial management

The Homeland Security Department's largest investigative agency needs to improve its invoice management and make a variety of other financial management enhancements, according to a report from a congressionally chartered nonprofit organization.

The report, released last week by the National Academy of Public Administration, criticized the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency's Federal Protective Service in particular. FPS, responsible for helping secure thousands of federal facilities across the country, faces a budget shortfall recently estimated to be as high as $60 million.

"Stability, understanding and adequate oversight should be highlighted as the immediate financial management objectives for FPS," the report stated, adding that "according to the majority of those interviewed, FPS is the most difficult program to service."

NAPA called for a better analysis of FPS expenses and revenues and said "service level changes or fee modification" will be needed to remedy the financial problems. The report said "hundreds of vendors" working for the agency have "varying degrees of financial sophistication to support and understand."

The NAPA report was not the first to call for changes in how FPS collects funds; multiple sources confirmed that the protective service has trouble getting timely payments. Agency sources, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said the service may have to increase fees by as much as 60 percent to make up for shortfalls. The agency has already pulled its officers from some federal buildings at off-peak hours, multiple sources confirmed.

The Homeland Security Department's largest investigative agency needs to improve its invoice management and make a variety of other financial management enhancements, according to a report from a congressionally chartered nonprofit organization.
The report, released last week by the National Academy of Public Administration, criticized the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency's Federal Protective Service in particular. FPS, responsible for helping secure thousands of federal facilities across the country, faces a budget shortfall recently estimated to be as high as $60 million.

"Stability, understanding and adequate oversight should be highlighted as the immediate financial management objectives for FPS," the report stated, adding that "according to the majority of those interviewed, FPS is the most difficult program to service."

NAPA called for a better analysis of FPS expenses and revenues and said "service level changes or fee modification" will be needed to remedy the financial problems. The report said "hundreds of vendors" working for the agency have "varying degrees of financial sophistication to support and understand."

The NAPA report was not the first to call for changes in how FPS collects funds; multiple sources confirmed that the protective service has trouble getting timely payments. Agency sources, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said the service may have to increase fees by as much as 60 percent to make up for shortfalls. The agency has already pulled its officers from some federal buildings at off-peak hours, multiple sources confirmed.

-Jonathan Marino, GovExec.com

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Panel praises management turn-around at DHS agency

Following well-publicized woes that crested in 2005, a National Academy of Public Administration panel said a financial action plan published earlier this year for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a major step toward establishing stability and soundness at the bureau.

As long as the Homeland Security Department supplements this plan with the development of a new strategic focus to complement its tactical attention to financial integrity, the panel said, “ICE should be well positioned to lead DHS forward financially.”

That’s a far cry from what was being said about ICE just a year ago. The NAPA panel listed a series of events — loss of staff, leadership change within DHS, an unfamiliar financial system, changing expectations from DHS, and others — that it said merged to create “substantial and adverse financial issues in 2005.”

In a report it published last year, the Government Accountability Office said a major information technology modernization program for ICE had been put at risk because the bureau had done minimal planning and management.

It had also redirected funding and employees for the program to other competing priorities and had not made the necessary investments in program management capabilities, GAO said.

“ICE has too much transactional activity, information flow, accounting requirements and analysis to manage without the aid of user friendly and effective technology,” the panel said. “ICE will not be able to achieve major financial systems and IT improvements until DHS develops a more explicit IT strategic plan or framework from which to operate.”

The panel recommended that ICE explicitly make technology part of the financial action plan. It also said ICE officials should work with DHS to identify the needs of ICE, the department and its stakeholders and develop alternative approaches to meet ICE’s technology needs if DHS guidelines are not available.

“If adequate IT systems are not available in the mid-term, and certainly long-term, the gains of the past will be lost as the workload will exceed staff’s ability to perform, analyze and manage ICE financial demands,” it said.

-Brian Robinson, FCW.com

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