Vice President Al Gore has asked the leaders of 32 "high impact agencies" to develop a handful of measurable goals that can be achieved over the next three years, a National Performance Review official said Wednesday.
"We want these agencies to do something that will make the American people say 'Wow! That's different,' " NPR deputy director John Kamensky said in a presentation Wednesday to the National Partnership Council, a governmentwide labor-management committee.
High impact agencies, also known as "reinvention impact centers," are agencies that have the most interaction with the public and businesses. They include the IRS, the Food and Drug Administration and the Social Security Administration. About 1.1 million of the federal government's 1.8 million civilian employees work in these agencies.
Gore instructed the high impact agencies to focus their efforts in three areas: labor-management partnerships, the use of information technology and customer service.
"Yours are the agencies that shape the public's opinion of government and can redeem the promise of self-government," Gore told the agencies. "Public cynicism about government is a cancer on democracy. Reinvention isn't just about fixing processes, it's about redefining priorities and focusing on the things that matter."
Kamensky said that the NPR will work "in partnership" with the high impact agencies to help them achieve their goals.
As part of Gore's request, high impact agencies will publish their performance goals on their Web sites and on NPR's site. Gore also requested that the agencies encourage the public to comment on the goals and periodically report on their progress towards them.
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