A key House leader Wednesday called for a carrot-and-stick approach to improving federal management, saying executives who turn programs around should be eligible for big bonuses.
House Government Reform Committee Chairman Dan Burton, R-Ind., said at a hearing that Congress should wield the stick of budget cuts against agencies that fail to address long-standing management problems. At the same time, he said, agencies should use the carrots of bonuses and other incentives to encourage employees to find ways to reduce fraud and waste.
Appropriators in Congress should "withhold money from the programs that waste billions of dollars year after year," Burton said. "But penalties can't be the only answer. I believe in the carrot and stick approach. . . . I understand that agencies now have the authority to give incentives and rewards, but reward systems should be targeted on these incredibly wasteful high-risk problems and generously reward individuals who turn them around. While the authority is there, we haven't been giving it."
Burton said he didn't see why someone who managed to reduce waste by $500 million shouldn't be given a $1 million bonus.
The hearing focused on waste and fraud in the federal government, a topic the committee will focus on throughout the year, Burton said. The inspectors general of the departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development and Agriculture reported to Burton on ways they are combating waste, fraud and mismanagement in their agencies.
HHS Inspector General June Gibbs Brown, for example, described how her office's efforts helped the Health Care Financing Administration reduce improper Medicare payments by 46 percent over the last two years.
Burton lamented the overlap among federal agencies, particularly food safety programs, where unclear lines of authority produce difficult working conditions. For example, Agriculture Department Inspector General Roger C. Viadero noted that cows on the feeding line in meat processing plants are subject to Food and Drug Administration oversight, but once the cows become beef on the assembly line, they are subject to Agriculture Department inspections.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., noted that much of the overlap between agencies is likely due to the committee structure of Congress. Congress has legislated new programs without an eye toward efficiency among all programs, he said.
As the commitee looks at fraud and abuse, "we have to be very careful we don't take this broad brush and forget the people who day in and day out give their blood, sweat and tears to make the government work," Cummings said. Inefficiencies "may very well be our fault, we who sit up here," he told Burton.
Burton told the IGs that he would like them to submit to him any legislative proposals that would help streamline programs, reduce fraud and improve management.
NEXT STORY: House Y2K meeting postponed