Staying the course on acquisition change

March 1, 2001

ow that the new administration is largely in place, the big question is how President Bush will alter the direction of acquisition change. The path to reform over the last decade has encompassed a search for best business practices, streamlining opportunities, management solutions from contractors and government-industry partnerships. The picture is different from that of the 1980s when newspaper headlines screamed of outrageously priced hammers and crooked contractors stealing sensitive information. The response then was tighter constraints, reduced flexibility and greater oversight.

For the new administration, the key to acquisition change will be staying the course.

In the 1990s, however, the administration and Congress had a different agenda. Rather than ferreting out abuses, they looked for models to make government work better. Frequently those models hailed from the private sector. The 1993 Government Performance and Results Act, the 1994 Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act, the 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act and the 1998 Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act are just a handful of laws intended to tighten accountability while seeking better ways for agencies to acquire goods and services.

President Bush's acquisition agenda is likely to continue this trend. The core elements of his campaign-accepting accountability and getting results-are in line with this bipartisan legislation.

But the challenge of any administration is to take the "good government" issues that lack high drama and give them the time and attention they deserve. In a November 2000 Brookings Institution study, "rebuilding Europe after World War II" and "expanding the right to vote" topped the list of the federal government's 50 greatest achievements ("Government's Greatest Hits," Government Executive, January). "Improving government performance" sits at No. 41.

One reason federal performance efforts have gotten low ratings is the jumble of initiatives that come and go with different administrations. Gains are made incrementally by staying the course, says Paul C. Light, Brookings' director of governmental studies.

The President's management scenario does just that, focusing on three major elements: Making government more citizen-centered, results-oriented and market-based.

Citizen-Centered

The administration wants to flatten the federal hierarchy and emphsize front-line employees who deal with the public. Some 40,000 senior and middle management positions would be phased out over eight years. Senior government and private sector auditors reviewing the Bush reform agenda at a recent roundtable suggested cutting jobs strategically rather than across the board, in order to retain needed skills. They recommended giving agencies the tools needed to acquire and keep employees with those skills.

Another way to improve government services is to rely more on technology. This includes making it easier for citizens to find what they need on the World Wide Web.

The Bush administration has proposed naming a federal chief information officer, who would manage a $100 million budget to support interagency e-government initiatives. The CIO also would serve as deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget. The challenge is to find someone who could handle the dual roles. Perhaps creating a deputy federal CIO with a staff would help.

Results-Oriented Bush's agenda promotes clean audits for agencies and the effective use of the Results Act. According to the auditors, the real challenge is cleaning up legacy systems to make aggregate data reliable. Under the new administration's plan for using the Results Act, agency inspectors general would validate performance results and OMB would use them in the budget process. Unfortunately, the jury is still out on the Results Act. If agencies don't use it to manage, no degree of oversight is going to make it effective.

Performance-based contracting, first proposed in 1991, will be the focus of more attention under President Bush. But an information system that will document agency performance should be developed.

Finally, a bipartisan Sunset Review Board would test the value of programs and eliminate those that don't measure up.

Market-Based

Moving government procurement to the Internet and opening federal positions to competition with the private sector are key parts of the Bush administration's management strategy. Given past controversies over contracting out government services, making public-private competitions work will be the greatest challenge.

Many parts of the Bush reform agenda are linked to the reform legislation and policies of the 1990s. Continuing the pressure to achieve results and staying the course is vital in order to lift "improving government performance" from the bottom of the list of government's greatest achievements.