Reforms With An E-Gov Twist

In the early 1990s, the world of grand-scale, multi-year mega-procurements compelled contractors to bet the company on the bid. The government had to contend with tedious, lengthy, process-focused requests for proposals. Moreover, the General Services Administration's Board of Contract Appeals eyed practically every procurement. The stakes were so high and the regulations so obtuse that nearly 50 percent of contract awards were overturned by the board.

The 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act emphasized better planning, cutting back on bureaucratic barriers to purchases and sizing projects to manageable levels. The government's new technology czar, Mark Forman, helped draft the bill as a staff member on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. Forman says the law was intended as a roadmap for purchasing information technology. Its major elements included:

• Establishing chief information officers to develop strategic visions for agency IT efforts.
• Decentralizing purchasing authority by eliminating GSA oversight of procurements.
• Placing overall responsibility for IT acquisition reforms on the Office of Management and Budget.
• Establishing agency review boards of senior agency officials to consider the costs and benefits of IT purchases.

Despite the uncertain role of CIOs, some IT acquisition reforms have taken off. Most notably, agencies regularly use GSA schedules and governmentwide acquisition contracts such as the Commerce Department's COMMITS (directed at small businesses) to acquire all types of IT services much more quickly than they had in the past. The new approach is aimed at acquiring solutions rather than buying things. The Navy-Marine Corps Intranet procurement, for example, provides a Navy-wide e-mail service with a contractor fully accountable for successful performance.

While Clinger-Cohen focused on IT procurements, Forman believes today's e-commerce demands even more robust reforms. The vision of Clinger-Cohen was to give agencies a better means for purchasing IT. "E-business has really changed that strategy," Forman says. "Today's focus is on designing a system to integrate multiple IT tools into the business itself." Information technology is at the core of practically everything an agency does.

Clinger-Cohen has been effective in meeting specific IT procurement needs, Forman says, but those needs have vastly expanded. E-government is the environment in which the Internet and digital technologies connect employees, suppliers and customers. In this sense, the vision for government mirrors that of the business world, with the Internet at the core of transactions.

The e-government vision still encompasses the Clinger-Cohen notion of effectively using technology to meet agency missions, but its customer base has grown. The challenge now includes not only improving agency management but also:

• Creating convenient one-stop shops for citizens.
• Consolidating and reducing business reporting requirements.
• Linking agencies in a performance-based IT environment.

Forman, whose formal title is associate director for information technology and e-government at OMB, will oversee this process. He sees two ways to make it happen:

• Get OMB budget examiners to focus on e-government initiatives as part of the President's budget review effort.
• Get control of the $100 million of seed money in a proposed IT fund to focus on initiatives most in need of support.