Bush adviser defends indirect approach to trimming management ranks
OMB's Clay Johnson says there's no need for an initiative aimed specifically at cutting supervisory layers.
President Bush's government reform agenda indirectly encourages agencies to trim excess layers of bureaucracy, an Office of Management and Budget official said Monday.
In working on five initiatives outlined in the President's Management Agenda, agency officials may decide to cut supervisory positions, said Clay Johnson, OMB's deputy director for management. But Bush's agenda doesn't call on agencies to thin the ranks outright, and the administration doesn't see a need to add such a requirement, Johnson said.
John Kerry and John Edwards, the Democratic nominees for president and vice president, last week unveiled a proposal aimed at restraining federal spending and eliminating unnecessary management jobs. As part of the proposal, the Democratic contenders pledged to reinstate a Clinton-era order requiring every federal supervisor to oversee at least 15 employees.
"The taxpayers and the country pay a heavy price for a top-heavy bureaucracy with several layers between high-ranking decision-makers and the front-line information needed to make the right decision," the Kerry-Edwards proposal stated.
Bush's three-year-old management agenda takes a different approach to encouraging efficient use of tax dollars, Johnson said. The agenda directs agency officials to set goals and then determine the best way of achieving them. Under the agenda, Johnson said, officials have the leeway to address management challenges using a variety of tools.
The Bush plan avoids limiting agencies to tackling "symptoms" of poor management, such as "too many managers," Johnson said. The plan instead focuses on setting goals and working toward desired outcomes.
For instance, competitive sourcing, a Bush management agenda initiative to let contractors bid on government jobs considered commercial in nature, encourages federal employees to propose ways of working more efficiently. When developing a bid, employee teams might decide they could get by with fewer supervisors. But in-house teams could employ a variety of other tactics in designing competitive proposals.
Paul Light, director of the Center for Public Service at The Brookings Institution and a professor at New York University, said the Bush administration should make a "direct assault" on bureaucracy. Late last month Light published a study showing growth in layers of federal management and a thickening of existing layers.
"I think it's naive to believe that somehow these layers will take care of themselves through a focus on performance," Light said.