OMB government performance official to step down in September

Robert Shea, Office of Management and Budget associate director for administration and government performance, will step down in September, he announced to fellow OMB employees on Tuesday.

In his current role, Shea manages OMB's internal affairs, leads the president's Performance Improvement Initiative and administers the Program Assessment Rating Tool, among other responsibilities.

Shea told Government Executive on Wednesday that he is joining Grant Thornton's Global Public Sector. The firm is a worldwide accounting, tax and business advisory organization. Shea said he was proud to be joining Grant Thornton and expected to do work similar to what he's been doing at OMB.

An OMB spokeswoman Tuesday called Shea "[OMB Deputy Director for Management] Clay Johnson's right hand man, pushing for greater accountability in program performance and federal funding."

Shea said two OMB deputies -- Dustin Brown, deputy assistant director for management, and Lauren Wright, assistant director for management and operations -- will take on his duties after his departure.

"Whether or not we get an additional supervisor or leader to step in, in either of those areas, is up to [OMB Director] Jim Nussle and Clay Johnson, and I don't know where they are on that," Shea said.

Shea described OMB as an "exciting, fast-paced, results-oriented environment."

"Nonetheless, you confront immense frustration," he said. "The government's a large place and the framers of the Constitution designed our government to work methodically and thoughtfully, which is sometimes frustrating."

Shea cited the progress agencies have made eliminating improper payments as a key achievement of the seven years he has been with OMB, but credited OMB Deputy Controller Danny Werfel with that success. Shea also said more programs have a clearer definition of success now than they did when Congress first required them to set goals in 1993 with the Government Performance and Results Act.

"Day in, day out it seems like a slow, tough trod, but looking back I'm proud of where we are while at the same time acknowledging that there's plenty of work to be done," Shea said.

Gary Bass, executive director of the nonprofit group OMB Watch, said while he and Shea did not always agree on matters, they did work together constructively.

"He is the kind of person that brings excellence to government … the kind of person you want running government," Bass said. "He's dedicated, he works across ideological boundaries and his object always seems to be to get the problem solved."

While Shea and OMB Watch disagree on the merits of PART, Bass said their discussions on the tool always were productive.

"He has been extremely open to hearing our criticism and has responded within the range of vision he has to some of our concerns to fix things," Bass said. "It's the kind of civil discourse that makes government work well."

Bass said he and others at OMB Watch have worried that the next administration's staff would not necessarily show the same commitment and energy that Shea has, particularly toward making the contract and grant database USAspending.gov work.

Shea urged the next administration to take advantage of the mechanisms President Bush has established and the improvement agencies have gained. "I hope they won't start from scratch; I hope they see the progress we've made and build on it," he said.

Other political appointees may not be so popular, but even so, it's telling that even Bass can't muster up a bad word about Shea.

"He did sneeze on me once," Bass joked. "But I got him back by coughing on him. That is a real Cold War."