John Kamensky

Background.  Last year, more than 35 federal agencies awarded nearly $750 billion in grants to 40,000 grant recipients through 1,800 different programs. But the reporting systems for these grant programs is a diffuse, cumbersome document-based process where recipients fill out a bewildering array of forms across multiple agency reporting systems – a veritable Tower of Babel!

John Kamensky

Snubbing Anti-Deficiency Act Rulings. Federal News Network reports: “Back in September the Government Accountability Office released a 25-page report to House and Senate leaders describing nine new violations of the Antideficiency Act, some dating back to spending in 2000.” But: “Six weeks later, OMB General Couns

FITARA Scorecard.  Federal Times reports: “ The ninth version the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) scorecard, released Dec. 11, rates agencies in several modernization categories, including data center closure, cybersecurity and CIO support from leadership. Overall, nine agencies improved their scores, with 11 remaining stagnant and four receiving lower grades than FITARA 8.0.”

The congregation of the faithful was nearly 100 enthusiastic state and local officials from across the region who are charged with helping their communities improve their operations and results by using performance information to make better decisions.

Fast-Track Hiring. Federal News Network reports: “Each of the military services has faced workforce challenges in their maintenance depots over the past several years. Congress has responded with new authorities that let the Defense Department sidestep the traditional hiring system to fill those vacancies. . . . .

In his 2008 book on the next government of the United States, professor Donald Kettl eloquently zeroes in one of the defining challenges of government today: ”It is becoming increasingly hard for government to solve problems because the problems themselves confound the boundaries created to solve them.”

They began several months ago to catalog similar efforts in the private sector and other countries, as well as previous efforts in the U.S. federal government, such as the five-part scorecard developed as part of President George W. Bush’s Management Agenda and the Baldrige Excellence Framework.

He says there are three inherent qualities of a leader: to have a purpose, to have a passion for this purpose, and to have courage.  The rest of “leadership,” he says, can be taught.

But teaching leadership skills and techniques is fraught with risk.  A survey of American companies found that while they invest about $16 billion a year into leadership training, two-thirds of CEOs thought the training wasn’t effective.

John Kamensky