Toward a 21st Century Government

[Federal News Radio]

Alan P. Balutis
Director and Distinguished Fellow
Internet Business Solutions Group


In a recent column in the Washington Post, David Broder bemoaned the fact that neither presidential candidate had identified their priorities nor spelled out what sacrifices they might ask Americans to make. Broder called it “a stunning rejection of reality.”

As stunning – perhaps even more so - is the candidates’ failure to describe how they will deliver on their promises, how they will manage, how they will govern. Government’s ability to deliver has been questioned of late: the response to Hurricane Katrina, contaminated foods, lead in children’s toys, tainted drugs, care for our veterans, runaway IT systems that are over budget and behind schedule, and almost weekly stories of contract fraud or acquisition improprieties. The new president will face an array of challenges unmatched since Franklin D. Roosevelt came to office in 1933. How will the presidential candidates respond to these challenges - not just with new policy’s and program initiatives, but also through delivering on those commitments, through operational and managerial excellence?

The recent massive financial rescue plan sends a troubling signal. The new legislation created an Office of Financial Stability within the Department of the Treasury and charged it with implementing the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The legislation allows the Treasury Secretary to waive some hiring rules to accelerate the process of getting skilled personnel. The department has quickly turned to the private sector, using special contracting authorities – also granted in the legislation – that enable it to retain private portfolio managers, custodians, and other financial services consultants without following standard acquisition procedures. It’s as if to say: “If we allow government to operate under its normal rules and procedures, it is clearly incapable of taking on this important challenge”.

It is clear we need a new changed model for government – one that operates with as much speed, responsiveness, and resiliency as the private sector. It must be agile and accountable to meet the problems and challenges that will develop and evolve more rapidly than our traditional model of government can cope. And it won’t happen through “tinkering” – giving special authorities here and there, establishing pilots, granting waivers, and so on. Now is a time for comprehensive rethinking and reform.

The new President should establish a 21st Century Hoover Commission to re-examine and re-engineer government today. Private sector management is dramatically different than it was 50 or 60 years ago; it’s different than it was even 10 or 15 years ago. But government is largely the same – wedded to old ways of managing its people and its processes. In implementing a new 21st Century Hoover Commission, I’d like to also recommend the following:

• Citizens should be involved in the Commission’s work and deliberations. The Commission should use focus groups of citizens and collaborative technologies to receive citizen input.
• Staff members should be selected from those who will inherit this new 21st century government. Staff members should be recruited from both inside and outside of government.

By creating such a Commission early in the new Administration, it will then have a road map to follow in improving the operations and management of government to more effectively respond to the challenges of the 21st century.