Performance & Management

Bad Data: A Giant Challenge to Management, Budgeting and Policy

Katherine Barrett and Rich Greene, Government Finance Review (see page 76)

Governments face a number of challenges in developing strong management systems, including data that is flawed, inaccurate, and out-of-date.

To Improve Equity, Improve Government Capacity

Demetra Nightingale and Jed Herrmann, Government Executive

Agencies fail their moral and civic duty when they don’t collect and disclose vital information that could direct resources where needed.

Innovation

HHS launches ‘Design-A-Thon’ to better capture COVID diagnostic data

Sara Wilson, FedScoop

The Department of Health and Human Services is leading a virtual technology sprint to help automatically capture data from non-laboratory COVID-19 tests and report it to public health officials — an essential process for a data-driven pandemic response.

5 Ways to Improve Emergency Preparedness for Next Time

Matt Shipman, Nextgov

A permanent team that is focused solely on national preparation and ensuring that the relevant federal agencies are all on the same page should coordinate all five of these components.

Open Data and Analytics

GAO says AI oversight framework will help in continuously monitoring agencies

Dave Nyczepir, FedScoop

GAO’s forthcoming artificial intelligence oversight framework will help auditors work with inspectors general to continuously monitor executive agencies’ progress with the technology, says the agency’s first-ever chief data scientist.

A Data Center Refresh Boosts Capability for Virtualization

Adam Stone, FedTech

As aging federal data centers near their expiration dates, agencies are finding that they get far more than additional capability, storage and speed from an upgrade.

Pandemic Response and Oversight

Most States Aren’t Ready to Distribute the Leading COVID-19 Vaccine

Isaac Arnsdorf, Ryan Gabrielson, Caroline Chen; Government Executive

A review of state distribution plans reveals that officials don’t know how they’ll deal with the difficult storage and transport requirements of Pfizer’s vaccine, especially in the rural areas currently seeing a spike in infections.

Watchdog says Congress should strengthen PPP oversight before a new COVID relief bill

Tom Temin, Federal News Network

 Tim Stretton, from the Project on Government Oversight, argues before they take up a new pandemic relief bill, Congress really needs to put in some more robust mechanisms for transparency, and to prevent waste, fraud and abuse.