ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

New OMB Performance Leader

Federal News Network

Loren DeJonge Schulman is starting as the new associate director for performance and personnel management today. She replaces Pam Coleman, who left in August after 20 months in that role.She joins OMB from the Partnership for Public Service where she was vice president of research, evaluation and modernizing government for the last two-plus years.

IG Finds Issues with GSA’s Performance-Based Contracts

FCW

The General Services Administration is failing to properly manage performance-based service contracts while struggling to resolve longstanding contract administration challenges, according to an inspector general’s audit published Thursday.  The report claims GSA contracting personnel are not adequately fulfilling performance-based contract oversight, which could result in underperforming contractors and wasted government funds. 

The End Is Near for Outdated Government Financial Reporting

RouteFifty

By way of a few paragraphs inserted into the recently enacted 4,000-page 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress mandated that state and local governments prepare their annual financial statements in a standardized format that is electronically searchable. The provision effectively drags state and local governments kicking and screaming into the 20th century, if not the 21st.

How Results-Driven Contracting Improved Outcomes in Chicago

GovInnovator (Andy Feldman; podcast: 11:48)

In an interview with Lisa Morrison Butler, former commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Family and Support Services, she describes a five-step organizational transformation of the department’s approach to contracting with non-profits and other contractors.

Data for Equity

Centre for Public Impact

Data for Equity is a collaborative network of city governments working together to close wealth and opportunity gaps. Cities include: Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Dayton, Louisville, Salt Lake City and St. Louis.

Follow the Evidence

The Hill

Nine new governors are taking office. These first few weeks mark a critical window of opportunity to set their policy agenda for the next four years. Regardless of political leaning, new governors have a sure-fire way to strengthen the states they will soon lead: invest in evidence-based policymaking.  

Overseeing Money That’s Hard to Track

Government Executive (Podcast 22:39)

The Project on Government Oversight recently posted a report outlining 13 issues that policymakers can tackle to increase efficacy and oversight in government. Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette is a Government Affairs Manager at the Project on Government Oversight and one of the authors of the report. He joined the podcast to discuss government oversight.

Understanding Brokers, Intermediaries, and Boundary Spanners

Evidence & Policy Journal

Jennifer Neal, et al, characterize the strategies, skills, and outcomes of Brokers, Intermediaries, and Boundary Spanners across the literature in education, environmental, health and other relevant sectors. They identify five key strategies used by these actors, including use of evidence.

Resource of the Week:  A Re-Designed Website

Baltimore Mayor’s’s Office of Performance & Innovation

The new web page brings together the city’s CitiStat, InnovationTeam, and Data Fellows’ initiatives on one page. And it will soon be adding info on its Performance Management team!

Data Visualizations Bring Transparency

Office of Management and Budget

OMB released updated data pages for each of the three priority areas in the President’s Management Agenda. These pages feature data visualizations of key progress metrics that are being monitored to help the public better understand how performance is being tracked.

Measuring for Management

FCW (Steve Kelman)

 Performance measures can constitute perhaps the single most-important tool available to government managers. They can motivate employees to work harder, focus employees on a few important things, and help employees learn which techniques aid them to do a better job.

“Let’s Talk Performance” (Webinar: Wednesday, February 22^nd @ 11:00 EST)

National Center for Public Performance

Prof. Elaine Yi Lu  (City University of New York) and Prof. Katherine Willoughby (University of Georgia) will discuss their award-winning book “Public Performance Budgeting: Principles and Practice” moderated by Greg Useem, Chief Performance Officer for the City of Alexandria, Va. Email ncppsuffolk@gmail.com for a registration link.

Wither Evidence-Informed Governance?

PATimes (Gary VanLandingham)

Experience has also shown that developing effective and lasting evidence-informed governance systems is extremely challenging. It is hard to implement evidence-informed governance approaches in a single policy area, let alone government-wide.

How Accessibility of Data Can Impact Mission Deliverables

FedScoop (YouTube Video)

Laura Biven, data science technical lead in the Office of Data Science Strategy at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and John Auerbach, senior vice president for public health at ICF, joined FedScoop for a discussion on best practices in capturing greater intelligence from data.

Foresight: Humans Are Terrible at Planning for the Future

CNN Opinion (Patrick Noack)

The Dubai Future Forum  hs convened hundreds of futurists and has articulated guidelines – principles – that help in this process. There are eight principles in all, but three are really important if we want to shift quickly and inclusively toward a longer-term mode of thinking and acting.

Resource of the Week:  Foresight Toolkit for Decision Makers

California 100

This Toolkit provides a brief introduction to strategic foresight and how it can be used to support decision-making. It contains suggestions about how to get started applying foresight for impact.

Quarterly Status Update to Federal Agency Priority Goals

U.S. Office of Management and Budget

As the two-year point for completion of the FY2022-2023 agency priority goals reaches its halfway point, agencies reported not only on accomplishments made in the past quarter, but also on the goal’s overall performance over the past year.

Measuring Broadband

Barrett & Greene

As the federal government hands out money to states and localities for broadband services (and other infrastructure as well), one question has been in the back of our minds: How well are the feds measuring the performance of these investments.

Federal Program Inventory Redux

U.S. Government Accountability Office

A comprehensive listing of programs, along with related funding and performance information, would help federal decision makers and the public better understand what the government does, what it spends, and what it achieves each year.

Resource of the Week:  Government Performance Lab

Harvard Kennedy School

The Lab supports governments in building just and effective service systems by developing hands-on tools for the design and implementation of reforms. We do this by working closely with state and local governments to develop and test ways to successfully design, manage, and sustain reforms. We then spread these practices to communities across the country. It has completed more than 200 projects in 35 states.

Louisiana State Agencies Failed to Submit Performance Info

The Center Square

Numerous Louisiana agencies (8.9 percent) failed to submit quarterly performance information required by law in 2022 and many blamed staffing issues as the reason, according to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor.

10 Myths About Scenario Planning

LinkedIn (Woody Wade)

When Swiss-based Woody Wade talks about scenario planning with decision-makers, everyone instinctively understands (and wants) the benefits.  Yet hesitations still arise, often thanks to misconceptions about what’s involved. He uses this blog post to do a little myth busting.

How Is Research Evidence Used by Legislatures?

Evidence & Policy Blog (UK)

This blog summarizes the findings from a systematic review of how and for what purpose legislators use research evidence. It also examines legislators’ perspectives on enablers and barriers to using research evidence.

Resource of the Week:  Montgomery County (MD) CountyStat’s Twitter Feed

What does the County track?– 911 dispatches for fire and rescue incidents, solar installation permits, home values, surveys of quality of life, and more!

The Sisyphus Files – Repeated Issues in Performance Audits

Barrett and Greene

Episode 1: Data Quality. 

State and local auditors find themselves repeating many of the same findings over and over again, as they tackle different agencies and different issues. This article focuses on one significant issue that seems to crop up over and over again: shortcomings in data quality.

Evidence Commission After 5 Years: A Progress Report

Data Foundation

In reviewing progress on implementation of the Evidence Commission’s recommendations over the past five years, there are five clear effects to date on the evidence and data communities. The report urges action in four additional areas.

Data Sharing: A Playbook for State and Local Agencies

Benefits Data Trust

This Playbook is designed to help agencies and sectors use data sharing to illuminate who is not accessing benefits, better connect under-enrolled populations to vital assistance, and make the system more efficient for administering agencies and participants alike. 

Should the Federal Government Have More Oversight of State and Local Budgets?

RouteFifty

A new Volcker Alliance report points out that the federal government directs more than $1 Trillion a year in grants and tax incentives to states and localities. The report argues the federal government should tighten their financing standards, including oversight of the $4 Trillion municipal bond market.

Resource of the Week:  Teaching Resources on Randomized Evaluations

J-PAL North America

This free, on-line course is comprised of seven modules that cover the expanse of Evaluation. It is presented via YouTube lectures and accompanying PowerPoint slides. J-PAL has offered this program in the past via a five-day in-person program. (last updated in 2020)