Global Perspectives on Results-Based Management

Results-based management was the theme of this session that featured a panel of international experts, including Ray Rist of the World Bank, Frederic Sautet of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and Michael Garrett of the Regional Municipality of York, Canada.

Performance-based public management is about moving from a procedural focus to an emphasis on results. That means trading in the control and command system of government for government by contract.

These concepts present a number of challenges for governments around the world. Methodological challenges include:

- Internal pricing problems – what is the value of various outputs and outcomes?
- Data collection – the more you refine your outputs, the more problematic it becomes to obtain data (in particular, regular data flows).
- Indicator selection – be very careful with these. Changing indicators is a source of tremendous frustration among staff and program managers.
- Attribution and allocation of back-office costs – how does payroll relate to waste management in terms of outcomes and measurements?
- Capital – accounting for capital.
- Trusting data – In developing countries especially, there is often minimal trust in data, which makes performance indicators ineffective.

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Posted by Scott Karp at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Program Managers and Program Examiners on the PART

Program managers from the Defense Department and Environmental Protection Agency and program examiners from OMB and the Department of Health and Human Services came together to discuss the benefits and challenges posed by the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART). The PART is a framework for assessing program performance which provides a consistent approach for developing program goals, strategies, and budget.

The essence of the PART is the performance measures – determining a program’s desired outcomes and how to measure them. But the PART is not standardized – not nearly much as it may appear – because it is employed in very different contexts, from evaluating outcomes of radiation prevention to R&D. This creates a number of challenges:

- Existence and availability of external, independent reviews of programs.
- Measuring results for prevention or research programs. How do you measure readiness or preparedness?
- Finding a comparable program for reference and comparison. When you are PARTed, it is worthwhile to see what other programs have submitted and how you relate. But the EPA’s indoor environments program found it difficult to find a comparable program.

Here are some observations on the relationship between the OMB program examiner and program manager:

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Posted by Scott Karp at 03:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Deepwater Takes on Performance-Based Contracting and Public/Private Partnership

Rear Adm. Gary Blore, Executive Office of the Deepwater Program, U.S. Coast Guard, Leo Mackay, President of Integrated Coast Guard Systems and James Edwin Kee, Professor at the GW School of Public Policy and Public Administration took a hard look at the challenges of performance-based contracting and public private partnership in the Coast Guard's Deepwater program.

A big challenge in the public/private partnership between the Coast Guard and ICGS is shifting responsibility for systems integration to industry while the Coast Guard remains the keeper of deep "Concept of Operations" knowledge. Industry needs to tap into the Coast Guard understanding of its operational imperatives in order to design systems that meet those objectives.

A pitfall of performance-based contracting that grows out of this new mode of acquisition occurs when the government specifies a requirement, and the government knows what it means, but the industry partner isn't quite speaking the same language. For example, when the Coast Guard says it needs a cutter that can operate in 12-foot seas, it means that it needs a cutter than can perform all mission critical operations in 12-foots seas, not just operate under limited capabilities until it reaches 10-foot seas.

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Posted by Scott Karp at 01:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)