Article 88. Startup Plan for US Government Reform

Startup Plan for US Government Reform
By Lawrence Rosier December 26, 2016

The Startup Plan focuses on the implementation of key elements that are required to happen for the successful implementation of Reforms starting with the first 100 days of the Trump Administration.

The objective is to insure that the supporting organization is quickly put in place for the implementation of reforms.

I recommend that the following key items be placed in a single "Government Reform Activation Bill" that provides the needed support and authority that allows the necessary reforms to be implemented. This bill should be ready for a Congressional vote asap after the inauguration of Donald Trump as President.

1. Congressional approval for the creation of a US Office of Inspector General (USOIG) organization.  It will report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) headed by the new position of US Inspector General appointed by the Trump Administration.  Each Departmental OIG organization (about 17) will report directly to the US Inspector General who will lead the implantation of Federal Government Reforms.  This will solve the problem that Departmental OIGs are not independent organizations and are controlled by department heads.

The new OIG organization will also have an independent unit which will bring their management expertise to those 68 or so OIGs not included, through the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE).

2.  A Principal Consultant, with the proper experience, is to be hired as a permanent government employee to train each OIG organization (approx 17). He will provide the necessary OIG Analysts’ training in Enterprise Lean, Right-sizing and building Bottoms-up Budgets. This expertise can be supplemented by bringing in Enterprise Lean Training Consultants for training OIG Analysts as Facilitators to implement Enterprise Lean. OIG Analysts will be the boots on the ground implementing reforms. These are followed by the change from a bureaucratic organization to a Team Managed organization as the key to implementing the General Reform Model leading to permanent reforms.

Another approach is to use the VA as a pilot implementation followed by the full implementation of reforms.

3. Training of OIG Analysts should begin immediately for Enterprise Lean and right-sizing.  This will allow across the board implementation of reforms to begin in the Washington DC area other locations will follow.

4.  OIG Departmental Leaders will follow Department Simplification recommendations from the Trump Administration while making surveys of the department for duplication of activities.  The Consolidation model may be implemented to support the simplification effort.  The approach is to Implement Enterprise Lean followed with Right-sizing.  This is where you get rid unnecessary government activities and Red Tape. 

5. Congressional approval: the USOIG Shall also have reporting to it a specialized Integrated Technology Team to review government IT implementation plans and prevent the $ millions of waste in Government Computer systems.  Currently the US government has no oversight organization capable of preventing the enormous boondoggles found in the development of IT systems.  See Article 26. The Biggest Boondoggle Ever in State IT (Virginia's VITA).

6. Congressional approval: the implementation of a Change in The funding of Federal Government Activities.  The funding of Bills passed by Congress in addition to present reviews will be deemed as First Year Start-up Funding. This is to be followed by a review by the proper OIG Analysis Team which will determine the Operational Funding for year to year budgets.  This insures that all funding by the Federal Government is brought under management control.

7. The suspension of certain Government Employee Union guarantees including seniority rights and work assignment rights.  No union activity will be allowed to interfere with the implementation of the Federal Government Reforms.

8.  The suspension of certain government Departmental Vendor Codes allows the Government Reform team the right to bring in outside Consultants over Departmental objections.

9.  The Reforms will establish staffing levels required to do the work of the US Government.  The identification of over-staffing will require that redundant personnel be removed from the work environment with pay continuing for one month to allow redundant personnel time to find a new job in areas where under-staffing has been identified.  After this one month period options such as early retirement are available for those who qualify.  Those without options will be promptly removed from the government's payroll.

10. Application of the "Effectiveness Test".  All that is required is for the OIG to have evidence that the suspect agency is not meeting its effectiveness obligations for the OIG to go into a proactive mode to investigate further, not requiring a bill before congress to authorize the investigation.  The intent is to authorize the OIG to investigate and fix the thousands of ineffective activities found in the Federal government without waiting for the high profile requirement for Congress to enact into law the OIG’s activities.

Effectiveness and Efficiency are not the same thing but must be considered together.  You can be very efficient at doing things but if it does not finish the job it is not effective and may be a waist of time and budget.  Before Trying to make a job efficient the Effectiveness Test should be applied.
See Article 49. The Effectiveness Test, a Tool for reforming Government