Recent Developments in the United States at the National and Sub- National Level 5 th Meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Key National Indicators, Riga, Latvia April 3-4, 2012 J. Christopher Mihm Managing Director, Strategic Issues U.S. Government Accountability Office

2 What Does 21 st Century Governance Look Like? The types of issues that government confronts are growing more complex and boundary-less (wicked issues). The approaches (policy tools) that government uses to address these issues are wide ranging and increasingly indirect (hollow government). Citizen confidence in the federal government is at historic lows and citizens are rightly demanding increased transparency and opportunities for active engagement. All of this must take place in an environment where agencies are stressed to develop and maintain the basic capacities they need (austerity budgets).

3 KNI, Transparency, and Open Government Key indicator systems are by definition “above” the government level in that they seek to measure not government performance, but governance performance. Boundary-less issues require a higher level of performance measurement effort to fully capture all of the initiatives (tools) that are (or should be) aligned to contribute to outcomes. KNI systems provide ways to make information available to the public at varying levels of detail and in formats where the data can be downloaded and manipulated by users. KNI is thus related to open government in that is seeks to provide greater transparency into how government works and facilitate opportunities for greater citizen participation in government decision making.

Status of U.S. National Efforts State of the USA (SUSA) Underway since about 2006 Health care reform law set up governance structure GAO had recommended a public private partnership to leverage public and private funds. SUSA received $13M in private money in first few years. Law authorized $70M over 9 years; but none has been appropriated. The site does to appear to have been updated for many months. As GAO reported, launching and sustaining key indicators efforts is very difficult.

Sub-national and Local initiatives Regional: Baystat: Created by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley in 2007 to “ assess, coordinate and target Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay restoration programs…” Baystat is to cut across disciplines and agencies. State of Virginia: City of Baltimore:

6 Performance.gov

7 Manage for Results: More Frequent, Reliable and Transparent Information The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Modernization Act of 2010 requires reporting for governmentwide and agency priority goals on a quarterly basis. By also requiring information to be posted on a governmentwide performance website, the Act is to make performance information more accessible and easy to use by the public, thus fostering transparency and civic engagement. Agencies are to disclose more information about the accuracy and reliability of their performance information in their performance plans and reports, including the sources for their data and actions to address limitations to the data.

8 WWW. recovery.gov

Recovery.gov Created in 2009 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Recovery.gov is managed by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. It is intended to foster greater accountability and transparency in the use of Recovery Act funds. The site has information on available funding, distribution of funds, and major recipients. The website is required to include plans from federal agencies; information on federal awards of formula grants and awards of competitive grants; and information on federal allocations for mandatory and other entitlement programs by state, county, or other appropriate geographical unit. Prime recipients of Recovery Act funding are to provide information on how they are using their federal funds. Potential next steps: The proposed Digital Transparency and Accountability Act of 2011(DATA)

10 USAspending.gov

11 Data.gov

As of November 2011, it had over 390T federal data sets posted. Data.gov reports over 1100 government apps (and over 230 citizen apps) have been developed. These range, for example, from Food and Drug Administration and child-related Consumer Product Safety Commission recalls, to airline wait times, to State Department travel warnings.

13 Manage for Results: Governmentwide and Agency Priority Goals Under the GPRA Modernization Act The Act requires the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in coordination with agencies, to develop—every 4 years—long-term Federal Government priority goals covering a limited number of crosscutting policy areas, and management improvements needed across the government. At the agency level, the head of each major department and agency (or as otherwise selected by OMB) is to identify agency priority goals that reflect the agency’s priorities; and have ambitious targets that can be achieved within 2 years.

14 Manage for Results: Cross Agency Priority (CAP) Policy Goals Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Education Veterans Career Readiness Broadband Entrepreneurship and Small Businesses Energy Efficiency Exports Job Training Cybersecurity Sustainability

15 Manage for Results: Quarterly Priority Progress Reviews; the “Stat” Model GPRAMA requires top leadership and program officials to be involved in quarterly reviews of priority goals. During these sessions, they are expected to review the progress toward the goals; assess the contributions of underlying federal organizations, programs, and activities; categorize goals by their risk of not being achieved; and develop strategies to improve performance.

16 Contact: Chris Mihm, Copyright This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. The published product may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without further permission from GAO. However, because this work may contain copyrighted images or other material, permission from the copyright holder may be necessary if you wish to reproduce this material separately.