Quote of the Day

Steven VanRoekel is the new CIO.

He brought a .com mentality to the FCC, including a perspective that “everything should be an API” that caught some tech observers’ eye. He worked with an innovative new media team that established a voice for social media for the @FCC on social media where that had been none and a FCC.gov/live livestream that automatically detected what device you’d used to access it.

Happy Birthday GAO

Accountability Is Their Middle Name

Some recent reports from GAO:
Economic Development: Efficiency and Effectiveness of Fragmented Programs Are Unclear

Climate Change Adaptation: Aligning Funding with Strategic Priorities

Financial Education and Counseling Pilot Program

Value-Added Taxes: Potential Lessons for the United States from Other Countries' Experiences

Data Center Consolidation: Agencies Need to Complete Inventories and Plans to Achieve Expected Savings

Millennium Challenge Corporation: Compacts in Cape Verde and Honduras Achieved Reduced Targets

Information Sharing Environment: Better Road Map Needed to Guide Implementation and Investments

Pakistan Assistance: Relatively Little of the $3 Billion in Requested Assistance Is Subject to State's Certification of Pakistan's Progress on Nonproliferation and Counterterrorism Issues

Drinking Water: Unreliable State Data Limit EPA's Ability to Target Enforcement Priorities and Communicate Water Systems' Performance

Information Technology: Continued Attention Needed to Accurately Report Federal Spending and Improve Management

Cost and Legal Authority for Selected Financial Literacy Programs and Activities

Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, Dating Violence, and Stalking: National Data Collection Efforts Underway to Address Some Information Gaps

The Democratic Republic of the Congo: Information on the Rate of Sexual Violence in War-Torn Eastern DRC and Adjoining Countries

Child Fatalities from Maltreatment: National Data Could Be Strengthened

NASA Needs to Better Assess Contract Termination Liability Risks and Ensure Consistency in Its Practices

Child Maltreatment: Strengthening National Data on Child Fatalities Could Aid in Prevention

Combating Terrorism: Additional Steps Needed to Enhance Foreign Partners' Capacity to Prevent Terrorist Travel

Antibiotic Resistance: Data Gaps Will Remain Despite HHS Taking Steps to Improve Monitoring

Tax Gap: Complexity and Taxpayer Compliance

Influenza Pandemic: Lessons from the H1N1 Pandemic Should Be Incorporated into Future Planning

American Samoa and Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands: Employment, Earnings, and Status of Key Industries Since Minimum Wage Increases Began

Tax Administration: Information on Selected Foreign Practices That May Provide Useful Insights

Dashboards are only tools: effectiveness depends on their use

A new report for the IBM Center by Dr. Sukumar Ganapati, “Using Dashboards in Government” provides a snapshot into the internal and external uses of dashboards as ways of monitoring performance and providing accountability and transparency in large organizations. Ganapati says: “Dashboards summarize key performance metrics of organzations. They typically integrate data from different sources and display performance measures through informative graphics. The visualization allows readers to understand complex data in less time than it would take to read similar material ocated in the text of a full report.

He says there are different types of dashboards: operational (for monitoring in real time such as call centers or air traffic control); tactical (for analysis and benchmarking such as welfare caseload processing); and strategic (such as balanced scorecards of agency performance).

Source: Using Dashboards in Government

Mapping for Results - Haiti

Haiti - Mapping for Results

The Age of the Dashboard!

Assorted about Public Sector Dashboards.



Dashboards - A Downloadable "How To" Guide

Using Performance Measures

The Federal IT Dashboard-The Status Quo Is No Longer Acceptable !

OMB’s New Performance Principles;

He also noted the use of management dashboards, such as the IT Dashboard, and said “We plan similar dashboards for other common government functions, including procurement, financial management, and personnel management.” He also said OMB will look for ways to make agency Performance and Accountability Reports more useful. The Department of the Interior’s report may be a useful model.

Memo to IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department: You guys need to have a close watch over the innovative ways the new US administration is dealing with performance management- some of their ideas are replicable in many developing countries.