government reform | The Contracting Education Academy

October 9, 2020 By cs

Why government must change its management model

Bureaucracy is getting worse, not better.

COVID-19 and the sudden shift to working remotely has accomplished something presidential initiatives, commissions and consultants failed to do — it’s forced work units and their managers to rethink working relationships. There is no time or reason to do another study; agencies have to make it work.

On the positive side, this could finally provide the impetus to shed bureaucratic practices. As John Kamensky argued in a recent column, it’s time to “strengthen unit-level health and performance.” That’s also the theme of a new book, Humanocracy, a “passionate, data-driven argument for excising bureaucracy and replacing it with something better.” The book advances the ideas in Kamensky’s column in some important ways.

The Need to ‘Excise Bureaucracy’

Government today is confronted by multiple workforce concerns: the abrupt need for highly qualified, dedicated front line workers to battle COVID; redefined manager-employee working relationships imposed by remote working; the continuing aging of the workforce; a work experience that by all reports contributes to early turnover of new hires; and a need for improved performance. Government is also affected by demographic trends, the changing career choices of the next generation of workers, and talent shortages in a number of fields. Looking ahead, in the absence of needed change, the workforce problems will deepen and performance will deteriorate.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/09/why-government-must-change-its-management-model/168449/

February 20, 2020 By cs

To modernize, push for smaller procurements

Sometimes baby steps make sense.

The government is all about investing heavily in technologies like cloud and artificial intelligence. With these massive efforts come massive contracts, but is that necessarily the best way to innovate?

Many modernization efforts have been lackluster because of the way procurements have been structured. Massive, multibillion-dollar contracts spanning years with the same vendor means the government has put all their eggs in one basket; this has led to issues with integrating and implementing these “innovative” procurements. These mammoth contracts open the doors to legal disputes, among other bottlenecks to implementation, illustrated best in the legal battle over the Defense Department’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract.

Why Big Procurements Aren’t Always Better

Big contracts don’t set the government up for success. Agencies invest millions of dollars without the ability to test the vendor and the technology. Multiyear contracts allow few options for agile pivoting, in case something doesn’t work out and the mission needs to change directions.

Smaller procurements are more flexible and agile, and they also allow for increased competition, which leads to better solutions that are more impactful for government agencies. In addition, when contracts are narrow at a smaller scale, it diminishes the risk of a vendor protesting, which stops the entire project and pulls you into court. Thoughtfully planning smaller procurements can save the protest headache that will suck time and money away from your mission into a wearying process with a side effect of unsavory headlines.

Big contracts also can lead the government to vendor lock, which is problematic for a variety of reasons. When an agency is beholden to one vendor, system integration, maintenance, and future work become nearly impossible. (Big contracts can lead to vendor lock, which results in a lot of the IP struggles we see today.)

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/ideas/2020/02/modernize-push-smaller-procurements/162869/

January 21, 2020 By cs

DoD marks 20th anniversary of Trafficking Victims Protection Act

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, the first comprehensive law in the U.S. to address the transnational crime of human trafficking.

The law created the ”3P” framework: preventing trafficking; prosecute traffickers; and protecting and assisting trafficking victims. Congress reauthorized the law in 2003, 2005, 2008, 2013, 2017 and 2018.

In 2002, National Security Presidential Directive 22 directed U.S. government agencies to create a strategic plan to implement the trafficking law.

In observing the anniversary, DoD is highlighting the following milestones:

In 2003, DoD was the first federal agency to have its inspector general assess its efforts in combating the trafficking of persons;
DoD was the first federal agency to require its personnel to take training in combating the trafficking of persons. The effort started with military personnel in 2005 and expanded to civilians in 2010;
In 2005, DoD added a statute to the Uniform Code of Military Justice prohibiting patronizing a prostitute, building on the approach to trafficking and related activities laid out for federal agencies by the presidential directive; and
In 2006, DoD was the first federal agency to add a trafficking-in-persons clause to all of its contracts, as required by the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement.

Also in 2006, DoD took action after a Multinational Force Iraq inspection found indications of labor trafficking, including widespread deceptive hiring practices and excessive recruitment fees, substandard worker living conditions at some sites, and widespread confiscation of passports of third-country workers in Iraq.

In response, DoD ordered military contractors and subcontractors to return the passports of all workers in Iraq. The department also set standards for housing and living space for the thousands of civilian workers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That same year, the Combating the Trafficking of Persons program manager office was established.

In 2012, DoD became the first U.S. government agency to form a task force and draft a strategic plan on combating the trafficking of persons.

DoD created specialized training tailored for leaders, investigative professionals, acquisition professionals and education professionals. ”General awareness” training teaches DoD personnel that child soldiers are trafficking victims.

Source: https://www.defense.gov/explore/story/Article/2052349/dod-marks-20th-anniversary-of-trafficking-victims-protection-act/

November 23, 2018 By AMK

Advice on running a government agency like a startup, from someone who’s tried it

The White House recently formed the Office of American Innovation, which has a stated focus on “implementing policies and scaling proven private-sector models to spur job creation and innovation.”

It’s a familiar idea: A SWAT innovation team is created, ready to inject new thinking into a burdensome bureaucracy.

It certainly sounds familiar to Greg Godbout, a former U.S. presidential innovation fellow and a cofounder of 18F, a digital services office within the U.S. General Services Administration. 18F was borne, in part, out of the Obama administration’s attempts to funnel startup-style ingenuity into the government, particularly after the disastrous launch of Healthcare.gov. Godbout was executive director at 18F before departing to become chief technology officer for the EPA. He is now the CEO and cofounder of cBrain North America.

The Harvard Business Review asked Godbout about how innovation teams work in government. Following are excerpts of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.

Keep reading this article at: https://hbr.org/2017/04/advice-on-running-a-government-agency-like-a-startup-from-someone-whos-tried-it

June 1, 2018 By AMK

Agencies need to take more risks in acquisition

The recently released president’s management agenda states that efforts to transform government through major acquisitions are hamstrung by processes that “remain captive to a risk-averse culture that rewards compliance over creativity.”

No wonder. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) contains a mind-numbing 1,917 pages of policies and procedures that government acquisition officials must follow when buying goods and services. Navigating these rules can be daunting for contracting officers, who often live in fear of something going wrong.

But even within the constraints, there is room for flexibility—approaches that deviate from the norm but hold potential to achieve better quality and innovative outcomes while preserving competition, transparency and accountability.

Following a path toward innovation requires overcoming the fear of failure and the willingness to take risks within reasonable bounds.

For example, improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, have been a major cause of injury and death in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq since the United States put its personnel on the ground. Enemy combatants can remotely detonate IEDs using cell phones or other electronic devices.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2018/05/agencies-need-take-more-risks-acquisition/148433/