Comptroller General Talks About Familiar Topics
Gene Dodaro, Acting Comptroller General of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), delivered a presentation last week to The Institute of Internal Auditors titled "Preparing the Accountability Profession for 21st Century Challenges." The presentation provides some interesting clues about GAO's investigative priorities over the next several years; as Bob O'Harrow at Government Inc. notes, it also serves as a "clear reminder of how important oversight is and will be for a long time to come."
Several issues familiar to POGO were among those discussed in Mr. Dodaro's presentation. For instance, part of the presentation talks about "an integrated GAO effort intended to help the U.S. prepare for a pandemic in ways that are sustainable over the long-term" with "lessons learned from prior emergencies, such as Hurricanes Andrew and Katrina, Y2K, SARS, and 9/11." This effort by the GAO would be welcome, as POGO's findings have discovered problems in both responses to past emergencies and preparations for possible emergencies in the future: a 2006 POGO report discovered significant problems with federal contracting in the wake of Katrina (as we noted in the report, the government didn't even absorb the "lessons learned" from Hurricane Andrew in 1992), while a report released earlier this year found troubling weaknesses in the government's plans for dealing with an outbreak of pandemic flu.
Mr. Dodaro also had some interesting thoughts on improvements that need to be made within the accountability profession, such as identifying problems "before crises emerge," recognizing that solving problems often requires "multiple organizations to work together," providing "more detailed recommendations," and learning to "cope with constrained resources."
-- John Cappel
Dodaro's thrust was predictable. Bureaucracies abhor a vacuum, and auditors and other reviewers will rush into a gap left by absent, negligent, or merely incompetent management. If you read--I think it was page 19--of his pitch, the roles of an IG sound rather like those activities which a good leader of operations would perform.
So, we have a horrendous lack of management and executive activity--it isn't just incompetence, although the Administration does a sterling display of that. Political and career executives and managers are not managing. They are over-delegating, afraid to act (for few good reasons), lack a feeling of responsibility or accountability to act, or just don't know how.
This leaves the IGs a clear field to find a lot, if not everything, wrong. A "government ill executed," as Prof. Light says. Boy, is it ever.
By the way, contractors might help in many government venues, if, and it is a big if, they actually know how to get things done. Some can and some can't. And in any case, contractors don't make policy decisions or perform any functions not authorized by their contract. Contractors generally let government determine what inherently governmental is, which is the only way to go.
How on earth will the lack of government executive and management activity be reversed? It isn't as simple as getting a new president. And Rush and McCain may well like this state of affairs.
Does this make sense to any of you, the usual suspects?
Posted on: Jul 16, 2008 at 12:01 PM