Memo details Bush reform agenda

"Implementing Government Reform"

The White House released details July 11 about ways President Bush intends to reform the federal government, including the creation of a chief operating officer at every agency.

The memo provides detailed actions to support the administration's goals for government reform that were outlined in the fiscal 2002 budget request. Bush's primary objectives are to make government citizen-centered, results-oriented and market-based.

Actions described in the memo include:

* Creating agency chief operating officers. Each COO will be the equivalent of a deputy secretary and report directly to the agency head.

* Establishing the President's Management Council, which will be made up of the COOs from the major departments and independent agencies and the heads of other agencies.

Agency COOs will have agencywide authority to implement goals, provide overall performance management and promote reform through the development of strategic plans and measuring results.

COOs also will oversee agency efforts to implement the president's governmentwide priorities, such as integrating performance and budgeting, expanding outsourcing and advancing e-government.

The deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, a position currently held by Sean O'Keefe, will be the chairperson of the President's Management Council. The council will be responsible for improving overall executive branch management through implementing the president's management agenda, coordinating interagency management-related efforts, ensuring the adoption of new management practices and identifying examples of and ways to share best practices.

The White House released the memo a month after naming Mark Forman to the newly created position of associate director for information technology and e-government.

Forman, who will address the administration's e-government strategy at the E-Gov 2001 conference today in Washington, D.C., is the leader for governmentwide efforts to coordinate and implement information technology to improve government performance.