Young's departure from OMB to come soon

Tim Young, the deputy administrator for e-government and information technology at the Office of Management and Budget, is planning to leave the agency after a suitable successor is found.

Young, the only politically appointed deputy administrator in the federal government, said he plans to return to the private sector, but does not have a job lined up. Before joining OMB five years ago as manager of the internal efficiency and effectiveness portfolio, he was a senior consultant at BearingPoint.  He assumed his current position in August 2004.

OMB has reclassified the position, so Young's successor will be a civil service employee and not a political appointee. Although the details of the change have been in the works for several months, the job listing was only posted earlier this month on USAJobs.gov. Young estimated it might take two to three months to find and hire the best applicant.

Young said he could apply for the position but felt the time was right to return to the private sector, although the decision was "bittersweet." Young said he believes he and OMB's leadership have accomplished a great deal.

The e-gov agenda in particular has been a success, Young said. "When I started here, we were just talking about concepts and theory," he said. Now, the initiatives are well under way. E-Payroll has consolidated many agency payroll systems, so instead of managing 26 systems -- one for each agency -- there soon will be only four, he said. E-Travel, similarly, has consolidated many agency travel management systems.

Now, ideas are coming from agencies and Congress, not just OMB. That means people are growing confident in the concept and imagining new ways to apply it, Young said.

"It's refreshing to see people coming up with great ideas without a lot of prodding," he said.

Echoing a theme of the Bush administration's OMB, Young said, "We are one government, not 26 separate agencies. We can work together. We should work together."

The federal enterprise architecture is another area Young considers a success of his tenure. Five or six years ago, he said, the EA was just a series of reference models. Agencies are now using it to make budgeting and business decisions.

Although the next administration will inevitably bring new priorities and make changes, Young said he believes the e-Gov initiative, the lines of business, the enterprise architecture and other efforts will endure.

The next deputy administrator, however, should not expect to just take the reins and hold a steady course, he said. "The most important attribute is being focused on continual change and improvement," he said.