Unprecedented speed, transparency and accountability have made the Recovery Act a challenge like no other for C-title executives and program managers. Agency leaders are working together more closely than ever to move huge amounts of money quickly into the economy while at the same time ensuring it is spent properly and achieves results. At the Energy Department, for example, some offices saw the funds they are expected to distribute via grants and/or contracts increase 600 percent to 4,000 percent. As a result, the Energy Department offers an example of success in establishing new structures to enable multi-stakeholder collaboration.
“Collaborative Leadership: The Recovery Act and Beyond,” the second in a series of three webinars in partnership with Government Executive, provides practical, actionable ideas, advice and lessons about using collaborative leadership to accomplish Recovery Act goals and extending it to improve all agencies’ operations in the future. This Executive Guide identifies examples of collaborative leadership in action and draws out key attributes all agencies can apply.
This guide also provides a link to information and registration for the upcoming Dec. 10 webinar, “Practical Transparency: Applying Exchange Networks for Mission Results.” Immediately below, you can sign up to receive Collaborative Government Today, our free, daily e-newsletter that keeps you up-to-date on developments in data-sharing, transparency and collaborative government, as well as upcoming Initiative events, videos and reports.
A full replay of the webinar is available here:
Today’s webinar opened an important discussion that should continue. Please join the dialogue by sharing your questions and comments, lessons learned and actionable insights with interested colleagues by clicking here.
To view the November 12 webinar in archives, please click here.
The Recovery Act Funding Challenge
The level of funding provided in the Recovery Act presents a unique challenge for the Department of Energy, as you can see in the chart below comparing Recovery Act funding with FY2009 appropriations:
Recovery Challenges:
The Recovery Act presents many challenges for Agencies responsible using and distributing funds:
- Creating plans to spend funds beyond appropriations
- Management of new money, new programs, and new requirements
- Increased risk of failure, fraud, waste, and abuse
- Demand for instant information on where the money is going and tighter control of the funds
- Creating measurements for success (e.g. How many jobs were created?)
Energy’s Four-pronged Accountability Mechanism:
- Planning
- Processes
- Verification
- Management
New Requirements and Increased Controls
| New Requirements |
Increased Controls |
| Timeliness Clear and measurable objectives Transparency Monitoring Reporting |
Financial Management Assurance Tool Program-level risk assessments Project-level risk assessment tool Risk mitigation plans Increased education of internal controls |
Key Practical Takeaways
- Make sure the right people are in place to execute the plans that are created and create a means for mobilizing all resources to meet the challenging demands.
- Craft a project planning process that speeds decision-making, while at the same time building in prudent management.
- Get program office support through coordination, information integration, and monitoring and evaluation to ensure successful project delivery.
- Have programs generate crisp, two-page project operating plans (POPs) that include 90-day and high-level milestones, project plans, key stakeholders to involve, environmental concerns, and key accomplishments to speed execution via improved executive decision-making.
- Continue to use the POP process as a pre-budgeting tool to vet ideas.
- Set defined planning and approval steps for projects in order to improve planning, reduce risk, and augment financial control.
- Change business processes and modify existing information systems to meet Recovery Act mandates and continuing requirements for transparency, collaboration, and accountability.
- Collaborate with state and local governments to create information systems that work for them as well as federal agencies in monitoring the use of funds, particularly those disseminated through formula grants.
- Create working groups of “trusted seconds”—assistants to key top-level decision-makers—who can review plans and processes and amend them to ensure faster leadership decisions.
- Gather and coordinate project performance information via information technology.
- Integrate Government Performance and Results Act performance information.
- Use data to budget for, staff, manage and oversee project execution, thereby reducing the workload burden on program staff.
- Make credible risk management plans a criterion for gaining project approval, and make programs, not the CFO’s office, the owner of those plans and their results.
- Use Recovery Act-level data collection and sharing, transparency, risk management, collaboration and accountability to create a “new normal” for budget planning and execution, program management and reporting.
Additional Resources:
Data.gov | Apps.gov | USASpending.gov
Recovery.gov | FederalReporting.gov
The Collaboration Project (National Academy of Public Administration)
Owen Barwell
Mr. Barwell has over nineteen years of experience as a business manager, management consultant, and professional accountant gained in organizations undergoing significant change. He has helped both public and private sector organizations execute strategic plans, reengineer business processes, and implement major functional business systems. His experience spans the professional services, aerospace, retail real estate, utilities, and rail industries.
Mr. Barwell served as the Director for Enterprise Strategy and Planning at Analytic Services Inc., a non-profit professional services corporation serving the defense, homeland security, and intelligence communities. He was responsible for all information technology operations, as well as modernizing their business systems architecture.
Prior to Analytic Services, Mr. Barwell served in business transformation roles in the Office of the Administrator at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He led NASA’s transition to full cost accounting, and also served as the Deputy Director of the Integrated Enterprise Management Program, NASA’s finance and business information systems modernization initiative. Previously Mr. Barwell was a principal consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, based in the Washington, DC and London, UK offices. Mr. Barwell began his career in finance with KPMG, and went on to hold financial management positions in the privatized rail industry.
Contact Information:
Owen Barwell (
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Jay Hoffman (
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Howard Dickenson (
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Department of Energy, Chief Financial Office, Program Analysis and Evaluation
202.586.1911
For additonal information and to register for the upcoming webinars, please click on the links below:
Practical Transparency: Applying Exchange Networks for Mission Results
Disclaimer: The postings on this site are the opinions of the individual author, and do not necessarily represent CGI's strategies, views, or opinions. CGI expressly disclaims all liability for actions taken or not taken based on the content of this blog.
