Confirmation of Political Appointees: Eliciting Nominees' Views on
Leadership and Management Issues (Letter Report, 08/11/2000,
GAO/GGD-00-174).

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided guidelines to assist
the Senate in its role of confirming political nominees.

GAO noted that: (1) during the 1990's, Congress responded to
long-standing shortcomings in the way federal agencies were managed by
creating a framework for more results-oriented management; (2) the three
major areas addressed by the reforms were results-oriented
decisionmaking, financial management and information technology
management; (3) no consensus has yet emerged to address what some see as
the major remaining gap in that framework--strategic human capital
management; (4) the Senate can facilitate progress in these key
management areas by confirming nominees who have the skills and
abilities to help make these reforms a reality; (5) realistically there
may be too many questions to expect each nominee to answer them all, and
some questions may not be appropriate for all nominees; (6) this does
not detract from their usefulness because each Senate committee planning
a confirmation hearing can decide which questions to include on the
prehearing questionnaire, depending on the position to be confirmed and
the amount of other information the committee may require the nominee to
provide; (7) GAO believes that asking questions on selected leadership
and management issues will send a strong message that the Senate
considers such issues to be a priority for all nominees for senior
agency positions; (8) the questions can also help ensure that nominees
have the requisite skills to deal effectively with the broad array of
complex management challenges facing the federal government in the 21st
century; and (9) in addition, if the Senate asks these questions as part
of the confirmation process, then future Presidents may place added
importance on ensuring that nominees have the requisite leadership and
management experience for their positions before submitting their names
to the Senate for confirmation.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  GGD-00-174
     TITLE:  Confirmation of Political Appointees: Eliciting Nominees'
	     Views on Leadership and Management Issues
      DATE:  08/11/2000
   SUBJECT:  Performance measures
	     Presidential appointments
	     Congressional oversight

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GAO/GGD-00-174

CONFIRMATION OF POLITICAL APPOINTEES

Eliciting Nominees' Views on Leadership and Management Issues

United States General Accounting Office

GAO Report to the Chairman, Subcommittee on Oversight of Government

Management, Restructuring, and the District of Columbia, Committee on
Governmental Affairs, U. S. Senate

August 2000 GAO/ GGD- 00- 174

United States General Accounting Office Washington, D. C. 20548

Page 1 GAO/ GGD- 00- 174 Political Appointees Comptroller General

of the United States

B- 284958 August 11, 2000 The Honorable George V. Voinovich Chairman,
Subcommittee on Oversight of

Government Management, Restructuring, and the District of Columbia Committee
on Governmental Affairs United States Senate

Dear Mr. Chairman: On February 17, 2000, you wrote to us regarding your
concern that some political appointees in the executive branch lack the
requisite leadership and management skills and background to successfully
address the challenges facing federal agencies. You asked that we suggest
questions to assist the Senate in its constitutional role of confirming
nominees, to help ensure that future political appointees have the requisite
skills to be results- oriented leaders and managers. Appendix I of this
letter transmits those questions.

The questions cover the following four categories:

ï¿½ results- oriented decisionmaking,

ï¿½ financial management,

ï¿½ information and technology management, and

ï¿½ human capital management. During the 1990s, Congress responded to long-
standing shortcomings in the way federal agencies were managed by creating a
framework for more results- oriented management. The three major areas
addressed by the reforms were results- oriented decisionmaking, financial
management, and information technology management. No consensus has yet
emerged to address what some see as the major remaining gap in that
framework- strategic human capital management. The Senate can facilitate
progress in these key management areas by confirming nominees who have the
skills and abilities to help make these key reforms a reality.

Recognizing that the positions nominees may fill can range from the heads of
major departments and agencies to program managers, we have attempted to
order the questions in the first three categories from the general (more
appropriate for agency heads) to the specific (more

B- 284958 Page 2 GAO/ GGD- 00- 174 Political Appointees

appropriate for program managers). The final category- human capital
management- is organized based on a five- part strategy discussed in our
September 1999 report. 1

Realistically, there may be too many questions to expect each nominee to
answer them all, and some questions may not be appropriate for all nominees.
This does not detract from their usefulness because each Senate committee
planning a confirmation hearing can decide which questions to include on the
prehearing questionnaire, depending on the position to be confirmed and the
amount of other information the committee may require the nominee to
provide.

We believe that asking questions on selected leadership and management
issues will send a strong message that the Senate considers such issues to
be a priority for all nominees for senior agency positions. The questions
can also help ensure that nominees have the requisite skills to deal
effectively with the broad array of complex management challenges facing the
federal government in the 21 st century. In addition, if the Senate asks
these questions as part of the confirmation process, then future Presidents
may place added importance on ensuring that nominees have the requisite
leadership and management experience for their positions before submitting
their names to the Senate for confirmation.

As agreed with your office, unless you announce the contents of this report
earlier, we plan no further distribution until 30 days after its issue date.
At that time, we will send copies of the report to Senator Richard J.
Durbin, Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on Oversight of Government
Management, Restructuring, and the District of Columbia, and to Senator Fred
Thompson, Chairman, and Senator Joseph Lieberman, Ranking Minority Member,
Senate Committee on Government Affairs. We will also send copies to Jacob J.
Lew, Director, Office of Management and Budget. In addition, we will make
copies available to others upon request.

Key contributors to these questions were Nancy Kingsbury, J. Christopher
Mihm, Al Stapleton, Stephen Altman, David Plocher, George Stalcup, Kevin
Tansey, and Dennise Stickley of GAO. We would also like to acknowledge the
important role of Pat McGinnis and principals and staff from the Council for
Excellence in Government. The Council organized an extremely valuable and
informative focus group involving over 20 of its principals to help us
develop questions to ask nominees. We solicited further suggestions from a
broad range of individuals with expertise in

1 Human Capital: A Self- Assessment Checklist for Agency Leaders (GAO/ GGD-
99- 179, September 1999).

B- 284958 Page 3 GAO/ GGD- 00- 174 Political Appointees

public management issues. The following experts and organizations responded
and offered insights and suggestions that we used in crafting the questions:
Don Kettl from the University of Wisconsin, Susan Shaw and her colleagues
from the National Treasury Employees Union, Mark Huddleston from the
University of Delaware, Jo Anne Lillis and her colleagues from the American
Society for Public Administration, and Virginia Thomas from the Heritage
Foundation.

We recognize that the nomination and confirmation of agency leaders with
appropriate management skills is only one step in transforming the cultures
of federal agencies so that they become high performance organizations. We
look forward to working with you and other Members of Congress and executive
branch officials in this important work.

If you have any questions, please call J. Christopher Mihm or Al Stapleton
on (202) 512- 8676.

Sincerely yours, David M. Walker Comptroller General of the United States

Appendix I Possible Questions on Key Management Issues

Page 4 GAO/ GGD- 00- 174 Political Appointees

Citizens are demanding improved government services and better stewardship
of public resources. To respond to these demands, the federal government is
adopting the following principles of performance- based management: (1)
shifting the focus of government performance and accountability away from a
preoccupation with activities, such as grants or inspections; (2) focusing
on the results or outcomes of those activities, such as real gains in
safety, health, and living standards; and (3) systematically integrating the
results the government intends to achieve with organizational structures,
budgets, program and service delivery strategies, the use of technology, and
human capital strategies and practices.

The cornerstone of efforts to implement performance- based management is the
adoption of a results orientation. However, because adopting a results
orientation requires a cultural transformation, many agencies continue to
struggle to implement performance- based management. Not surprisingly, since
agencies are in the early years of undertaking the changes that performance-
based management entails, progress across government has been uneven. To
help speed this progress and its uniform adoption, the following questions
have been developed to determine whether candidates have the skills and
knowledge necessary to implement the basic tenets of performance- based
management.

1. During your tenure in this appointed position, what key performance goals
do you want to accomplish, and how would this Committee know whether you
have accomplished them?

2. To successfully lead an organization into the future, a leader must be
able to create and share a vision that inspires people to follow. In your
past experience, what specific steps have you taken to successfully create a
vision for an organization, and how did you make sure that the entire
organization had a common understanding of the mission and was aligned so
that it could be accomplished?

3. Describe two or three tangible examples of instances where your personal
leadership skills were essential in getting your employees to accomplish a
challenging goal. How could those leadership abilities help you in the
position for which you have been nominated?

4. Since the mid- 1960s, there has been a general decline in the public's
trust in government. A 1999 survey found that just 29 percent of Americans
trust the federal government to do the right thing all or most of the time.
This disconnect between the government and the Results- Oriented

Decisionmaking Possible Questions

Appendix I Possible Questions on Key Management Issues

Page 5 GAO/ GGD- 00- 174 Political Appointees

citizens it serves has constrained the government's ability to attract and
retain qualified employees with the skills necessary to improve program
performance. What skills do you have that could prove useful in trying to
reverse this troubling trend, and describe instances where you used these
skills effectively?

5. What characteristics do you believe a results- oriented leader and
effective manager in the federal government must possess? Can you provide a
self- assessment on each characteristic you cite?

6. The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) is intended to provide
managers with a disciplined approach- developing a strategic plan,
establishing annual goals, measuring performance, and reporting on the
results- for improving performance and service quality, increasing customer
satisfaction, and strengthening internal management. What are your views on
this law and your experience with it, as well as your preliminary ideas on
how this law might be implemented? What experiences have you had in
supporting individuals or teams that analyzed root causes, developed
solutions and set goals, as well as used data to measure and systematically
improve program performance, service quality, and customer satisfaction?

7. Are you familiar with the strategic plan, annual performance plans,
annual accountability report, and financial statements of your prospective
agency? What do you consider to be the most important priorities and
challenges facing the agency as it strives to achieve its goals? What
changes, if any, do you feel might be necessary in these plans?

8. Virtually all the results that the federal government attempts to achieve
are accomplished only if the efforts of a vast network of state and local
government and private sector contractors and partners are effectively
coordinated. For example, much of the federal government's domestic agenda-
from mass transit to community mental health- is accomplished in part by
providing grants and other technical assistance and support to state and
local governments and third parties. Federal agencies, by working closely
with their state and local partners, can instill performance- based
approaches to managing intergovernmental programs that seek to maximize both
results and state and local flexibility. Describe the skills and experience
that you have that will prove helpful in developing and leading
intergovernmental performance- based partnerships.

Appendix I Possible Questions on Key Management Issues

Page 6 GAO/ GGD- 00- 174 Political Appointees

9. What is your experience in working with Congress or other legislative
bodies responsible for the authorization, funding, and oversight of
government programs? Specifically, describe any experience you have in
working on a bipartisan basis to identify statutory changes that can improve
program efficiency and effectiveness, as well as in fostering and responding
to legislative oversight.

10. In the private sector, a company must be customer focused to survive.
How important do you think a customer focus is for the public sector, and
what would you do to make sure your agency identified its customers,
understood their expectations, and established performance goals and
measures to meet those expectations, consistent with other priorities?

Policymakers and program managers need high- quality financial information
in making decisions affecting the budget, controlling costs, and measuring
performance. This is key to successful, well managed, and results- oriented
organizations, whether in the private sector or the government. Congress
established improved financial information as a goal for major federal
agencies when it passed the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 and other
financial management improvement legislation.

To meet this goal, federal agencies need to have annual audited financial
statements and financial management systems that support the systematic
measurement of performance, cost accounting, and reporting. While agencies
are making progress in producing annual financial reports and having them
audited, several agencies continue to have major problems in doing so and in
meeting legislative expectations for producing reliable, useful, and timely
financial information for managing ongoing operations and holding managers
accountable.

Another critical aspect of helping to better achieve agencies' missions and
minimize operational problems is the implementation of appropriate internal
controls that support management oversight. Internal controls provide an
early warning about the extent to which employees are meeting their
responsibilities for safeguarding assets and preventing and detecting errors
and fraud. In short, internal controls help government program managers
achieve desired results by supporting activities that ensure the effective
stewardship of public resources.

The following questions are intended to elicit nominees' experience and
ideas for using reliable and timely financial information to ensure adequate
Financial Management

Appendix I Possible Questions on Key Management Issues

Page 7 GAO/ GGD- 00- 174 Political Appointees

accountability, manage for results, and make timely and well- informed
judgments.

11. What are your views on the importance and role of financial information
in managing operations and holding managers accountable?

12. How would you address a situation in which you found that reliable,
useful, and timely financial information was not routinely available for
these purposes?

13. What is your background in using cost information to analyze the
performance, manage the operation, and modify the activities of large and
complex programs?

14. How would your experience in these areas be useful in effectively
administering government programs?

15. What is your view on the importance and role of internal controls (i.
e., management controls) in effectively meeting missions, goals, and
objectives?

The government is dependent on information management systems and networks
to implement vital public services, including tax collection, national
defense, and social benefits. However, GAO and agency Inspectors General
have reported that federal agencies have wasted billions of dollars in
developing systems and processes that are not cost effective, fail to
deliver expected results, and provide sub- optimal solutions to agency's
core mission and business needs. Perhaps more importantly, agencies are not
taking full advantage of technology to help reengineer their key business
processes or to explore opportunities to use techniques developed for e-
business/ e- commerce to make dramatic improvements in customer service and
to drive down administrative costs. Finally, the vast majority of agencies
have experienced difficulty in providing adequate security over their
automated systems. As a result, most agencies may be vulnerable to
unauthorized intrusions or service disruptions that threaten the integrity
of their operations.

Congress has taken action to provide a legislative framework for improving
agency information technology management, including the Paperwork Reduction
Act, the Clinger- Cohen- Act, and the Computer Security Act. Other
legislation, such as the Government Paperwork Possible Questions

Information and Technology Management

Appendix I Possible Questions on Key Management Issues

Page 8 GAO/ GGD- 00- 174 Political Appointees

Elimination Act, was enacted to foster electronic submission and maintenance
of information and the use of electronic signatures.

Most agencies, however, have not established the integrated set of
management controls and processes necessary to support the effective use of
information technology, as required by statute. These underpinnings, which
include technical and business architectures, investment control processes,
and life- cycle management controls, provide the structure and framework for
effective information technology implementation. Without such a structure,
individual agency information technology projects are more likely to
flounder and fail to support other initiatives.

16. Based on your experience, please explain the role technology should play
in your agency to support mission needs. What measures would you implement
to show the impact technology has in meeting these needs?

17. How would you determine whether your agency has in place the key
information management processes required by law, including a detailed
architecture (both business and technical), an investment control process,
and computer security plans? What role do you envision you would play in
managing or providing oversight over these processes? How would you go about
implementing or improving these processes?

18. Based on your experience, how would you assess your core mission and
business processes to identify opportunities for reengineering and for the
enhanced use of technology? What challenges do you believe your agency may
face in reengineering and using technology? In using e- government? In
hiring and retaining qualified information technology professionals?

The federal government employs a diverse and knowledge- based workforce,
comprised of individuals with a broad spectrum of technical and program
skills and institutional memory. They are the government's human capital,
its greatest asset. Social, economic, and technological changes have become
a constant in our society and our world. These changes inevitably affect the
way government must do business and have made federal managers acutely aware
of how much they rely on their human capital. To meet the changing
environment, political appointees and other agency managers need to give
human capital a higher priority than ever before and modernize their human
capital policies and practices. Possible Questions

Human Capital Management

Appendix I Possible Questions on Key Management Issues

Page 9 GAO/ GGD- 00- 174 Political Appointees

To be successful, political appointees need to grasp two principles that are
central to the human capital idea. First, people are assets whose value can
be enhanced through investment. As with any investment, the goal is to
maximize value while managing risk. As the value of people increases, so
does the performance capacity of the organization, and therefore its value
to clients and other stakeholders. Second, an organization's human capital
policies must be aligned to support the organization's “shared
vision”- the mission, vision for the future, core values, goals, and
strategies by which the organization has defined its direction and its
expectations for itself and its people. All human capital policies and
practices should be developed, implemented, and assessed by the standard of
how well they help the organization pursue its shared vision.

The importance of managing people strategically and of maintaining a highly
skilled and energized workforce that is empowered to focus on results is a
lesson that is well- known in the private sector and among highperforming
governments at the state and local levels and abroad. Here in the United
States, quality management principles, such as those expounded by W. Edwards
Deming, are at the heart of programs that recognize world- class
organizational management, such as the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality
Award Program in the private sector and the President's Quality Award
Program in the federal government.

Using similar principles to assess their own “people
management”, federal agencies should assess the extent to which their
approaches to managing human capital support their missions and goals.
Agency leaders should examine five key areas-- recognizing, however, that
all aspects of human capital management are interrelated and should not be
dealt with in isolation from one another. 1 These five parts of the human
capital assessment framework are as follows:

ï¿½ Strategic planning: Establish the agency's mission, vision for the future,
core values, goals, and strategies.

ï¿½ Organizational alignment: Integrate human capital strategies with the
agency's core business practices.

ï¿½ Leadership: Foster a committed leadership team and provide for reasonable
continuity through succession planning.

ï¿½ Talent: Recruit, hire, develop, and retain employees with the skills for
mission accomplishment.

1 For a fuller discussion, see Human Capital: A Self- Assessment Checklist
for Agency Leaders (GAO/ GGD- 99- 179, September 1999).

Appendix I Possible Questions on Key Management Issues

Page 10 GAO/ GGD- 00- 174 Political Appointees

ï¿½ Performance culture: Enable and motivate performance while ensuring
accountability and fairness for all employees.

It is critical for agency leaders to align their agency's human capital
management policies and practices with modern performance management
principles, within the constraints imposed by current law. The following
questions are intended to elicit nominees' experience and ideas for
building, maintaining, and marshaling the human capital needed to achieve
results.

19. GPRA envisions that agencies will link their human capital planning with
their strategic and annual plans. However, we found that most agency plans
did not sufficiently address how human capital will be used to achieve
results. Can you describe your experience in building and maintaining the
human capital needed to achieve results (getting the right employees for the
job and providing the training, structure, incentives, and accountability to
work effectively)? More generally, describe your experience in integrating
human capital considerations and planning into programmatic planning.

20. Describe your experience in evaluating workforces (factors such as age,
attrition rates, diversity, and skills imbalances) to identify the most
challenging human capital issues, and discuss how you propose dealing with
these issues in your agency over the next several years.

21. Agency leaders can use various methods to access human capital: hiring
full- time career employees, hiring limited- term employees, and contracting
for services. What experience do you have in using these methods to achieve
your goals, and what are the advantages/ disadvantages of each?

22. If you have spoken with your predecessors- those who have held the
position you now seek-- about their “lessons learned” on how to
manage the agency effectively, describe how their advice and experience has
influenced your thinking and plans.

23. What key differences do you see in managing a public versus private
sector organization (e. g., the code of government ethics)? Can you provide
a self- assessment of your leadership capabilities for dealing effectively
with those differences? Possible Questions

Strategic Planning Organizational Alignment Leadership

Appendix I Possible Questions on Key Management Issues

Page 11 GAO/ GGD- 00- 174 Political Appointees

24. High- performance organizations draw on the strengths of employees at
all levels and maintain honest two- way communications. Based on your
experience, how would you assess your agency's capability for two- way
communication, and what preliminary ideas do you have to promote such
communication in your agency?

25. The federal government's workforce has undergone significant downsizing
in the past several years, and with the current tight labor market, it is
becoming increasingly difficult to attract and retain talent. How would you
work, within current rules, to attract and retain individuals with the
experience, education, and skills needed by your agency?

26. Numerous GAO reports have highlighted the need for agencies to expend
more resources on effective training and professional development programs
to better equip federal employees for the workplaces of the future. Based on
your experience, what priority would you place on workplace development, and
how would you emphasize continuous learning in your agency?

27. To what extent, if any, do you believe that federal employees' pay
should be more closely tied to their agencies' strategic and annual
performance goals, and why?

28. High- performance organizations have a performance culture that
effectively involves and empowers employees to improve operational and
program performance while ensuring accountability and fairness for all
employees. In fostering a performance- oriented culture, agencies may focus
on (1) working with unions to develop buy- in on goals and strategies, (2)
providing the training that staff need to work effectively, and (3)
devolving authority while focusing accountability on results. Describe the
range of experiences you have had in using each of these strategies to
instill a results orientation throughout an organization.

29. To become a high- performance organization, an agency needs senior
leaders who are drivers of continuous improvement. What is the best approach
for motivating career employees, or any employees for that matter, to
achieve excellence?

30. Political appointees who create and maintain constructive working
relationships with civil servants, including members of federal unions, can
improve employee morale, increase performance, and lower costs. Talent

Performance Culture

Appendix I Possible Questions on Key Management Issues

Page 12 GAO/ GGD- 00- 174 Political Appointees

Describe your specific experience involving “front line”
employees in achieving results.

31. High- performance organizations maintain an environment characterized by
inclusiveness and diversity of styles and personal backgrounds. Based on
your experience, what is your vision for creating and maintaining this kind
of workplace environment?

Page 13 GAO/ GGD- 00- 174 Political Appointees

Page 14 GAO/ GGD- 00- 174 Political Appointees

Page 15 GAO/ GGD- 00- 174 Political Appointees

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