Good Governance
Governance is running a government that is efficient, honest, and integral. The following subjects are discussed here.
- Efficiency in Government
- Som wrote three papers and entered them into a competition. They went up to the DoD level.
- Combating Corruption
- Corruption is addressed at the page titled Corruption on this site.
- Protecting the innocent and helpless people
- Beating International Trafficking at home
Engineering a High Performance Public Service with
Unit Processes as Building Blocks
Summary
Performance of the public service has been the subject of numerous studies with the latest pronouncement and recommendations for improvements coming from the Volcker Commission in January 2003. Every study compared the public sector with the private sector and suggested somewhat similar remedies with respect to organization, improvement of leadership ranks, management, and work methods. The studies invariably recommended enhanced authority to the public service leaders and managers to reshape the public work force. The latest Volcker Commission stated, "Disciplined policy direction, operational flexibility, and clear and high performance standards are the guiding objectives of our proposals."
The present author argues that the private sector has been performing well in the manufacturing functions while its performance in the managerial and administrative areas is also appalling. Therefore, public sector will do well by understanding the key factors contributing to the excellent performance of the private sector in the manufacturing arena with a view to adopting them in its operations. The engineering profession has done a fabulous job of analyzing and understanding the manufacturing sector and building Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) or Agile Manufacturing that resulted in orders of magnitude productivity increases. The author advocates unit process analysis and synthesis, key elements in the development of FMS, for the public sector to improve its performance.
The author explains the concept of unit processes with manufacturing analogies and recommends a program for the government to undertake. The author takes issue with the President’s Management Agenda, which stated, “Agencies will take a disciplined and focused approach to address these long-standing and substantial challenges and begin steps necessary to become high performing organizations in which: … emphasis on process will be replaced by a focus on results." (Italics added.) The present author contends that in order to de-emphasize process at the operational level, we have to move the process to a higher level of attention, scrutiny, and analysis and develop integrated systems. For example, today’s auto manufacturing processes bear no resemblance to the manufacturing processes employed in building our father’s automobiles. We have to improve government processes so that the resulting products and services to citizens are of high quality, timely, and at reasonable cost to tax payers. The processes should be repeatable, flexible, interchangeable, and capable assembly from unit processes.
The manufacturing industry accomplished its current preeminent position in high performance through hard work in defining, analyzing, designing, and synthesizing manufacturing processes, generally called flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). The development process was neither easy nor cheap. Competitive marketing forces drove the industry to the development and those who adopted them survived. The sector succeeded and is deriving profits from it; the customers are benefiting too.
Government should examine computer systems integrated manufacturing and undertake a program to develop and build a Computer Integrated Public Administration and Management System (CIPAMS). The author reminds the leadership of the Services of their past gifts to the society in the form of interstate highways and the Internet and urges the Services to continue that famous record through the development of CIPAMS.
The author is revising the essay now. The old essay is available upon request.
Performance of the public service has been the subject of numerous studies with the latest pronouncement and recommendations for improvements coming from the Volcker Commission in January 2003. Every study compared the public sector with the private sector and suggested somewhat similar remedies with respect to organization, improvement of leadership ranks, management, and work methods. The studies invariably recommended enhanced authority to the public service leaders and managers to reshape the public work force. The latest Volcker Commission stated, "Disciplined policy direction, operational flexibility, and clear and high performance standards are the guiding objectives of our proposals."
The present author argues that the private sector has been performing well in the manufacturing functions while its performance in the managerial and administrative areas is also appalling. Therefore, public sector will do well by understanding the key factors contributing to the excellent performance of the private sector in the manufacturing arena with a view to adopting them in its operations. The engineering profession has done a fabulous job of analyzing and understanding the manufacturing sector and building Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) or Agile Manufacturing that resulted in orders of magnitude productivity increases. The author advocates unit process analysis and synthesis, key elements in the development of FMS, for the public sector to improve its performance.
The author explains the concept of unit processes with manufacturing analogies and recommends a program for the government to undertake. The author takes issue with the President’s Management Agenda, which stated, “Agencies will take a disciplined and focused approach to address these long-standing and substantial challenges and begin steps necessary to become high performing organizations in which: … emphasis on process will be replaced by a focus on results." (Italics added.) The present author contends that in order to de-emphasize process at the operational level, we have to move the process to a higher level of attention, scrutiny, and analysis and develop integrated systems. For example, today’s auto manufacturing processes bear no resemblance to the manufacturing processes employed in building our father’s automobiles. We have to improve government processes so that the resulting products and services to citizens are of high quality, timely, and at reasonable cost to tax payers. The processes should be repeatable, flexible, interchangeable, and capable assembly from unit processes.
The manufacturing industry accomplished its current preeminent position in high performance through hard work in defining, analyzing, designing, and synthesizing manufacturing processes, generally called flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). The development process was neither easy nor cheap. Competitive marketing forces drove the industry to the development and those who adopted them survived. The sector succeeded and is deriving profits from it; the customers are benefiting too.
Government should examine computer systems integrated manufacturing and undertake a program to develop and build a Computer Integrated Public Administration and Management System (CIPAMS). The author reminds the leadership of the Services of their past gifts to the society in the form of interstate highways and the Internet and urges the Services to continue that famous record through the development of CIPAMS.
The author is revising the essay now. The old essay is available upon request.
Bringing Government into the 21st Century through the
Application of Information Technology
Summary
Companies around the globe have realized information technology (IT) as a key factor in business and industrial competitiveness. The manufacturing sector made giant strides in deploying IT and accomplished orders of magnitude improvements in product quality, process efficiency, and customer response. Industrial and retail sectors are well on their way to deploying IT in the logistics and business operations also. While the sector is under severe competitive pressures, the private sector’s experience with the deployment of IT has been highly positive to the bottom line and leaders are upbeat about the future contributions from IT. No company would think of going back to the old ways. That is the positive news. Private companies recognized that the plant is the life-blood of every manufacturing enterprise and invested their IT dollars there to improve the bottom line. Realization of that fact allowed the industrial sector to gain from IT deployment in the manufacturing operations and the sector is moving to other effective applications.
Unfortunately, the picture with the public sector is not as rosy. In fact fruitful IT deployment in the government has a long way to go. Before making more investments and making drastic changes, it is essential to identify the place(s) where value is created in government. In the case of the public sector, lacking a unanimous agreement on what and where value is created, government leaders are floundering in the application of IT in citizen services. It is beyond the scope of this essay to discuss all the issues bearing upon government performance, causes of suboptimal performance, and potential remedies. I limit the scope of the essay to how IT can help government in the fast paced new century. For the purposes of this discussion, the present author assumes that the other vital factors will be addressed by leaders appropriately.
There are two key lessons we can learn from the IT application experience of the private sector. One is focusing the resources and the other is getting an enterprising team to embark upon the development work. This model can work in the public sector. But unlike the private sector, the public sector has no bottom line to scare its workers into running hard from old ways. Pressure and championship has to come from the President and leaders in the public sector hierarchy.
The present author suggests a concentrated program of IT application development for the government’s business. The program starts with the selection of a list of most common applications across the government where it interacts with the citizens. For each type of application, the program should explore other impacted applications within the government and with the government’s supplier community.
By developing applications that are most used by citizens, the low hanging fruit can be harvested in a couple of years. The harder and agency-unique problems can be undertaken eventually in their turn as the culture becomes receptive and accommodating to new ways of serving citizens.
The author is currently revising the paper. The older version is available upon request.
Companies around the globe have realized information technology (IT) as a key factor in business and industrial competitiveness. The manufacturing sector made giant strides in deploying IT and accomplished orders of magnitude improvements in product quality, process efficiency, and customer response. Industrial and retail sectors are well on their way to deploying IT in the logistics and business operations also. While the sector is under severe competitive pressures, the private sector’s experience with the deployment of IT has been highly positive to the bottom line and leaders are upbeat about the future contributions from IT. No company would think of going back to the old ways. That is the positive news. Private companies recognized that the plant is the life-blood of every manufacturing enterprise and invested their IT dollars there to improve the bottom line. Realization of that fact allowed the industrial sector to gain from IT deployment in the manufacturing operations and the sector is moving to other effective applications.
Unfortunately, the picture with the public sector is not as rosy. In fact fruitful IT deployment in the government has a long way to go. Before making more investments and making drastic changes, it is essential to identify the place(s) where value is created in government. In the case of the public sector, lacking a unanimous agreement on what and where value is created, government leaders are floundering in the application of IT in citizen services. It is beyond the scope of this essay to discuss all the issues bearing upon government performance, causes of suboptimal performance, and potential remedies. I limit the scope of the essay to how IT can help government in the fast paced new century. For the purposes of this discussion, the present author assumes that the other vital factors will be addressed by leaders appropriately.
There are two key lessons we can learn from the IT application experience of the private sector. One is focusing the resources and the other is getting an enterprising team to embark upon the development work. This model can work in the public sector. But unlike the private sector, the public sector has no bottom line to scare its workers into running hard from old ways. Pressure and championship has to come from the President and leaders in the public sector hierarchy.
The present author suggests a concentrated program of IT application development for the government’s business. The program starts with the selection of a list of most common applications across the government where it interacts with the citizens. For each type of application, the program should explore other impacted applications within the government and with the government’s supplier community.
By developing applications that are most used by citizens, the low hanging fruit can be harvested in a couple of years. The harder and agency-unique problems can be undertaken eventually in their turn as the culture becomes receptive and accommodating to new ways of serving citizens.
The author is currently revising the paper. The older version is available upon request.
Franchising Option Has Advantages for Outsourcing Government Work
Summary
Competitive outsourcing is hitting the headlines. Commissions and studies have been suggesting competitive outsourcing and down-sizing the bureaucracy as the cure-all to improve government performance, and to lower costs. It is startling to realize that the government increased from a mere 39 in 1789 to 2.7 million in 1998 and had a high of 3 million in 1988. In amongst its fourteen major recommendations, the Volcker Commission (January 2003) stated that competitive outsourcing should follow clear preset standards and goals that advance the public interest and do not undermine the core competencies of the government. President Bush plans to turn over as many as 850,000 federal jobs to competitive outsourcing. The Circular Number A-76 requires the Federal Government to rely on commercially available sources to provide commercial products and services and shall not start or carry on any activity to provide a commercial product or service if the product or service can be procured more economically from a commercial source.
In a study, RAND Corporation compared alternative methods and frameworks to accomplish government work and described the Federal Government Corporation (FGC). A government can stay at arm’s length and derive certain advantages by creating an FGC and entrusting some work to it. RAND recommended Army depots as appropriate candidates for an FGC. In such a framework, the depot workers become employees of the FGC, which itself may be owned jointly by the government and private industry. The present author recognized the advantages of franchising in combination with an FGC. Workers can become franchisees if an FGC is set up for the purpose of facilitating another source in a competitive outsourcing environment.
Federal government may wish to explore franchising as another alternative to deliver selected services to the public. A key advantage of franchising is that it provides highly motivated employee-owners. Franchisees are renowned for dedication, hard work, long hours, and attention to customers and suppliers. A franchiser supplements a franchisee’s knowledge, capabilities, and systems. The present author suggests the combination of FGC and franchising in order to fuse the best features of each. The FGC acts to transfer technology from the government, develops a business model and assists franchisees, who in turn, receive contracted work from the government. A franchisee can keep up with advancing technologies and business needs by receiving continual help from the FGC as a franchiser.
What are the best candidates for the combined FGC franchises? The author suggests that the Presidential initiative on military housing and cyber security as two ideal applications to undertake immediately. An Army FGC franchise in the military housing can help retiring military personnel to become entrepreneurs. Cyber security is a great candidate for an FGC franchise as it provides opportunities to the entrepreneurial generation displaced during the downsizing of the IT economy in early 2000. An FGC franchise is a worthy model for the government to launch now.
The author is revising this essay now. The old article is available upon request.
Competitive outsourcing is hitting the headlines. Commissions and studies have been suggesting competitive outsourcing and down-sizing the bureaucracy as the cure-all to improve government performance, and to lower costs. It is startling to realize that the government increased from a mere 39 in 1789 to 2.7 million in 1998 and had a high of 3 million in 1988. In amongst its fourteen major recommendations, the Volcker Commission (January 2003) stated that competitive outsourcing should follow clear preset standards and goals that advance the public interest and do not undermine the core competencies of the government. President Bush plans to turn over as many as 850,000 federal jobs to competitive outsourcing. The Circular Number A-76 requires the Federal Government to rely on commercially available sources to provide commercial products and services and shall not start or carry on any activity to provide a commercial product or service if the product or service can be procured more economically from a commercial source.
In a study, RAND Corporation compared alternative methods and frameworks to accomplish government work and described the Federal Government Corporation (FGC). A government can stay at arm’s length and derive certain advantages by creating an FGC and entrusting some work to it. RAND recommended Army depots as appropriate candidates for an FGC. In such a framework, the depot workers become employees of the FGC, which itself may be owned jointly by the government and private industry. The present author recognized the advantages of franchising in combination with an FGC. Workers can become franchisees if an FGC is set up for the purpose of facilitating another source in a competitive outsourcing environment.
Federal government may wish to explore franchising as another alternative to deliver selected services to the public. A key advantage of franchising is that it provides highly motivated employee-owners. Franchisees are renowned for dedication, hard work, long hours, and attention to customers and suppliers. A franchiser supplements a franchisee’s knowledge, capabilities, and systems. The present author suggests the combination of FGC and franchising in order to fuse the best features of each. The FGC acts to transfer technology from the government, develops a business model and assists franchisees, who in turn, receive contracted work from the government. A franchisee can keep up with advancing technologies and business needs by receiving continual help from the FGC as a franchiser.
What are the best candidates for the combined FGC franchises? The author suggests that the Presidential initiative on military housing and cyber security as two ideal applications to undertake immediately. An Army FGC franchise in the military housing can help retiring military personnel to become entrepreneurs. Cyber security is a great candidate for an FGC franchise as it provides opportunities to the entrepreneurial generation displaced during the downsizing of the IT economy in early 2000. An FGC franchise is a worthy model for the government to launch now.
The author is revising this essay now. The old article is available upon request.
Coupons on a Mobile Phone
Coupons for various benefits are given via mobile phones
Som is suggesting this concept, which is somewhat different from that seen n the press. For an integral and efficient process, the system has to be in a closed loop. See figures.
The transaction chain is in a closed loop to preserve integrity