Open Government at OPM
Yesterday, the Office of Personnel Management launched its new OpenOPM website, where it will release things like Freedom of Information Act Reports and publicly track progress towards transparency goals. So far, most of the information that's up on the site is procedural, listing when the agency picked officials who will be responsible for releasing spending information, or positing dates for incorporating public feedback on the design of the site. But they've got the name and number of the person who will be responsible for answering questions about transparency issues at OPM. I haven't tried calling yet to see if it's a direct dial, but if any of y'all do, report back. And I'm looking forward to playing around with FedScope to see what I find in the employment data there. As I've said before, transparency is as much a matter of legibility as of access to data. But getting the data out there, and naming the people responsible for access to it, is a start.
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Government Executive Editor in Chief Tom Shoop, along with other editors and staff correspondents, take a fresh look at news affecting the management and operations of the federal bureaucracy.
Transparency is relevant if honest data is collected. At a particular VA facility not named for obvious reasons, the EEO Manager does not collect data from HR on ethnicity, country of origin for Applicants so that data for discriminatory complaints is not available. It is a rather transparent effort, however, as it can be observed from direct evidence what the diversity of a department is. In one area of this particular hospital, in 4 years, the employee pool shifted from equal balance of Hispanics, Caucasians, African-Americans, and Pacific-Islanders to virtually one percent group. A FOIA report of this unit as part of an on-going investigation of Prohibited Personnel Practices shows the identifier for ethnicity or national origin not in the HR record. Transparency requires relevant and objective data collection and reporting. It is a culture shift and it is commendable that OPM is taking up the challenge. Looking forward to progress. Just as VA IT is looking critically at its performance, OPM is stepping up to the challenges facing the increasingly important work of the government. As OMB said, the future of goverment is to do more with less. Having the best qualified work force without regard to cronyism or nepotism or disability or ethnicity or country of national origin is critical to this transformation.
Hopeful VA Employee Posted Saturday, February 6, 2010 8:32 PMYou should let your readers know that most Federal agencies are now using IdeaScale. Employees can submit ideas using this new tools. Go to http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/open/tool_agency_poc.shtml for a complete list of agencies and links to their sites.
Terry Posted Monday, February 8, 2010 10:24 AMhopefull the purpose of the VA is to take of the vets with people that speak English. Who cares how diverse the staff is??
dan ketter Posted Monday, February 8, 2010 12:52 PM