Archive

Streamlining Management Control

NPR Recommendations

SMC01	Implement a Systems Design Approach to Management Controls
SMC02	Streamline the Internal Controls Program to Make It an Efficient and Effective Management Tool
SMC03	Change the Focus of the Inspectors General
SMC04	Increase the Effectiveness of Offices of General Counsel
SMC05	Improve the Effectiveness of the General Accounting Office Through Increased Customer Feedback
SMC06	Reduce the Burden of Congressionally Mandated Reports
SMC07	Reduce Internal Regulations by More Than 50 Percent
SMC08	Expand the Use of Waivers to Encourage Innovation

Progress to Date

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) continues to provide leadership in streamlining management control systems through its efforts to consolidate multiple reporting systems and integrate planning, budget, financial management, and performance reporting systems. For example, it is working on accountability reports in six agencies that consolidate a series of separate reports. This will provide decisionmakers with a clearer picture of agency operations with less work involved.

Agency inspectors general continue to implement their January 1994 report, Vision and Strategies to Apply Our Reinvention Principles. In addition, they have developed a guide to help measure their performance and effectiveness. Also, selected units in the General Accounting Office are documenting best practices, and that office is beginning to use feedback loops more broadly.

The Federal Reports Elimination and Sunset Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-66) eliminated or modified more than 200 outdated or unnecessary congressionally mandated reporting requirements. It also automatically terminates, after four years, an estimated 4,800 additional reports with annual, semiannual, or other periodic reporting requirements unless Congress specifically renews them.

In September 1993, President Clinton directed agencies to cut their internal regulations in half by October 1996. A preliminary survey shows that 19 of the 24 largest agencies have already met this goal; the remaining five are making significant progress. Four agencies alone cut more than 315,000 pages. The Defense Department canceled 3,300 about 188,000 pages of its 7,000 regulations. The Department of Transportation eliminated 89,367 pages of regulations, the Department of Veterans Affairs cut 25,799 pages, and the Department of Labor will cut 12,264 pages.