OMB gives Smithsonian failing grades
By Kimberly Palmer- Government Executive Magazine
The Smithsonian Institution, home to 16 museums and galleries, is the
black sheep of the President's Management Agenda.
It has received failing scores for all five PMA initiatives, including
competitive sourcing, financial performance and e-government, since the
Office of Management and Budget started issuing its quarterly scorecard
in 2002. It is the only agency to have red scores, the lowest ranking,
across all categories.
The real mystery, according to the Smithsonian, is why they are on the
scorecard at all. "I can't tell you why we are included," said Linda St.
Thomas, a Smithsonian spokeswoman. "We are atypical," adding that only
OMB could explain its decision to include the agency.
"OMB and the Smithsonian concluded that it was consistent with the
President's Management Agenda and it would serve the public well to
include it, even though it's a smaller agency," said an OMB official.
As for the failing scores, the official said the Smithsonian's progress
has been slow because the agency wasn't exploring best management
practices prior to the start of PMA, and it doesn't have access to the
same resources as larger agencies.
Hundreds of small units are left off the list of graded agencies, which
includes mostly large departments governed by the 1990 Chief Financial
Officers Act. The Smithsonian is the only agency on the list that gets a
large chunk of money--$297 million out of its $925 million fiscal 2005
budget - from private trust funds. The other $628 million came from
federal appropriations.
Other agencies in a similar situation, such as the Library of Congress
and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which also are
funded by federal appropriations as well as private donations, are not
listed on the PMA scorecard.
OMB started issuing the scorecard as a way of marking agencies'
progress on the Bush administration's management agenda. Achieving a
"yellow" status, the midway point between red and green, requires having
completed or announced at least one job competition involving 65 or more
employees for the competitive sourcing initiative, the most
controversial of the five campaigns.
According to OMB data on fiscal 2003 job competitions, the Smithsonian
had identified only 20 positions that could be contested and had not
held any competitions.
"We've always been red in outsourcing; that's just the nature of the
Smithsonian," said St. Thomas, noting the agency's small size. The
Smithsonian employs 6,000 people.
Moreover, Smithsonian jobs, said St. Thomas, are "very specialized. It
makes it hard to outsource." She said the Smithsonian considered
competing security jobs, but decided against it.
"Because of the national collections and special security, including
working with Park Police, we decided that it's not wise for us to
outsource that. We'll handle our own security on the National Mall," she
said.
The union that represents Smithsonian workers, the American Federation
of Government Employees Local 2463, is not complaining. "If you
outsource to people who don't have a connection to the institution,
you're opening yourself up to real problems," said Dwight Bowman,
president of the local and a former Smithsonian photographer.
Proponents of the PMA say the Smithsonian should follow the management
initiatives as strictly as other agencies. "They use taxpayer dollars
like the rest. While they have a unique mission, it is not one that
should exempt them from good financial and management practices," said
Geoffrey Segal, director of government reform for the Reason Foundation,
a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization.
While the Smithsonian's overall grades are all red, they received a
green score for progress on their human capital initiative and yellow
scores for progress in e-government, financial performance, and budget
and performance integration. Competitive sourcing was rated red for
progress.
"It looks to me like we've done everything we're supposed to do," said
St. Thomas of the human capital initiative.
She said the low financial performance grade is probably caused by a
delay in implementing the Smithsonian's new financial system. The agency
received a clean audit on their fiscal 2004 financial statements. The
OMB report on the Smithsonian also noted it did not meet the early Nov.
15 reporting deadline last year.
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