Jane Fountain, a political science and public policy professor at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, has said the next U.S. administration should establish within the transition team a group that will work to address policy implementation and management concerns.Fountain wrote in a March 2016 report that such a group should be created in a way that adheres to cross-agency goals in order for the next president to build and manage an enterprise government.
She said the next president should advance the use of shared services in acquisitions, financial management and information technology, among other areas, in order to improve the federal government’s operations.
She also recommended that the upcoming administration assign a chief operating officer at the White House who will oversee the establishment of an implementation strategy for enterprise mission-focused goals.
The White House COO should also help facilitate “shared ownership†for mission-focused outcomes through collaboration with the Office of Management Budget to link the president’s policy councils with other agencies such as the Office of Personnel Management and the General Services Administration, the report said.
Fountain made the recommendations based on a roundtable discussion that the IBM Center for the Business of Government and the Partnership for Public Service hosted in September 2015 as part of their efforts to develop a management road map for the next administration.
