The Stimulus Package - Tough times bring opportunity

A confession here! When I was the Budget and Research Director for Pima County, Arizona, I learned public sector folks are at their best in hard times. Teamwork, creativity and initiative became pronounced when we had to wrack our brains to make ends meet. 

On that note, here is a hard times idea for your consideration. In the spirit of “Change,” use Balanced Scorecards of measures to monitor your portfolio of Stimulus projects at every stage of implementation. It is critical that these projects adhere to their schedules. The preeminent program objective is creating jobs fast. If we accept delay in the construction of public infrastructure as inevitable, the program will fail.

Your contribution to undermining cynicism about government would be using scorecard data to identify emerging problems/delays and taking preemptive action to keep your portfolio on track. Yes, both the House and Senate versions of the Stimulus legislation provide millions of dollars for audits, but audits catch problems when it is too late to take corrective action. At best, a lesson is learned for “next time,” and at worst, a government receives a financial sanction. Contrast that with the positive effects of weekly reviews of a few key measures of compliance with project schedule, scope, outlay, and impact. 

It never has been more important for public administrators to show the American public that our dedication and know-how are a national asset -- an asset they can rely on in good times and bad.