Office of Governmentwide Policy

The Office of Governmentwide Policy (OGP) provides a policy and best practices framework for more effective and efficient use of Federal resources and improved performance in real and personal property, automotive and aviation fleet management, travel, transportation, mail management, IT, financial management, alternative workplaces, telework, committee management, and the regulatory process. Under the direction of OMB and Congress, OGP provides leadership and program support in the development of a policy environment that encourages the adoption of innovative solutions toward more productive work environments, and coordinates major government-wide management improvement initiatives. OGP actively helps agencies understand and implement new ways of doing business, effectively align with common standards, and adopt government-wide solutions that increase efficiencies. OGP accomplishes this through collaboration, communication, performance measurement, monitoring compliance, and managing essential government-wide databases and Web-based applications. OGP ensures the involvement and buy-in of Federal agencies, the private sector, and other stakeholders in these processes. OGP also serves as an incubator for new programs or business opportunities created by Administration policies or by law, and ensures that opportunities that prove viable are migrated to GSA services or other suitable government or private organizations for operational implementation.

Performance Highlights

The following reflects the performance highlights of each of the initiatives that comprised OGP’s FY 2007 3PS portfolio:

• OGP vastly improved its performance rating under the 3PS interagency survey. OGP’s effectiveness rating increased from 53 percent in FY 2006 to 70 percent in FY 2007. This increase represents a combined effort by OGP leadership to improve communication and collaboration with its stakeholders and partners in the Federal community.
• OGP’s Office of Technology Strategy (OTS) successfully worked to meet the deadline imposed by the HSPD-12 to begin issuing the new Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card no later than October 27, 2006 and to meet all subsequent milestones. In FY 2007, the Identity Management Division established the HSPD-12 interagency Architecture Working Group and togetherdeveloped interface specifications for the exchange of data across all HSPD-12 systems and system components. With this in place, compliant systems interoperated on a government-wide basis. The architecture was designed to be implemented with the approved products from the FIPS 201 evaluation program, an integral part of the program; the evaluation program ensures products meet the FIPS 201 requirements. Identity Management targeted the completion of six of 11 interface specifications and successfully issued 10 of the 11 interface specifications. Currently there are 26 schedule providers with multiple HSPD-12 products and services available for government-wide use. Through standardization, competition, and aggregate buying power, the seat price of a PIV identity account was reduced to under $50.
• The Financial Management Line of Business (FMLoB) improved the cost, quality, and performance of financial management by standardizing financial system data, expanding shared service solutions, and implementing other government-wide reforms that foster efficiencies in Federal financial operations. In order to mitigate the risk of moving to shared services solutions, common standards and processes must first be established. FMLoB met its improvement target to issue four of 10 (40 percent) data or process standards. The Common Government-wide Accounting Classification issued in June is an extremely important standard; it defines a uniform way to capture information when classifying the financial effects of government business activities. The structure facilitates seamless data exchange among agencies’ financial systems.
• OGP’s Office of Real Property Management met five of the six1 Federal Real Property Profile (FRPP) business needs on schedule. The business needs were developed to support the Federal Real Property Council (FRPC) goals to improve real property managers’ decision-making abilities by providing accurate and reliable data and to increase Agency accountability for asset management. In support of this effort, OGP has:
  • Continued to improve and enhance the FRPP and Performance Assessment Tool in order to maximize the effectiveness of the FRPP for its users.
  • In just over three years, the FRPP has helped agencies track the disposal of more than $4.5 billion in unneeded Federal real property.
  • Successfully completed two years of inventory data collection, enabling the capacity to generate delta and variance reports from year to year.
  • Provided the new ability to track annual inventory changes to improve the reliability and accuracy of Agency data in the coming years.
  • Performed extensive data analyses and answered numerous requests by external constituents to prove the benefits of a centralized database and how it leads to more responsible asset management.
  • Remained proactive in customer service to GSA’s FRPP user community by developing annual guidance and convening training.
• OGP’s Alternative Workplace Arrangements (AWA) initiative increased the knowledge of Federal government managers and employees regarding AWA policies and practices. This initiative aided in the support of more efficient real property asset management:
  • OGP provided guidance, program promotion, and technical assistance resulting in at least four agencies (Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) planning and/or implementing AWA initiatives for space and facility cost savings.
  • OGP worked with GSA’s Region 10 to reconfigure underutilized space into a telework center, which began operation in September 2007.
  • OGP developed and issued Federal Management Regulation (FMR) Bulletin 2007-B1, Information Technology and Telecommunications and Other Alternative Workplace Arrangement Programs, which provided:
    1. a much-needed, management-oriented, easy-to-read overview of AWA technology information, policies, and practices;
    2. a tool to assist in effective management of agency technology assets. This policy bulletin has been heralded by agencies, the media, and technology experts for improving awareness of, and offering the first-ever guidance on, key AWA technology issues.
  • OGP outreach activities included collaborating with Congressional staff, which helped to guide development of telework bills introduced by both the House and Senate to further increase and steer Federal telework participation.
• The Federal Asset Sales initiative has enjoyed great success during FY 2007. A few of these key accomplishments are outlined below:
  • OGP successfully worked with all scorecard agencies to migrate to selected sales centers for both real and personal property. Each agency, as a result, provided OGP with a completed migration plan as evidence of this success.
  • A FY 2008 and beyond funding model for the Federal Asset Sales initiative was approved by the initiative’s Executive Steering Committee.
  • In July 2007, the Executive Steering Committee approved two new sales centers at IRS and DOI.
  • The GovSales.gov portal was updated and improved to include a section focused on selling international property owned by the U.S. government.
• The Federal Asset Sales Program Office contracted to conduct an online customer satisfaction survey of GovSales.gov customers. The survey, intended to capture customer feedback and satisfaction with the portal, was posted in May 2007. Preliminary results showed that there were areas that needed improvement; overall, the results indicated that customer satisfaction with GovSales.gov is high. The portal was consistently given a customer service score of 70 out of a possible 100; the benchmark score for government sites, as described by ForeSee Results, was 71. Thus, the GovSales portal scored on par with other government Web sites, many of which have been in operation longer than GovSales.gov. To further enhance the customer experience, the initiative also sponsored ongoing usability tests to ensure that the Govsales.gov portal adheres to best practices with regard to organization, content, presentation, navigation, and other measurement areas.
• After 14 months of development, the newly redesigned Federal Aviation Interactive Reporting System (FAIRS) v2.0 was made operational in February 2007. In the new version, OGP embedded an interactive training system that allows each user to learn and be certified in the system functions they need to know, rather than conducting costly traditional classroom instruction nationwide. Issues and problems that surfaced prior to implementation were rapidly resolved and, where necessary, enhancements were prioritized and immediately implemented. One of the major goals of the redevelopment was to reduce operating costs for the entire application. Throughout the year, system reliability was consistently over 99 percent. Implementing FAIRS v2.0 not only improved the quality and accuracy of data reported by Federal agencies on all aircraft program costs, but also improved system accessibility and reliability for GSA’s Federal agency customers.

The following section presents the OGP performance by GSA strategic goals.

OGP Performance By GSA Strategic Goals

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