Round Up, December 12 - 16

An abbreviated Round Up for the week of December 12 -16

Okay, so we weren’t going to publish a Round Up this week since several of us are on vacation, but here are three stories I didn’t want to sit on since they are long and you might want to read them during leisure moments during your holiday vacation!

Collaborative Governance in Action

OMB sponsors several collaborative initiatives that reach across federal, state, and local boundaries. One, the Collaborative Forum, which is supported by the Partnership Fund, just recently relocated its support functions to the National Academy of Public Administration.

Applying Risk Management Strategies to Reduce Improper Payments

Federal agencies make more than $2 trillion in payments to individuals and a variety of other entities each year. Disbursing these payments expose agencies to many risks. One such risk is making what is known as improper payments. Improper payments can take many forms:  incorrect amounts paid to eligible recipients; payments made to ineligible recipients; payments for goods or services not received; duplicate payments; and payments with insufficient or no documentation.

Risk Management and Reducing Improper Payments: A Case Study of the U.S. Department of Labor

This report continues the IBM Center’s long interest in risk management with a specific focus on employing risk management strategies to reduce improper payments in the U S Department of Labor’s (DOL) Unemployment Insurance (UI) program. There is a long tradition of public management scholarship that has provided empirical support for the hypothesis that management matters for government performance. One specific management activity that has been growing in prominence in federal agencies over the last several years is risk management.