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June
13, 2002
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an online newsletter for and by NOAA employees
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I am pleased to provide you with the results of the NOAA Program Review. To the
As you recall, on February 1, 2002, I invited every NOAA employee, from bottom to top, to consider the following three critical questions and provide responses as they desired: 1) Is the NOAA organization aligned with its current missions and future missions? If not, what are your recommendations for change, near term and/or long term? 2) Are there significant imbalances in resources versus requirements? If so, what are your recommendations for change, near term and/or long term? 3) Are we being as efficient as possible in meeting our current and future mission tasking? If not, what are your recommendations for change near and/or long term? Many of you provided input on topics you wished the Program Review Team (PRT) to address and the team used those topics as the basis for their discussions and analysis. The Program Review Team (PRT), comprised of 16 representatives of NOAA line and staff offices, and supported by a capable and hard working internal staff, deliberated and made recommendations to address many of the responses. The PRT members had an average of 17 years of experience working in NOAA and provided valuable perspective and input to the process. On May 22, 2002, the PRT delivered the NOAA Program Review report, which I then reviewed in concert with my senior leadership team, the NOAA Executive Council. I either accepted all recommendations as written or modified as appropriate. Because the PRT had only three months to deliberate, I have, in some cases, requested additional study to provide greater detail before making a final recommendation. I submitted my final recommendations to Secretary Evans on June 3, 2002. Some of the recommendations can be implemented at the NOAA level. Others will require the concurrence of DOC, OMB and/or Congress. I thank Deputy Under Secretary Scott Gudes and the entire Program Review Team for their dedicated effort and commend them for producing a quality product under tight time constraints. We all owe them a large measure of gratitude for their service above and beyond our normal heavy workload. As I told the Secretary, I believe that implementation of this effort will begin to position NOAA to meet the critical resource and environmental management challenges that this Nation will face in the 21st century. It is intended to unlock the full potential of our talented organization by providing an improved management structure and new strategic management processes. These actions will improve integration across our line offices, increase efficiency, provide more management visibility, promote increased responsiveness to customer needs, and be totally supportive of the President's Management Initiatives. I also want to stress that implementation of this report is but the proverbial "first step in the journey of a thousand miles." Many actions taken as a result of this review will be ongoing, and the concept of continuous improvement will be our guiding principle. I am very proud of the entire NOAA team for the hard work, insight and innovation you demonstrate daily and in particular for completion of this comprehensive review under very challenging time lines. I stress to each of you that these recommendations, while revolutionary in concept, will be implemented in an evolutionary manner to minimize disruption. The final recommendations based on the PRT report capitalize on the current organization and offer the potential to improve NOAA incrementally over time. NOAA has a rich history of accomplishment, and this history is a record of how the agency has evolved in many ways over the past 32 years. In order for NOAA to fulfill its mission and serve the Nation efficiently and effectively in the future, I firmly believe that we must continue to embrace change. I am encouraged by these first steps, which you individually and collectively have recommended, and look forward to working with all of you to build a better NOAA. |
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