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SoonerPolitics has secured the unpublished 6 audits commissioned by the Oklahoma Agency Performance & Accountability Commission(APAC). The APAC report was not completed by early January as was expected to be released well before the 2019 legislative session began.
On February 11th, The Commission did finally complete their summary report and send it to the Governor, House, & Senate. It did not reach the recipients before the State of the State Address or the deadline of filing bills for the spring session. But many of the details of the report have guided the actions of the governor and the legislature, as we can now clearly see. While the commission is not technically a part of Oklahoma's legislative branch of government, the reports sat in Speaker McCall's office for nearly a month without so much as a press statement, explaining when or how the research would be revealed. We were told that the hold up was caused by a compatibility problem with the PDF file formats and the official web servers where the reports would be publicly accessed. The good news is that a simple 2nd request at the Speaker's office is all that was needed to get the coveted research results. |
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The commission is composed of 9 private sector and judicial leaders. None of them were paid for their oversight work and administration of the audits, which were done by nongovernmental auditing firms. The commission began this process in late 2017, shortly after Mary Fallin, Mike Shultz, and Charles McCall each made 3 appointments to the new commission. Speaker Charles McCall is the House author of the 2017 legislation which established the commission, partly in response to conservative lawmakers' insistence that a thorough outside audit be done before an agency should receive significant funding increases.
The Audits are as follows: |
To learn more about the members of APAC, read Meet The Audit Masters
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Here is the summary letter, including some major restructuring recommendations from the commission.
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"Macro Recommendations" by APAC Commissioners
Submitted to:
Macro Recommendations from APAC Date: February 11, 2019 Over the course of the last 10 months, the nine commissioners serving on the Agency Performance and Accountability Commission ("APAC") have interacted extensively with the four consulting firms selected to assist the APAC in its performance of the mandated performance audits on six Oklahoma agencies. Through use of "liaisons" assigned to each audit, commissioners have similarly interacted with numerous directors, managers and employees in the six agencies. In the course of our work we, as an appointed group of nine private sector business owners and managers, have identified five critical, overarching observations that apply to all six agencies (and presumably to many other state agencies), which we respectfully submit here as "Macro Recommendations". These Recommendations are in addition to the slate of APAC recommendations already delivered to you. All five Macro Recommendations spring from two sources: (1) Information mentioned or discussed in the six reports provided to the APAC by the consultants, and (2) The collective experiences of all nine APAC Commissioners whose backgrounds range from the energy industry to the legal world to medicine to venture capital to agriculture. We submit them as Macro Recommendations on the belief that they are essential to the success and efficient management of virtually every enterprise of any size – private companies or state agencies. APAC Macro Recommendation No. 1: Authority and Responsibility As commissioners, we find it unrealistic to expect significant improvements in agency performance outcomes if state agencies are not operating in sync with strategic initiatives established by the Executive Branch, in consultation with agency heads, and under a clearly defined line of authority to the Governor. The Legislature will exercise its influence on Governor-initiated strategic initiatives through the budget and appropriations process. Numerous Oklahoma agencies now serve under boards and commissions, with limited or no authority or responsibility traceable to the Governor's office and with no direct accountability to the public. It is our opinion that if significant outcome improvements are to be achieved, agency performances must be measured against well-defined performance goals that reflect the Governor's strategic agenda and are established by the Governor in collaboration with agency heads. APAC's recommendation is to restructure the governance of most if not all state agencies to align agency operating authority under the Executive Branch. Under this realignment, and with collaboratively developed performance metrics in place, management and performance outcomes in the agencies can then be effectively monitored and those outcomes can be expected to improve significantly. The introduction of direct accountability to the public through governors elected by the public should lead to increased performance of the agencies' missions. APAC Macro Recommendation No. 2: Performance Based Budgeting Several of the performance auditors suggested the use of Performance Based Budgeting (“PBB”) for Oklahoma agencies going forward. While only three states currently identify PBB as their primary budgeting approach, 25 states including Oklahoma identify it as a secondary approach. Although still a "work in progress" Oklahoma is heading down the right path toward full PBB via the Program Performance Budgeting and Accountability Act. The business minds represented on the APAC Commission strongly support the notion that state agencies need to be fully funded and supported to achieve well defined goals, and that the measurement of performance against those goals should be a primary element in the year-to-year budgeting and appropriations process. Performance Based Budgeting is a proven managerial tool, and its full adoption by Oklahoma should greatly improve outcomes in all agencies. APAC recommends accelerated and full adoption of Performance Based Budgeting in all agencies. APAC Macro Recommendation No. 3: Agency Metrics The APAC Commissioners observed an underemphasized and/or underutilized use of performance metrics in many of the agency management practices. In order for any operation to gage and monitor its degree of success in achieving its mandated delivery of services, it is essential to have a slate of metrics that can assist management in regular, frequent measurement of how well an agency is meeting its operating goals. Although this recommendation is closely aligned with No. 2 above, whether Performance Based Budgeting is adopted by Oklahoma or not, agencies still need to have performance metrics in place to guide managers in meeting agency goals. APAC commissioners recommend that every agency develop (or if already in place to review and enhance) performance metrics for use by agency heads and managers to measure progress and success. APAC Macro Recommendation No. 4: Quarterly Reports Tied into Recommendation Nos. 2 and 3 above, APAC commissioners recommend that all agency heads make a brief report quarterly to APAC on progress toward strategic and operating goals and on the implementation of the APAC Recommendations. For emphasis we offer this recommendation as a separate one from Nos. 2 and 3 to highlight the importance of regular monitoring and reporting, for the benefit of everyone involved in agency management, for the Executive branch where the ultimate responsibility should be vested, and for transparency with the taxpaying public. These quarterly reviews need not be overly detailed - just a factually based read of how the agency is performing. APAC Commissioners recommend quarterly reporting by Agency heads to APAC on agency progress in summary form, showing performance against a pre-established set of metrics and on the APAC Recommendations. APAC Macro Recommendation No. 5: Information Technology and Security Most if not all of the six performance audit reports made references to the need to upgrade or replace existing information technology systems and practices. APAC Commissioners can sympathize with this observation, as many of us struggle with finding the "right fit” and most cost effective IT systems for our businesses. Realizing that significant time and effort has already been devoted to the most effective use of IT in state agencies, it nonetheless appears to us that an overarching and comprehensive, well designed IT plan for State government remains a critical need if we are to achieve optimal performance in Oklahoma's government agencies. APAC Commissioners recommend conducting a thorough review by qualified professionals of the IT systems serving all agencies, and the development of a comprehensive IT plan for our state government to be implemented over 3-5 years. We feel that a stand-alone, centralized IT office or agency would be appropriate so that planning, implementation and management responsibilities can be isolated and overseen. Done properly, the commitment of the required up-front investment of time and money should yield efficiencies and performance improvements that will benefit Oklahoma taxpayers for years to come. Included in this recommendation is a growing concern over cyber security breaches and related security risks. State government is in the business of providing needed services to taxpayers. In fulfilling that obligation, it is imperative that all possible cyber related safeguards be taken to protect our citizens as such services are being managed and delivered. This responsibility should be housed and managed in the above referenced stand-alone IT operation with a highly qualified manager as its head. Respectfully Submitted On Behalf of All APAC Commissioners, Robert J.Sullivan, Jr. APAC Chair John Connor APAC Vice-Chair cc: House of Representatives Staff for posting on the websites. |
