The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report yesterday before a House Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on the embattled Secure Border Initiative (SBI) program - a multi-billion dollar program designed to secure the U.S. borders. A subset of that program, called SBInet is supposed to be building a fancy, virtual fence along the U.S. southern border. The program, begun during the Bush administration, has consistently been behind schedule and over budget - and that's when the new technologies have worked at all. And now it looks like Congress may want to cancel the program altogether.

Today, Accenture, the Georgetown Public Policy Institute (GPPI), and OMB Watch officially released a report, Building a Better Government Performance System: Recommendations to the Obama Administration", that outlines six key principles that are essential in the reform of government performance systems.  These principles will help to open up internal compliance-based review processes that typically result in static ratings and create a more dynamic conversation about continually improving performance.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report yesterday detailing results of an audit of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) financial statements of the previous fiscal year. The audit identifies several internal control and management issues not addressed by previous audits. The report contains 16 recommendations for improving internal controls at IRS.

In a June 11 memo, Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Peter Orszag outlined the process for executive branch agencies to submit their FY 2011 budgets. According to the memo, the White House and OMB will solicit goals for each agency from the heads of the respective executive departments. Additionally, the memo outlined procedures for government agencies to reform their hiring processes and improve employee satisfaction and wellness. It is too early to discern the impact of these procedures, but the tone of the memo seems markedly different from those of the Bush administration on these matters.