FEDERAL
SECTOR REPORT
November 2003
IN THIS ISSUE
Federal
Partnerships and Cooperation
Links of the
Month: Memoranda of Understanding
Consulting
Services
Home Page
(c)
2003
by
the P2C2 Group, Inc.
IT'S DEAL
TIME FOR INTERAGENCY COOPERATION
It doesn't make
sense to solve the same problem a dozen times ... or to pay for the
same function a hundred times, but federal agencies have been doing it
for years. Yet, with Fiscal Year 2005 budget planning now in progress,
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is blowing the whistle and
giving agencies a big nudge to enter into collaborative solutions that
involve multiple federal agencies, state and local governments, and/or
existing e-business technologies.
Can you imagine divisions of GE or
Citicorp spending money on dozens of different network solutions,
accounting systems, or customer relationship management applications?
Stockholders would think that management had lost its corporate mind.
Taxpayers deserve the same efficiency as stockholders. Collaborative
government-wide solutions make sense in many cases.
But collaboration won't be practical in
all cases because legislative and regulatory constraints may prevent
uniform solutions from working. This is because Congress defines the
mission, programs, and even some of the processes of agencies in the
federal executive branch.
Investments must be collaborative
wherever feasible. This is necessary for supporting the President's
Management Agenda and justifying the project budget to OMB.
Collaboration and cooperation often means a shared initiative involving
multiple agencies or other partners, such as state and local
governments. Where appropriate, investments must be fully aligned with
one or more of the President's E-Gov initiatives.
Developing collaborative solutions that
serve citizens better and reduce costs require careful thought,
collaboration, and follow-through. While informal cooperation can be
very useful, many situations require a formal collaborative
relationship and written agreements that document the
inter-organizational relationships, commitments and responsibilities.
Putting It in
Writing
Any partnership
or agreement of importance needs to be in writing to avoid future
misunderstanding and provide an orientation for future personnel who
may not be involved in the initial deal making. For quite a few
partnerships, there are boilerplate forms that you should use. Examples
include a standard Memorandum of Understanding, Service Level
Agreement, or Cooperative Agreement (usually executed through the
procurement office).
Interagency agreements require the
signature of a senior agency official, such as the agency head. Check
with decision makers early to make sure you don't go off in the wrong
direction. Often a discussion with your attorneys (Solicitor's Office
or Office of the General Counsel) is also helpful, and they will
undoubtedly need to review/approve any non-standard agreements.
Covering
Essentials
Interagency
agreements are formal documents, just like a contract or corporate
charter. Rather than expounding on contents in the abstract, let's move
to a specific example that will make the key points.
