Federal Manager's Daily Report

The administration’s open government initiatives are falling short in both implementation and impact, according to an assessment by a coalition of good-government groups, Openthegovernment.org.

The report, reviewing the second phase of the administration’s National Action Plan announced in 2014, said that of the 16 major initiatives, only two are transformative; only one was rated complete (with six having made substantial progress and nine having made only limited progress); and collaboration with stakeholders was highly meaningful on only one.

Reasons for the shortcomings cited included the lack of a strong mandate, absence of political will, lack of leadership commitment to transparency and lack of benchmarks to assess compliance.

Among the potentially transformative initiatives are greater protection for whistleblowers, including requiring agencies to participate in the OSC whistleblower certification program. However, the group judged progress toward that goal as only limited, with also only limited collaboration with outside stakeholders such as whistleblower support groups.