GAO has said it is vitally important that leadership and management skills, abilities, and experience be among the key criteria the new President uses to select his leadership teams in the agencies.
It said although some progress has been made in recent years agencies urgently need to strengthen basic management capabilities to successfully address current and emerging demands.
The incoming administration will face challenges in implementing its policy and program agendas because of shortcomings in agencies’ management capabilities, and building and developing the institutional capacity to meet these challenges will require appointing the right people to the right positions, according to GAO-09-194.
It said interest in the Senate in leveraging its role in confirmation hearings would send a strong message that nominees must have the skills to face a broad array of complex management challenges.
This report includes questions for each of 28 major executive branch departments and agencies, and one for major government-wide management areas.
One question proposed for Department of Education nominees, for example, is "How would your management experience, skills, and abilities help the department assist states in raising student achievement?"
Another for the Department of Interior: "The department operates in a decentralized environment … Have you managed or led in a decentralized organization?"
