E: Ethics, Management, and Accountability

Embrace high standards of ethics, management, and accountability

Other Information:

Overview: To achieve the Department’s other strategic goals effectively, it is essential that HUD employees and HUD’s partners embrace high standards of ethics, management, and accountability. Because HUD manages public programs using public resources, HUD is accountable for ensuring that government funds are handled properly and achieve the purposes for which they were provided. The Secretary has made stronger ethics, effective management, and accountability a top priority throughout the Department’s operations. This goal guides the planning, investment, and management of human and other resources to achieve performance improvements in financial management, information technology, and program operations. The President’s Management Agenda (PMA) is designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the federal government and to address significant management deficiencies at individual agencies. Building on the PMA and feedback from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), HUD has made significant progress in its financial systems and rental assistance program management. In the years to come, the Department will sustain its commitment to these areas while improving performance and maintaining the highest standards of ethics, management, and accountability. The PMA provides the framework for this strategic goal’s means and strategies, as it addresses HUD’s management challenges and high-risk programs through five initiatives to improve government-wide performance. The five areas of focus are human capital, expanded electronic government, improved financial management, competitive sourcing, and budget and performance integration. The PMA also includes two HUD-specific initiatives to correct long-standing management control weaknesses and improper payment issues. Under an eighth initiative, HUD will improve program delivery by enabling increased participation by faith-based and community organizations. Performance Measures: • By 2008, HUD will have implemented its human capital strategic plan and will have its workforce training, retention, and recruitment policies in place and determined acceptable by an independent review. • Once the process is completed for identifying all skill gaps in mission-critical positions, HUD will reduce by 80 percent all identified skill gaps by 2011, contingent upon adequate funding. • Employee satisfaction will increase by 5 percent from the 2005 baseline by 2011. • HUD will eliminate all remaining material weaknesses by FY 2008. • Continue the Rental Housing Integrity Improvement Program Initiative and institutionalize processes into PIH’s annual Management Plan. • Reduce gross improper payments to less than 2.5 percent of appropriated annual funds under the tenant-based voucher, public housing, and project-based rental assistance programs. • Properly align PIH Headquarters and Field Office operations to facilitate the implementation of asset-based management in public housing. • Require PHAs to develop an emergency evacuation plan in coordination with local, state, and federal government. • Increase the number of performance assessments received from Neighborhood Networks Centers. • Ensure that IT investments better promote enterprise collaboration by 2008, as measured by the level of technical standardization and use of off-the-shelf systems, reusable components, and shared services. • Increase the percentage of customers and business partners who are satisfied with the security, rapidness, and reliability of HUD-provided data and information. • Certify and accredit all information systems prior to their operation; reduce the number of outstanding security vulnerabilities by 25 percent per quarter; and provide topical security awareness training to all HUD users annually. • Revise and implement standards for the timeliness and accuracy of critical PIH management data, with the goal of achieving 97 percent timeliness and accuracy of tenant characteristics data and99 percent of electronic financial statements for the public housing and voucher programs.

Objective(s):

E1: Human Capital

E2: Internal Controls and Audits

E3: Accountability and Service

E4: Modernized Technology

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