From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for: SSA Management Challenges

Description: Audio interview by GAO staff with Daniel Bertoni, Director,
Education, Workforce, and Income Security

Related GAO Work: GAO-13-459 Social Security Administration: Long-Term
Strategy Needed to Address Key Management Challenges

Released: May 2013


[ Background Music ]

[ Narrator: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and
information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It's May
2013. The Social Security Administration provides hundreds of billions
of dollars in benefits to roughly 62 million Americans. SSA's workload
is increasing, even as large numbers of their employees are projected to
retire. A team led by Daniel Bertoni, a director in GAO's Education,
Workforce, and Income Security team, recently reviewed SSA's efforts to
manage in this challenging time. GAO's Sarah Kaczmarek sat down with
Daniel to talk about what they found.

[ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] What are some of the key management challenges
facing SSA?

[ Daniel Bertoni: ] All right. We found out SSA faces key challenges.
First, with more baby boomers filing for retirement disability benefits
and projected staff attrition, SSA faces a real challenge in ensuring it
has enough people in place with the appropriate knowledge, skills, and
abilities to do the job. So, succession planning and developing future
leaders will be critical to the agency. Secondly, SSA also faces
challenges in terms of modernizing its disability program, how it
determines disability and who can and can't work in today's economy.
Thirdly, SSA's information technology is aging; and maintaining it,
updating it, going forward is going to be pretty resource intensive.
Lastly, SSA faces the challenge of ensuring its physical footprint, its
network of about 1,300 field offices, remains viable in alliance with
the changing service delivery needs of its beneficiary population, who
down the road will be--more likely will be--computer savvy, more
comfortable using the Internet, smartphones, and other non-face-to-face
interactions with SSA.

[ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] And what's SSA planning to do to address these
challenges?

[ Daniel Bertoni: ] Well, the good news is that SSA has acknowledged
these challenges--that's--that's a victory and it's taking some steps to
get out in front of them. The not-so-good news is that they still lack a
thoughtful, long-term strategy to be truly successful.

[ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] Now, is this something that's unique to SSA, or are
other agencies facing these type of management challenges as well?

[ Daniel Bertoni: ] Yes, yes, absolutely. Other agencies are facing
similar challenges. For example, the Department of Veterans Affairs is
experiencing a record number of disability claims, driven primarily by
an aging veteran population and extended wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So VA staff are struggling to process these claims for reasons similar
to SSA. Other agencies, like the Postal Service, Census, IRS, have also
reorganized their facilities and how they provide services in order to
work smarter with the limited resources they have; and we feel SSA could
learn something from their efforts.

[ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] With this in mind, what's GAO recommending SSA do
to better confront these issues?

[ Daniel Bertoni: ] We have several recommendations, but I think two are
most critical. First, we've recommended that SSA establish an entity or
person dedicated exclusively to strategic planning to spearhead these
type of efforts. Second, that the agency develop a long-term service
delivery plan with specific strategies and metrics for addressing these
key challenges. It's also important that the--the new incoming
commissioner articulate to SSA's workforce, the Congress, and the
public, a vision for change over the next 10 years and beyond, and
develop partnerships with stakeholders early in his or her term to
implement that vision.

[ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] Finally, for taxpayers concerned about the benefits
SSA provides, what's the bottom line here?

[ Daniel Bertoni: ] The bottom line is that the service delivery world
is changing; and SSA will need to work smarter to meet the needs of its
beneficiaries, while also ensuring that it's protecting taxpayer
dollars. There is a lot at stake here, and they can do better.

[ Background Music ]

[ Narrator: ] To learn more, visit gao.gov and be sure to tune in to the
next episode of GAO's Watchdog Report for more from the Congressional
Watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office.