Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Agency Leadership Taking Steps to Improve Management and Planning, but Challenges Remain

We previously reported a weakness in oversight of CDC's centers due to the fact that only the Director of CDC had line authority over the centers' programs and activities. In addition, we reported that the distinction between the Deputy Director for Science and Public Health and the Deputy Director for Public Health Service had not been clearly made. This resulted in GAO recommending that (1) the CDC Director realign and clarify oversight responsibility for the centers' programmatic work at a level below the Director and that (2) the roles of the Deputy Directors be clarified. In April 2005, the internal reorganization that CDC implemented was officially approved. This reorganization helped to realign and clarify oversight responsibility for the centers' programmatic work through the establishment of four new coordinating centers, which are organizational structures that group together centers that conduct similar or complimentary work. The coordinating centers have management structures that oversee the centers, and the centers' directors report to their respective coordinating center directors. Previously, the 11 center directors reported to the Director of CDC. Now, the 4 coordinating center directors report to the Director of CDC helping to streamline the flow of information for leadership decision-making. As part of its internal reorganization, CDC has also taken steps to clarify the roles and responsibilities of its senior management officials responsible for the agency's science and public health efforts. Specifically, CDC eliminated the Deputy Director for Science and Public Health and the Deputy Director for Public Health Service positions and established the Chief Science Officer and the Chief of Public Health Practice. These positions have their own distinct descriptions, which clearly outline the separate roles and responsibilities of each office.

In 2005, CDC began implementing HealthImpact.net, a full-cycle planning, execution, results and evaluation reporting system. In August 2009, CDC reported that this system contains data for all projects across the agency from fiscal year 2006 to the present approximately 1300 projects per year. HealthImpact.net generates both standard and ad hoc reports that are used for workload planning, budget planning, and review, approval, and monitoring of specific projects. For example, CDC's Procurement and Grants Office uses data from HealthImpact.net to monitor workload planning in support of the agency's acquisition and assistance activities. CDC's Financial Management Office (FMO) uses the data from HealthImpact.net to carry out its responsibility of planning the finances of the agency prior to the beginning of the fiscal year. Specifically, this data is referenced in budget planning decisions that FMO senior leaders have with the leadership of individual program offices. HealthImpact.net also provides data which CDC's Coordinating Office for Terrorism and Emergency Response uses to review the scope of potential activities, to approve those activities, and also as a basis for how it tracks the performance of ongoing activities throughout the year. HealthImpact.net is the only enterprise-wide application that is universally accessible to anyone within CDC, and it is the only application that can provide a complete source of knowledge of all the work of the agency in one venue.

CDC has developed incentives to foster center collaboration as a standard agency practice through the establishment of its four coordinating centers in April 2005. The coordinating centers are organizational structures that group together centers that conduct similar or complimentary work. For example, the Coordinating Center for Health Promotion brings together three centers that focus on preventive care, including National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, and the Office of Genomics and Disease Prevention. CDC stated that this structure was chosen to capitalize on opportunities for coordination and integration of research between centers, decrease duplication and redundant activities in center programs, and provide leadership, management, and accountability for goals and programs across centers.

GAO recommended that CDC's Director ensure that the agency's new strategic planning process involve CDC employees and external partners to identify agency-wide priorities, align resources with these priorities, and facilitate the coordination of the centers' mission-related activities. CDC's Futures Initiative, a strategic development process which involved its staff, federal partners, and stakeholders, addressed this recommendation by helping CDC to prioritize its strategies, programs, and resources and to reorganize its structure. Thus, CDC now has systems and processes in place to align its programs, science, budget, and procurement processes with its goals. For example, goal teams, led by CDC senior staff, are responsible for drafting goal action plans, which include a prioritized set of objectives, roles and responsibilities of organizational units across the agency, and for recommending alignment of resources needed to accomplish these objectives. As a result, CDC's budget activities are aligned to health protection goals at the division level. CDC's Futures Initiative has also led to a new organizational design, which facilitates the coordination of the centers' mission-related activities through the establishment of four new coordinating centers. Due to the new organizational design, the coordinating centers are positioned to provide greater agency-wide coordination across multiple centers responsible for conducting CDC's mission activities.

Over the past year, CDC has embarked on several initiatives, which address our recommendation that the CDC Director ensure that the agency's human capital planning efforts receive appropriate leadership attention. In May 2005, CDC completed the human capital planning effort it had initiated in April 2003 and released its agency-wide human capital plan, Strategic Management of Human Capital Plan, for fiscal years 2005 through 2008. CDC's strategic planning resulted in the development of six key strategies to guide agency decisions and priorities. CDC's human capital plan is linked to three of these strategies--leadership, global health impact, and accountability. Moreover, a review of some of CDC's performance plans for senior management officials, such as Coordinating Center Directors, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Science Officer, and the Chief of Public Health Practice, showed that the plans made references to strategic planning initiatives. In addition, in June 2005, the mission for the newly established Office of Workforce and Career Development was approved. The mission of this office includes the following: developing a comprehensive strategic human resource leadership program; collaborating with the Office of Strategy and Innovation; and collaborating with Office of Director when appropriate. Some of the human capital activities proposed by the Director of Office of Workforce and Career Development included strategic and targeted recruitment, succession planning, and strategy/innovation planning.