Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Agency Leadership Taking Steps to Improve Management and Planning, but Challenges Remain
GAO-04-219
Published: Jan 30, 2004. Publicly Released: Jan 30, 2004.
Skip to Highlights
Highlights
The scope of work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has evolved since 1946 from a focus on communicable diseases, like malaria, to a wide and complex range of public health responsibilities. The agency's Office of the Director (OD) faces considerable management challenges to ensure that during public health crises the agency's nonemergency but important public health work continues apace. In 2002, the agency's OD began taking steps aimed at organizational change. GAO has observed elsewhere that major change management initiatives can take at least 5 to 7 years. In this report, GAO examined the extent to which organizational changes have helped balance OD's oversight of CDC's emergent and ongoing public health responsibilities. Specifically, GAO examined OD's (1) executive management structure, (2) approach to overseeing the agency's work, and (3) approach to setting the agency's priorities.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | To improve OD's management of CDC's nonemergency mission priorities, the CDC Director should realign and clarify oversight responsibility for the centers' programmatic work at a level below the Director, including clarifying the roles of OD's deputy directors. | 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.
View More |
| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | To improve OD's management of CDC's nonemergency mission priorities, the CDC Director should ensure that reporting requirements and tracking systems are developed for OD to routinely monitor the centers' operations and programmatic activities. | 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...
|
| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | To improve OD's management of CDC's nonemergency mission priorities, the CDC Director should develop incentives to foster center collaboration as a standard agency practice. | 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...
|
| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | The CDC Director should ensure that the agency's new strategic planning process will involve CDC employees and external partners to identify agencywide priorities, align resources with these priorities, and facilitate the coordination of the centers' mission-related activities. | 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,...
|
| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | The CDC Director should ensure that the agency's human capital planning efforts receive appropriate leadership attention, including resuming human capital planning, linking these efforts to the agency's strategic plan, and linking senior executives' performance contracts with the strategic plan. | 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...
|
Full Report
Public Inquiries
Topics
Agency missionsFederal agency reorganizationInternal controlsPerformance measuresPrioritizingPublic Health Service facilitiesStaff utilizationStrategic planningEpidemicsPublic health