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Byline: James Fallows Last week I mentioned former SecDef Robert Gates's surprisingly blunt (http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/10/what-didnt-get-covered-in-philadelphia/245919/) speech at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia. In it he said that the United States government, [...]

Byline: Mark W. Olson It is now almost three weeks since Standard & Poor's lowered its rating on U.S. debt from AAA to AA+, and we now have had sufficient [...]

The 2012 election, and the existence of a free healthcare market in this country, could well depend on a little-known agency called IPAB. Remember that acronym. It stands for the [...]

China's government is much less impressive than many Westerners believe IF THERE was one thing that the world's tycoons agreed on at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, it [...]

After years as the stepchild of the Automated Commercial Environment, the International Trade Data System is showing life of its own -- and none to soon. Other government agencies were [...]

Daniel Lombard The General Social Care Council is on track to clear a backlog of conduct cases by the end of this month, according to the Department of Health. The [...]

Cold to the Core Washington's inability to govern the country effective-ly cannot be blamed on acidic partisanship, venality, or sheer stupidity. After a week of arctic weather in the nation's [...]

The fiscal 2011 budget released on Monday lays out the Obama administration's performance management strategy and lists the performance goals agencies have put at the top of their to-do lists. [...]

The president's fiscal 2011 budget, to be released on Monday, will provide the first public glimpse of the high-priority performance goals that the Obama administration asked agencies to identify during [...]

GSCC sacks chief Wardle and gets six months to 'improve significantly' Recommendation: GSCC should put in place an effective case management system. Response: Accepted. It already has a new intermediate [...]

gscc must restore faith Unlike regulators in other fields, the GSCC has not made it clear that it exists for the benefit of service users Log onto the website of [...]

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been branded 'incredibly short-sighted' amid claims it is holding back innovative welfare reforms. A local government chief has slammed the department's reluctance [...]

Byline: Michael Izza Time for a comeback Much has happened at HM Revenue & Customs since the two CDs containing the personal details of 25 million people were reported missing [...]

Often, local governments lack the luxury of appointing risk management responsibilities to one employee who is trained specifically to measure risk and plan payment of unavoidable losses. Instead, managers across [...]

The capability reviews http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/reform/capability_reviews/reports.asp of five more government departments published by the Cabinet Office http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ last week revealed both positive and negative aspects of Whitehall. The reviews evaluate how well [...]

THE BUTT STOPS HERE... Government departments in Whitehall have been 'named and shamed' by Westminster Council because of smoking staff filling the streets with cigarette butts. The worst offenders were [...]

Tom Toles used his Thursday editorial cartoon to give the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- which had criticized him last year -- a taste of its own medicine. Yesterday's Washington [...]

Paul McMillan says the occupational row continues unabated The Government was hoping that the extra funding for the Financial Assistance Scheme would rid it of this spectre but last week's […]

OPEN FORUM Do we need civil servants to be the policy gurus for our services, asks Richard Berry. Indeed, do we need Whitehall at all? The chief executive of the [...]

The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) has turned itself around and become a highly efficient organisation, according to Sian Thomas, deputy director of health service employers' body NHS Employers. CRB checks [...]

What a relief to know that this is the 'best year ever' for the NHS. While this might be arguable in performance terms, it seems scant consolation to some of [...]

Facing increased criticism over the Small Business Administration's response to the Gulf Coast hurricanes, SBA Administrator Hector V. Barreto defended his agency's performance Thursday and praised the work of its [...]

The SEC's SRO rule proposal goes too far for the NASD. An NASD official recently criticized aspects of the SEC's proposal aimed at weakening the ties between a self-regulatory organization's [...]

If only the murders of journal-ists in Iraq aroused the anger of the Bush White House the way a few ill-chosen words by defenders of a free press can. Maybe [...]

We have today received a letter from VOSA advising that it is looking to launch an Operator's Rating Scheme whereby if we pay it [pounds sterling]1-5k to show that we [...]

welfare rights Joint teams to help older people claim benefits are failing to live up to the spin, writes Gary Vaux The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is committed [...]

To be successful the Children's Workforce Development Group must avoid using a managerial perspective as it attempts to remodel the professional landscape, writes Peter Beresford Idon't sleep very well, so [...]

U.S. lawmakers are contemplating new enforcement tools and financial incentives to spur better security practices after a report card on federal information security showed government CIOs managed a barely passing […]

BYLINE: R.G. Edmonson As if asking a panel of professors, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, asked witnesses before her Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to grade the Department of [...]

The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service may not be able to cope with its new responsibilities to promote mediation in child custody cases, the children's minister has [...]

We all have to be responsible for our actions in life. Well almost all, two related groups appear to have the ability to make irresponsible decisions without fear of being […]

Australia's National Aerial Firefighting Centre (NAFC) is evaluating responses to its recently closed request for proposals (RFP) for the country's 2005-6 fire season, ahead of seeking best and final offers [...]

The findings of an independent inquiry into the failure of the Meat Hygiene Service (MHS), an executive agency of the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA), to test for BSE an [...]

The government plans to reduce the numbers working at the Department for Work and Pensions by 30,000 within the next three years. This amounts to 23 per cent of its [...]

In 2002, the Institute of Medicine called the Veterans Health Administration's health network's clinical information technology system, including its quality improvement framework, "one of the best in the nation." In [...]

Viva la France! Mr X looks on in awe as the French government asks its populace for advice... What's this I hear - a government ministry asking the public for [...]