Orszag Warns Poor Performing Agencies

The Obama administration will keep close tabs on agencies that performed poorly in this year's Best Places to Work survey, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag warned today.

Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag (Photo by Getty Images)

"I’m very pleased with the high performers, but we also need to improve the bottom-performers," Orszag said at an event marking the public release of the survey. "You should expect, those agencies that are not doing as well, that we will be paying attention. We will be looking to you to develop a game plan to improve performance."

Orszag said he intends to adapt the survey's results across the federal government.

"We should not just let this be a report that generates a one-day news story. It needs to be something that’s built into the way we run government," he said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission topped all other large agencies and departments in the bi-annual survey, followed by the Government Accountability Office, NASA, the intelligence community and the State Department. The Surface Transportation Board and Overseas Private Investment Corporation topped the list of small agencies, followed by OMB and the Congressional Budget Office, which tied for third.

Orszag, who ran CBO before joining OMB, joked that his current and former agencies may settle their tie with a softball game or Jeopardy! match. He spoke at an awards ceremony for the best-performing agencies at the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington, hosted by the survey's cosponsors, the Partnership for Public Service and American University's Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation.