Reclamation Coordination and Oversight Group
The Coordination and Oversight Group (COG) is a standing Reclamation workgroup whose mission is to develop and implement Reclamation’s business model for managing technical services.
Introduction
As a part of Reclamation’s Managing for Excellence (M4E) effort, which was completed in the spring of 2008, Team 12 recommended:
(1) adoption of a new business model which will provide agency-wide processes and procedures for obtaining and managing technical services in collaboration with its customers; and
(2) issuance of a new Directive and Standard (D&S) in the Reclamation Manual specifically addressing collaboration processes with customers on the engineering and other technical services required for construction work on existing Reclamation facilities.
In a March, 3, 2008 memorandum, the Commissioner approved these recommendations and assigned responsibility for their implementation to the Deputy Commissioner – Operations (DCO).
Directive and Standard on Customer Collaboration Teams
The recommended D&S was drafted by Team 12, and was issued as a Temporary Reclamation Manual Release in January, 2009.
As a temporary release, it will expire one year from the date of issue in accordance with Reclamation Manual procedures. During this year, it will be reviewed concurrently with the development of the new business model. As the business model is finalized and implemented, the D&S will be revised, if and as necessary, and those revisions incorporated into the issuance of a final D&S. The final will be issued not later than November, 2009.
Development and Implementation of the Business Model
To address the first Team 12 recommendation, The DCO established the COG and assigned it the task of guiding the implementation of the new business model for technical services. The COG is comprised of representatives from service providers and program offices throughout Reclamation. This diverse representation provides the breadth of perspectives necessary to ensure successful implementation of the business model. A charter has been developed and approved for the COG, setting forth the group’s objectives, roles and responsibilities, and membership.
The actions of the COG are guided by six objectives conveyed to Reclamation by its customers and leadership
- Empowerment of the Regions
- Cost-effective services
- Transparency and accountability
- Predictability of workload
- Ability to assess core capability
- Strategic determination of outsourcing
Through the work of the COG, Reclamation will ensure that it maintains the technical capability to fulfill its responsibilities for delivering water and power, while executing program and project requirements within scope, budget and schedule in a manner which fosters Reclamation-wide collaboration, coordination and sharing of technical services. To meet this objective, the COG will support a business model where program responsibility is retained by regional offices and Reclamation-wide program offices. A monitoring component will be included to ensure that Reclamation maintains appropriate levels of expertise in mission-essential capabilities.
Ensuring appropriate levels of technical staff can be facilitated by having sufficient data on workload distribution. To address this, the COG will develop methods for advance planning of work, a uniform system for administering fee-for-service agreements, and procedures for gathering and analyzing cost and performance data. As a result of these processes, the data necessary to adequately assess workload distribution and organizational staffing levels will be more readily available.
The COG has begun its task by preparing a workplan outlining the steps which will be taken to implement the recommendations approved by the Commissioner. The COG has been meeting regularly, and has engaged Reclamation leadership on key issues to support the implementation process.
In regards to the second recommendation, the full text of the recommended D&S was drafted by Team 12 and is included in its final report as an attachment. As it was being developed, it was vetted several times both internally and externally.
Comments and feedback
Continued suggestions and advice from Reclamation employees to the COG is important to achieving the objectives outlined above. To provide this feedback, please contact the COG member representing your organization, as listed below:
| Deputy Commissioner, Policy, Administration and Budget |
Bruce Muller (bmuller@usbr.gov), Karl Stock (kstock@usbr.gov) |
| Technical Resources | Karen Knight (kknight@usbr.gov), Mark Boyle (mboyle@usbr.gov) |
| UC Region | Rick Scott (rscott@uc.usbr.gov), Rick Ehat (rehat@uc.usbr.gov) |
| PN Region | Chris Jansen-Lute (cjansen@pn.usbr.gov), Mike Relf (mrelf@pn.usbr.gov) |
| MP Region | Pablo Arroyave (parroyave@usbr.gov), Richard Welsh (rwelsh@usbr.gov) |
| LC Region | Ed Virden(evirden@usbr.gov), Rich Dent (rdent@usbr.gov) |
| GP Region | James Allard (jallard@usbr.gov) Roxanne Peterson (REPeterson@usbr.gov) |
Last updated: 5/4/09