GSA official: Government transparency still faces hurdles

Government transparency is a work in progress for federal agencies, a top official told a group of public and private sector executives in Washington last week.

"This is about a series of steps we have to go through in order to do it well," said David McClure, associate administrator of the Office of Citizen Services and Communications at the General Services Administration, outlining challenges to open government during an Association for Federal Information Resources Management event in Washington last Thursday, a day before the Obama administration's first deadline requiring agencies to post government data online. "It's going to be an evolutionary process." In December 2009, the Office of Management and Budget directed agencies to publish by Jan. 22 at least three new downloadable sets of statistics that hold the government accountable, illuminate its work, share financial opportunities with the public or meet some other need citizens convey. McClure, who has worked at the Government Accountability Office and Gartner, an IT research and advisory firm, elicited a few chuckles when he said, "I believe panic has set in, in how deadlines are announced." In the months ahead, agencies must find ways to improve the quality of federal data and present it clearly and concisely to the public. The government also must work to foster a "two-way dialogue" with the public, McClure said.