Strategic Priorities of the Department of the Treasury
Strategic Framework for the Department of the Treasury
Strategic Goal: Effectively Managed U.S. Government Finances
Strategic Goal: U.S. and World Economies Perform at Full Economic Potential
Strategic Goal: Management and Organizational Excellence
The Strategic Management System of the Department of the Treasury
Strategic Priorities of the Department of the Treasury
The Financial Focus: Managing the Government’s Finances
The Department of the Treasury’s key priorities for managing the government’s finances effectively include collecting money due to the United States by maximizing voluntary compliance with tax laws and regulations, making payments, and financing the federal government by continually improving financial management processes. The Department oversees, accounts for, and reports on government collections and expenditures, and is responsible for collecting delinquent debt owed the government. The Treasury Department forecasts receipts and payments, determines borrowing needs, and executes the borrowing strategy to meet the financial needs of the federal government at the lowest possible cost over time.
Treasury issues more than 960 million payments on behalf of the federal government every year. |
Increasing voluntary compliance with the tax laws reduces the cost of tax administration, increases revenue, lessens the need to borrow, and ultimately lowers the cost of government. To reduce the tax gap, the Department must execute its comprehensive, integrated, multi-year strategy. The tax gap is the difference between what taxpayers should pay and what they actually pay. The Treasury Department’s tax gap reduction strategy is guided by the principle that voluntary compliance will increase through improved and expanded taxpayer service and outreach, and effective targeted enforcement. Enforcement should be sensitive to taxpayer rights and maintain the appropriate balance between enforcement and taxpayer burden.
The Department collects over $2 trillion annually and manages over $8 trillion in debt with more than $58 billion in daily cash transactions. |
Financial transactions are becoming increasingly electronic, and the Department continues to leverage technology advancements to achieve all-electronic cash management. Electronic transactions are more efficient than paper transactions, saving the federal government millions of dollars each year. The Treasury Department continues to convert paper transactions to electronic transactions in a manner that ensures the secure transfer of information and funds.
Financing the government at the lowest possible cost over time necessitates that the Department accurately project its revenues and payments, and offer the right mix of debt instruments.
The Economic Focus: Securing America’s Economic and Financial Future
The Treasury Department performs both policy and operational roles in promoting prosperous U.S. and world economies, raising standards of living, and protecting domestic and international economic and financial systems. As the principal economic advisor to the President, the Secretary of the Treasury utilizes the policy expertise of the Department to address national and global economic and financial challenges.
Today people live longer, healthier, more productive lives than they did in 1935 when the Social Security program was created. In 1950, 16 workers paid into the Social Security system to benefit each beneficiary. Today that ratio has dropped to only 3.3 workers for each beneficiary. |
A top priority of the Department is the fundamental reform of entitlement programs. Without this reform, annual outlays by the federal government for Social Security and Medicare are projected to more than double by 2080, representing a grave threat to the American economy. In partnership with Congress, the Department of the Treasury will bring its economic and fiscal expertise to design and implement needed entitlement program reform.
The Department will actively strive to maintain America’s strength and prosperity by developing and implementing policies that encourage overall economic growth. The Treasury Department will collaborate with Congress to establish pro-growth tax programs, and ensure that U.S. regulations provide necessary protections without harming our international competitive position and the competitiveness of U.S. capital markets. By continuing to develop policies that foster innovation and skill enhancement, the Treasury Department will enable growth in productivity that raises living standards and keeps America the economic envy of the world.
The Security Focus: Strengthening National Security
The sponsorship of terrorism and the potential acquisition of WMD by rogue regimes and non-state entities represent a grave threat to U.S. national security and all free and open societies. The Treasury Department implements targeted financial measures and other forms of sanctions against terrorists and their support networks, with the goal of stopping the flow of money to terrorist groups, state sponsors of terrorism, proliferators of WMD, drug traffickers, money launderers, and regimes that constitute a threat to the United States. The Department leads the U.S. Government’s multi-faceted effort to keep the world’s financial systems accessible to legitimate users, while excluding those who wish to exploit these systems for illegal purposes through law enforcement and appropriate financial regulatory initiatives.
To achieve these goals, the Treasury Department works closely with other U.S. federal agencies, state and local governments, foreign governments, international bodies, and private financial institutions to attack the financial and support networks of terrorism.
The Treasury Department’s priority is to integrate its financial intelligence activities into the broader intelligence community, to invest in information technology infrastructure, and to recruit and retain a high-performing workforce required to support the national security strategy.
The Management Focus: Producing Effective Results
Management’s primary role and responsibility in the Department is to create the conditions that allow all programs and activities to perform efficiently and effectively. The Treasury Department continues to develop integrated plans where policies and operations align to produce maximum value for the American people.
The Treasury Franchise Fund’s shared services center reduces overhead costs and operational redundancy by pooling and leveraging resources across Treasury. It now provides integrated accounting, human resources, procurement, and other administrative support services for many Treasury bureaus and other federal entities. |
The Department’s priorities are to drive improved results through performance and cost–based decision–making, strategically align its resources to deliver outcomes, secure its information technology infrastructure and leverage technology investments, close skill gaps in mission critical occupations, and develop leadership capacity.
The Department of the Treasury achieves effective results through continuous improvement, and linking budget and costs to outcomes. Through an integrated management system, program management will be able to determine if goals were achieved with the provided level of resources. To improve value for the American people, a number of options can be executed, such as redeployment of resources, competitive sourcing, realignment, and redesign of processes.
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Vision is a compelling picture of the organization that all can strive for in the future. Although it may never be achieved, it is intrinsically motivating and drives the organization toward a common purpose. Mission is the purpose of the organization. Core Values are the ideals that guide behavior for all interactions internal and external to the organization. Strategic Goals are long-term outcomes that help the organization achieve its mission. Strategic Objectives are broad based outcome statements for a group of value chains. Value Chains are programs grouped by a common purpose. These help employees understand their shared objectives by identifying activities that cross organizational boundaries in the achievement of the Department’s strategic goals. Value Chain Outcomes describe the intended result from carrying out activities for a group of programs with a common purpose. Strategies are methods used to achieve outcomes. Indicators are broad-based metrics which show whether outcomes are trending in the desired direction. Measures help determine the impact or influence of Department activities on outcomes. They have targets associated with them and can be quantitative or qualitative in nature. |
Strategic Framework for the Department of the Treasury
The Treasury Department’s strategic framework is a summary of our goals, objectives, and outcomes. This framework provides the basis for performance planning and continuous improvement.
Strategic Goals |
Strategic Objectives |
Value Chains |
Outcomes |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finance | Effectively Managed U.S. Government Finances | Cash resources are available to operate the government | Collect Disburse Borrow Invest Account |
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| Economy | U.S. and World Economies Perform at Full Economic Potential | Improved economic opportunity, mobility and security with robust, real, sustainable economic growth at home and abroad |
Strengthen Regulate |
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| Trust and confidence in U.S. currency worldwide | Manufacture |
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| Security | Prevented Terrorism and Promoted the Nation’s Security Through Strengthened International Financial Systems | Pre-empted and neutralized threats to the international financial system and enhanced U.S. national security | Secure |
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| Management | Management and Organizational Excellence | Enabled and effective Treasury Department | Manage |
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Strategic Goals of the Department of the Treasury
Strategic Goal: Effectively Managed U.S. Government Finances
As the executive agency responsible for managing the nation’s finances, the Department of the Treasury provides the American public with cost-effective, efficient and secure management of federal finances, and quality customer-centered service.
The Treasury Department manages the nation’s finances by collecting money due to the United States, making its payments, managing its borrowing, investing when appropriate, and performing central accounting functions. Sound fiscal management enables continual operation of essential government services and allows the Department to meet its financial obligations while minimizing borrowing costs. Accurate projections of the U.S. government’s cash requirements ensure that funds are available to cover federal payments on a daily basis. The ability of the Department of the Treasury to manage the nation’s finances with integrity is paramount to maintaining financial stability and enabling economic growth.
Achieving this strategic goal requires the implementation of the Department’s comprehensive, integrated, multi-year strategy to reduce the tax gap. This tax gap reduction strategy is guided by the principle that voluntary compliance will increase through improved taxpayer service and outreach, coupled with enforcement to discourage and deter non-compliance.
The ability of the Department of the Treasury to manage the nation’s finances with integrity is paramount to maintaining financial stability and enabling economic growth. |
Strategic Objective: Cash resources are available to operate the government
The Department forecasts the federal government’s fiscal needs and has appropriate systems in place for secure, efficient and effective cash management.
Outcomes
Revenue collected when due through a fair and uniform application of the law
The Department of the Treasury maximizes the level of voluntary compliance through a fair and uniform application of the law.
Government financing at the lowest possible cost over time
The federal government finances its expenditures in excess of tax receipts through the sale of debt obligations at various maturities. The Department’s activities minimize the interest paid on the national debt over time and enhance market liquidity.
Timely and accurate payments at the lowest possible cost
The Treasury Department plays a critical role in society and the economy as it issues government payments to the correct recipient at the proper time, including Social Security benefits, tax refunds, and veterans benefits.
Accurate, timely, useful, transparent, and accessible financial information
The Department of the Treasury produces government-wide financial information and reports, that contribute to improved quality of the nation’s financial decision-making.
Effective cash management
The Department forecasts receipts and payments accurately to ensure sufficient funds, and minimize excess borrowing. Excess cash balances are invested.
Strategies
Encourage compliance through improved service and expanded outreach
Improving taxpayer service is especially important to help taxpayers avoid unintentional errors that contribute to the tax gap. Underreporting tax liability accounts for 83 percent of the gap between what taxpayers should pay and what they actually pay. The Department works with taxpayers and other stakeholders to help them understand and meet their tax and other financial obligations to the government while minimizing the burden of compliance.
The Department spends 46 cents for every 100 dollars collected in federal income taxes. |
Discourage and deter non-compliance
The Treasury Department relies on those with financial obligations to the government to voluntarily comply with the law, but is prepared to take appropriate action when they do not.
Non-compliance may not be deliberate and can stem from a wide range of causes; however, some non-compliance is intentional, such as the misuse of offshore transactions and the use of abusive tax shelters. The Department conducts examinations to ensure that the proper amount of tax is reported and paid. The Treasury Department is sensitive to taxpayer rights, and will maintain an appropriate balance between enforcement activity and the imposition of unecessary burden on taxpayers.
An important factor of encouraging compliance and deterring noncompliance is a comprehensive tax gap reduction strategy with components that include:
Optimize cash and debt portfolio
The Department of the Treasury will continue to determine the right mix of investment and debt instruments that will minimize risk and the cost of financing the government.
Expand all-electronic transactions
The Department will provide incentives and reduce barriers for agencies and customers to increase use of electronic payments, savings bonds, and other financial transactions while using technology to automate operations, improve security, and create cost-saving efficiencies.
Modernize
The Treasury Department’s government-wide accounting modernization project will improve reliability, timeliness, and accessibility of financial information among federal agencies, the Office of Management and Budget, and the banking community.
The Department will strengthen its collection and enforcement efforts by continuing to enhance and implement the Internal Revenue Service’s Business Systems Modernization program and projects.
Standardize
The Department of the Treasury will continue its work with other agencies to adopt uniform accounting and reporting standards, common systems, and standardized definitions and usage of federal accounting terms.
If the almost 154 million benefit checks issued in fiscal year 2006 were converted to direct deposit, the savings to the American taxpayer would have been $124 million. Of the 154 million checks, 142 million were Social Security and Supplemental Security Income payments. |
Indicators and Measures
Cost to finance the government over time
The Treasury Department will develop a cash balance financing portfolio model to minimize interest costs and other risk factors, such as operational and rollover risk.
Voluntary compliance
The Department estimates the portion of total taxes due, reported, and paid by the scheduled due date.
Projection variance
To optimize cash management, the Treasury Department measures the difference between actual and projected receipts. Improvements in forecast accuracy have a direct impact on reducing borrowing costs and increasing the return on investment.
Percentage of referred delinquent debt collected
The Department of the Treasury tracks the percentage of delinquent debt it collects on behalf of federal agencies by comparing collections to the total amount of referred debt.
Percentage of payments made electronically
The Department measures the portion of the total volume of payments made electronically. Direct deposit, as opposed to paper checks, represents significant savings to American taxpayers, improves payment security, and enhances convenience for payment recipients.
Strategic Goal: U.S. and World Economies Perform at Full Economic Potential
To achieve conditions that enable economies to perform at full economic potential, the Treasury Department must stimulate growth through the development and implementation of policies that effectively regulate banking and financial markets, create pro-growth tax policies, and advocate free trade. Modernizing entitlement programs and ensuring optimal economic performance, by encouraging and supporting American competitiveness through innovation, is a critical aspect of this strategic goal.
Strong and dynamic foreign and domestic economies serve the United States by creating markets for the trade of goods and services, and encouraging cooperation and collaboration among nations.
A more robust global economy is brought about by people and nations exchanging value and information through trade.
Strategic Objective: Improved economic opportunity, mobility, and security with robust, real, sustainable economic growth at home and abroad
Economic growth stimulates economic opportunity, mobility, and security for Americans and others around the world. Promoting the development of new markets in the U.S. ensures that all Americans benefit from economic growth. The expansion of underdeveloped economies abroad opens markets, enhances regional stability, reduces the spread of disease, creates opportunities for profitable trade, and demonstrates democracy in action. The Department of the Treasury leads these efforts on behalf of the American people.
Outcomes
Strong U.S. economic competitiveness
Strong U.S. economic competitiveness is crucial to robust economic growth worldwide, continued investment in the United States, and job creation. The Treasury Department’s contribution to the facilitation of a prosperous financial infrastructure, a balanced macro economy, market efficiency, technological readiness, and innovation are critical for keeping a sharp competitive edge.
Competitive capital markets
Prosperous capital markets play an important role in facilitating economic growth. Competitive markets inspire investor confidence and offer fair prices. The Department strives to preserve the integrity of the U.S. market which is essential to maintaining competitiveness.
Free trade and investment
Opening foreign and domestic markets for goods and services is vital for a robust, growing, and sustainable U.S. economy.
A University of Michigan study showed that lowering global trade barriers on all products and services, by even one-third, could boost the U.S. economy by $177 billion, raising living standards for the average family by $2,500 annually. |
Prevented or mitigated financial and economic crises
It is in the best interest of the U.S. and the world to prevent financial and economic crises and diminish their impact when they occur. By promoting sound pro-growth policies and troubleshooting, the Department helps retain the benefits of economic progress, reduces poverty, maintains political stability, and avoids expensive intervention.
Decreased gap in global standard of living
Sustained strong economic growth creates opportunities, improves quality of life, and reduces poverty.
Strategies
Stimulate U.S. economic growth
Key components of continued American economic growth are remaining competitive in the international marketplace, particularly in the realm of science and technology; fostering an economic climate that promotes productivity, innovation, learning, and excellence in all fields of endeavor; improving and simplifying the tax code and tax strategies; and shrinking the deficit.
The Department will work to help reform the tort system which currently has a negative impact on U.S. economic competitiveness due to fear of frivolous, costly, and unnecessary litigation.
Technology accounts for approximately 50 percent of the United States’ economic growth since World War II. |
Strengthen and modernize entitlement programs
The Treasury Department, in collaboration with Congress and other stakeholders, will help to reform Social Security and Medicare which will reduce fiscal burden and enhance the nation’s future economic health and competitiveness.
Engage in financial and economic diplomacy
An increasingly interconnected and interdependent global economy requires the Department to maintain its leadership role in financial and economic diplomacy by promoting economic growth, limiting the impact of international financial crises, promoting global economic stability, working to reform the International Monetary Fund, stimulating growth through international trade, encouraging increased debt relief for the most heavily indebted poor countries, managing U.S. participation in multilateral development banks, engaging emerging economies through bilateral initiatives, and providing technical advice to developing countries on building market-based economies.
The Department will support U.S. policy objectives by playing a critical role in monitoring foreign investment in the United States, responding to humanitarian emergencies, stabilizing fragile economies, and opening new markets for U.S. financial services and investment.
Strengthen financial institutions and markets
A strong financial sector with a full spectrum of competitive services enables the timely and fluid conduct of business on every level, from individual citizens to multi-national corporations. Effective supervision of national banks and thrifts ensures a safe and sound financial system that complies with laws and regulations, and provides fair access and treatment of customers. Building the capacity of these and other financial institutions to serve the nation’s low-income communities enables economic opportunity.
Encourage voluntary compliance with the tax code while minimizing regulatory and compliance burdens
The Treasury Department encourages voluntary compliance and deters non-compliance through outreach and effective enforcement. The Department is committed to minimizing regulatory and compliance burdens on the public through more agile and responsive systems, which eliminate redundancy in reporting requirements, simplify regulations, forms and instructions, and streamline interactions with regulators.
Promote financial literacy
The Department’s financial literacy program provides information, tools, and guidance on a wide range of financial activities from opening a bank account to learning how to invest. These resources help people manage their personal finances more effectively, ensuring them a sound financial future.
Indicators and Measures
Growth-Competitiveness Index
This index provides a quantified framework to evaluate a nation’s competitiveness based on the quality of the macroeconomic environment, the state of its public institutions, and the level of its technological readiness.
Research and development as a percent of Gross Domestic Product
Technology is critical to the growth of the economy. The percentage of the Gross Domestic Product spent by both government and the private sector on research and development, in science and technology, is an indicator of the future health of the economy.
Financial crises per year
The number of countries that default on debt obligations is an indicator of financial crises.
Sustainability imbalance
Sustainability imbalance measures the difference between what has been promised to current and future generations above what is projected to be collected in federal tax. Other indicators, such as the cost of entitlement programs as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product and of total federal spending, measure the effect of entitlement reform.
The U.S. accounts for about 1/3 of global research and development spending. |
Sum of imports and exports as a percent of Gross Domestic Product
The openness of U.S. markets and the degree of involvement in foreign trade of goods and services is gauged through the sum of imports and exports as a percent of the Gross Domestic Product.
Gap in the global standard of living
The Department uses indicators to monitor the gap in the global standard of living, such as the Thiel Indicator and Gini Index.
Strategic Objective: Trust and confidence in U.S. currency worldwide
Trust and confidence are vital to the continued global acceptance of our currency. U.S. currency is redesigned and manufactured to protect the global user from counterfeiting schemes. In addition, the Department of the Treasury secures the nation’s gold reserves.
Outcome
Commerce enabled through safe, secure U.S. notes and coins
The Department reliably provides safe, secure, cost-efficient, high quality U.S. notes, security documents, and coins that are readily accepted by all currency users and customers, which facilitates seamless and stable commerce.
The U.S. Secret Service estimates that only 1/1000 of a percent of U.S. currency in circulation worldwide is counterfeit. |
Strategies
Respond to customer requirements through adaptive production capability
As demand varies for coin and currency, the Department of the Treasury adjusts its production in a flexible manner to meet the United States’ needs efficiently.
Engage in research and development to enhance counterfeit-deterrence features
Research and development assures the continued safety and security of notes and coins; a continuing commitment keeps the Department ahead of increasingly sophisticated counterfeiters.
Promote global suppression of counterfeiting
Through outreach and education, the Treasury Department works with global partners to promote awareness of changes made to U.S. currency, enabling money handlers to detect counterfeit notes.
Extend the life of currency notes
The Department of the Treasury continues to research and test various materials to prolong the life of U.S. notes. Benefits of these changes must be weighed against all factors, including cost and impact on counterfeit-deterrent features.
Consider alternative coin materials
The Department is considering use of possible alternative materials to reduce the cost of producing coins.
Indicators and Measures
Response to demand
The Treasury Department will measure its ability to supply quality notes and coins dependably to meet Federal Reserve Bank demand.
Counterfeiting rate
The Department of the Treasury will use available information to estimate counterfeiting rates of notes in circulation.
Strategic Goal: Prevented Terrorism and Promoted the Nation’s Security Through Strengthened International Financial Systems
While promoting financial and economic growth at home and abroad, the Treasury Department performs an important, unique, and growing role in preserving national security. All national security threats – from terrorists to drug traffickers to proliferators of weapons of mass destruction – depend on financial and support networks to survive. Terrorists use financial systems to move money for training and indoctrinating operatives, bribing officials, procuring false documents, and carrying out horrific attacks. Weapons proliferators access the financial sector to pay for the components and services needed to build weapons. Drug cartels funnel money through fraudulent businesses and front companies to cloak their trafficking activities. Rogue regimes turn to gray markets and illicit activity to raise funds and purchase arms.
The Department’s regulatory, law enforcement, and intelligence authorities provide powerful tools for the United States to apply pressure against threats to national security when diplomatic outreach may be unproductive and traditional military action may be ineffective or inappropriate.
The Department of the Treasury leverages its unique authorities to safeguard the security of the U.S. and international financial and economic systems. These authorities defend against threats by detecting and excluding those who would use these systems for illegal purposes or compromise U.S. national security interests, while keeping them free and open to legitimate users.
Strategic Objective: Pre-empted and neutralized threats to the international financial system and enhanced U.S. national security
Potential threats to U.S. national security and financial systems are identified, minimized, and prevented.
“We will direct every resource at our command to win the war against terrorists, every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence.” – President George W. Bush |
Outcomes
Removed or reduced threats to national security from terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, drug trafficking and other criminal activity on the part of rogue regimes, individuals, and their financial and other support networks
The financial and other support networks of terrorists, weapons proliferators, drug traffickers, rogue regimes, and other criminals are degraded, impairing the ability of individual actors and organizations to carry out criminal activities or attacks against the United States, its allies and interests worldwide.
Safer and more transparent U.S. and international financial systems
Confidence in the integrity of the U.S. and international financial systems is a key element in fostering economic growth as well as improving national security. Transparency in the financial sector denies terrorists, drug traffickers, WMD proliferators and other criminals the ability to conceal their illicit dealings. U.S. national security is enhanced when financial systems are safeguarded from criminal abuse.
Strategies
Collect, analyze, and disseminate financial and other information concerning national security
Financial intelligence data helps identify the infrastructure of terrorist and criminal organizations. Financial intelligence is uniquely reliable; it allows the Department to track, deter, and disrupt threats. The Department of the Treasury, in support of the U.S. Government’s national security policy, has access to financial information and conducts all-source analysis to develop a picture of support networks that can be shared with the intelligence community, law enforcement, foreign authorities, and the private sector. Intelligence and analysis of this type can help create broad deterrence against criminal activity.
Financially and economically isolate, disrupt, and dismantle national security threats
The Department exercises a broad range of intelligence, regulatory, policy, and enforcement authorities, and tools to track and disrupt the support networks of terrorists, proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, rogue regimes, and international drug traffickers; thus degrading security threats facing the United States. Actions include:
Shape policy, laws and regulations, and increase compliance
The Department of the Treasury administers the Bank Secrecy Act, enforces regulations to reduce illicit financing and money laundering, and ensures compliance with sanctions. The Department leverages its relationships with counterparts in foreign governments and banking and financial service industries to encourage voluntary compliance with existing laws and regulations.
Coordinate and integrate
The Treasury Department will work to seamlessly coordinate its financial intelligence, law enforcement, and policymaking authorities under one unified organization. The Department of the Treasury plays a unique role linking law enforcement and intelligence communities with financial institutions and regulators, as well as with other organizations, and will continue to improve its integration into the broader intelligence community.
Indicators and Measures
Terrorism and Financial Intelligence’s program impact
The Department will gauge progress in achieving its national security mission by developing composite performance measures to assess the impact of its sanctions, law enforcement, intelligence, regulatory and diplomatic programs in fighting the war on terror, and reducing threats to U.S. national security. Areas of focus include:
Strategic Goal: Management and Organizational Excellence
The Department of the Treasury strives to maintain public trust and confidence in U.S. and international economic and financial systems through exemplary leadership, best-in-class processes, and a culture of excellence, integrity, and teamwork.
The Treasury Department realizes its strategic goals by building a strong institution that is citizen-centered, results-oriented, and efficient, while actively promoting innovation. The Department works to implement initiatives and programs that benefit the American people.
Each bureau has individual goals, strategies, and metrics to achieve performance goals and improve internal business operations. The Treasury Department’s strategic plan establishes the framework that provides guidance to bureaus and policy offices.
Strategic Objective: Enabled and effective Treasury Department
Management’s responsibility is to create conditions that enable program goals to be accomplished and achieve organizational excellence. The Department continues to integrate policies and operational activities to produce optimal value for the American public.
Outcomes
A citizen-centered, results-oriented, and strategically aligned organization
The Treasury Department is dedicated to serving the public interest and focused on delivering results where outcomes align with strategic goals and objectives.
Exceptional accountability and transparency
Operations improve as a result of using clear and understandable reporting, proper internal controls, meaningful performance measures, continuous assessment to achieve desired outcomes, and effective management.
Strategies
Communicate and collaborate effectively with Congress and other stakeholders
Constructive action can only be achieved through collaborative relationships. When developing and implementing policies and programs, it is necessary to have active, open, and productive dialogue with stakeholders whose cooperation and support is required to accomplish the Department’s goals on behalf of the American people.
Align and optimize resources strategically
By aligning resources to strategic priorities and outcomes, the Department will be focused on its most important tasks and programs. By leveraging opportunities the Treasury Department optimizes resources for shared services and when necessary reallocates to improve efficiency and deliver best value.
Invest in people
The Department uses succession planning to develop emerging leaders. Targeted development and training is used to close skill gaps. Human capital flexibilities are used to attract and retain a diverse talent pool. Management recognizes and rewards employees for their contributions toward achieving the Department’s priorities and outcomes.
Invest in technology
The Department will provide a secure information technology infrastructure, and use Enterprise Architecture and Earned Value Management to establish the appropriate mix of transaction processing, and analytic and transformational applications that can be utilized effectively and efficiently across the Department and the federal government.
Continuously improve
Management regularly reviews progress toward achieving outcomes, and continuously improves by planning, executing, evaluating, and adjusting actions to achieve desired results using an integrated management system. The Department will focus on a set of critical performance measures and indicators and calculate the cost of achieving outcomes and target levels of performance.
On November 15 of each year, the Department issues its Performance and Accountability Report for the prior fiscal year. Since fiscal year 2000, the auditors have given the Department an unqualified or “clean” audit opinion. |
Indicators and Measures
Stakeholder indicators
Independent evaluations and audits determine how the Department informs the public, its stakeholders, and management about its performance. Auditing addresses mission critical aspects of the Department, and its financial statements; audit findings and performance evaluations provide recommendations that drive corrective action. The desired result of an audit is an unqualified or clean opinion that conforms to generally accepted accounting principles.
Process indicators
Quality, cycle time, and cost are important indicators of internal process performance.
Human capital indicators
To provide a comprehensive picture of accountability and personnel management, the Department measures core competency gap closure, leadership depth development, hiring time, retention rates, and analyze the results of the Federal Human Capital Survey.
Results indicators
The Department of the Treasury will measure progress on outcomes through appropriate measures and indicators, assess the degree of budget and outcome alignment, and calculate the cost of achieving outcomes and target levels of performance.
Strategic Management System of the Department of the Treasury
Renewing Our Commitment to Excellence
In building the fiscal year 2007-2012 strategic plan, the Treasury Department took the opportunity to refine and test its strategic goals against a changing global environment. In this plan, the Treasury Department went beyond linking performance to the budget, and established an integrated management system that will address continuously improvement and add value for all of its stakeholders.
Typical strategic planning uses a forecast of the future based on the realities of today. This type of planning tends to be event-driven, and narrowly focused. The Treasury Department supplemented this approach by assessing the potential effect that a wide range of factors can have on the organization (see Appendix D). The goal is to manage future uncertainty and act effectively in the face of future ambiguity.
Understanding the future in the context of a broad set of possibilities, the Department tested the robustness of its mission and made some important changes. These changes include articulating a vision and a set of core values by which the Department will operate, enabling the strategic plan to serve the Treasury Department and its stakeholders effectively with a high degree of institutional longevity.
The strategic goals are stated in an outcome-oriented manner, describing the result the Department wishes to achieve. In developing outcomes and objectives, the Treasury Department identifies value chains, or programs grouped by common purpose: collect, disburse, borrow, invest, account, strengthen, regulate, manufacture, secure, and manage. Value chain outcomes help employees understand their shared objectives by identifying activities that cross organizational boundaries in the achievement of the Department’s strategic goals. Value chain outcomes can be assessed for cost and performance.
Executing the Strategic Plan
To accomplish its strategic objectives effectively, the Department of the Treasury must link outcomes, strategy, budget, and the production of value into an integrated management system. This management system, based on a model of continuous improvement, is shown below:
The process begins with an understanding of important national priorities and outcomes, which are then translated into broadly defined, intended results for the Department. These become the Treasury Department’s strategic goals and objectives. Outcomes related to these strategic goals and objectives are then articulated. Strategies are developed to achieve the outcomes, and then measures and indicators are identified to provide the means to assess progress.
“If you are doing something that cannot be evaluated, you are in the awkward position of being unable to demonstrate that you are doing anything at all.” – Dr. Robert F. Mager, 1962 |
Once the Department of the Treasury’s strategic framework is established, performance planning is possible. Performance planning is focused on the outcomes developed in this strategic plan, where a funding determination is made to achieve the intended results. Long-term and annual targets for performance measures are then formulated. Funding will be tied to the level of performance that needs to be achieved. As part of the management process, a number of options, such as reallocation of resources when necessary, shared services, competitive sourcing, realignment, or redesign of processes can be executed to improve value for stakeholders.
The Treasury Department will then execute and perform according to the plan, tracking progress on outcomes, and the cost to achieve them. As part of the Department’s continuous improvement strategy, comparisons of actual performance to desired targets and applicable benchmarks will be performed. Management will add value by continually striving to make changes that will produce the most effective results, which will ultimately produce increased value for the American taxpayer.
Managing for Accountability
Achieving and maintaining exemplary accountability and transparency is critical for the Treasury Department as the primary financial agency of the U.S. Government. The Department follows proper internal controls that serve to deter and eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse, while increasing efficiency and effectiveness.
The two independent Offices of the Inspector General and other examiners conduct audits and investigations, when necessary, to identify problems, abuses, and deficiencies in the Department’s programs and recommend appropriate corrective actions.
