INVESTMENT/PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT IN GOVERNMENT 22 / Canadian Government Executive // SPRING 2024 PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT Introduction In a recent Opinion article in the Ottawa Citizen, Kevin Lynch and Jim Mitchell stated “A high performing public service is exactly what taxpayers deserve and the country needs... What is needed is...a common- sense approach to fixing how government operates. Here are six key problem areas, solutions to which would yield a more engaged public service and improve service to Canadians: • ...government has become too complex to manage • ...the public service is too large to operate effectively • ...oversight is too diffuse to be effective • ...accountability is too opaque • ...scant attention is paid to measuring or managing public sector productivity • ...a hesitant management culture” In many cases, the solutions which the article refers to already exist in government, but are so lost in the layers of policies, directives, red tape and diffuse oversight that they do not achieve the intended results. This is the first in a series of articles intended to describe these solutions and the changes required by the federal government to adopt them in a way which will achieve the intended results. One of the problems is described in the article as follows - “Another productivity destroyer is long lists of policy priorities set out in mandate letters, with public servants expected to deliver on all of them. Yet the sheer number and lack of prioritization means lots of activity but few priorities actually delivered.” 1 The issue of government undertaking too many initiatives and doing them all poorly, rather than focusing on a smaller number of priorities and doing them well can be addressed by applying the discipline of (Project/Program) Portfolio Management (abbreviated PfM or PPfM) which is discussed in more detail below. BY EVAN DIAMOND
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