(Published September 30‚ 2003)

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

- The Management, Accountability and Performance Commission recommends at a minimum restructuring the executive branch from the nine existing constitutional offices to six constitutional offices.

- The commission also recommends 14 Cabinet departments and clusters reporting directly to the governor.

- The Office of the Secretary of State, through a constitutional amendment, should be eliminated and the responsibilities should be blended into the Department of Revenue.

- A constitutional amendment should be proposed that would change the position of the adjutant general from an elected office to an appointed office. The Cabinet secretary should be appointed by the governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate.

- A constitutional amendment should be proposed that would change the position of the state superintendent from an elected office to an appointed office. The Cabinet secretary should be appointed by the governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate.

- State law should be amended to authorize a single Cabinet secretary (Secretary of Health and Human Services), appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate, to oversee all health and human services agencies.

- Rename the existing Department of Health and Human Services as the Department of Healthcare Finance and establish it as a department reporting to the newly created Cabinet secretary for the health and human services agencies. The newly created Department of Health Finance essentially becomes the state Medicaid agency.

- If the utilization of the John de la Howe School cannot be substantially increased, consideration should be given to merge its students into the Wil Lou Gray Opportunity School.

- A legislative mandate is needed to ensure ... teachers, college instructors, and business organizations collaborate on a plan that will allow graduating high school students proficiency to meet expectations of the colleges and universities as well as the business community. A formal plan complete with minimum expectations should be established.

- In an effort to have an adequate and efficient distribution of funds for all schools statewide, there should be some consolidation of the state's 85 school districts. The General Assembly should initiate legislation that defines appropriate criteria and timelines for the consolidation of school districts.

- South Carolina ETV should become part of the Public Education cluster.

- The Department of Consumer Affairs, Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation and the Human Affairs Commission should be clustered reporting to a Cabinet secretary appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. Our recommendation implies a common administrative organization but not a consolidation of the agencies at this time.

- The Department of Insurance should become a self-funded agency through fees charged to the insurance industry.

- Create an Insurance Fraud Division within the Department of Insurance. Estimates are that 30 percent of workers compensation claims and medical claims are fraudulent. It is estimated that the number of fraudulent claims can be reduced to 5 percent. Also give the Department of Insurance oversight of the rates charged by the State Accident Fund, the Insurance Reserve Fund and the State Employment Insurance Program.

- The General Services Division, Insurance Reserve Fund, Office of Human Resources, Retirement Division, State Employee Insurance Programs and Procurement Services Division should be transferred from the Budget and Control Board to the Department of Administration.

- Establish a new division for Facilities and Capital Asset Management as part of the Department of Administration.

- Establish a new division for Transportation Services Management.

- The Natural Resources cluster should be a Cabinet level department headed by a secretary appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate.

- The existing Department of Public Safety, State Law Enforcement Division, Department of Corrections, Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services and the Department of Juvenile Justice should be moved to the newly created Public Safety Cluster. The newly created Public Safety Cluster is a Cabinet level department with the secretary appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. We are not recommending merging these agencies at this time, other than the Department of Corrections and the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon, but rather placing them under a single point of accountability with a consolidated administrative function. The Criminal Justice Academy should either report directly to the Cabinet secretary or to SLED with the director of the academy appointed by the governor.

- The current system of collecting and disbursing court fees and assessments should be streamlined, simplified and unified.

- Agencies that provide employment related services should be clustered reporting to a Cabinet level secretary appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate.

BUDGETING, FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING

- Convene monthly Board of Economic Advisors meetings to review revenues relative to the certified estimate.

- Discontinue the practice of funding recurring expenses with nonrecurring revenues.

- Prohibit gubernatorial line-item vetoes that cause a net increase in authorized appropriations over projected revenues.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

- Create a vision and strategy for customer service management to be efficiently implemented. Measurement of satisfaction is a must. The cost of the U.S. postal service, phone or personal interaction far exceeds the cost of delivering customer service electronically, so the state should focus on delivering the predominance of this service through the Web.

- Design and build a single Web portal that offers aggregated information about the state - benefits, government and attractions - using standardized templates, content management and Customer Relationship Management systems. All agencies must participate in the top-level organization and adopt a common "SC" look and feel.

- Create a statewide, managed intranet that meets privacy and security needs through which the state's internal customers - employees - can access key information including human resources, retirement, schedules and forms.

- Create a state clearinghouse, Citizen One-Stop, using a combination of knowledgeable people and workflow software to handle queries and complaints. Working in conjunction with the governor's existing Ombudsman's Office, Citizen One-Stop offers residents a single point of entry or pipeline into government that can increase access, reduce frustration and increase accountability. Inquiries into a single shared database would follow an electronic workflow process with inquiries assigned to a single agency for response. System reporting capabilities would enable managers to track response times and increase accountability for satisfactory completion. This same centralized data can be mined for opportunities to realign resources and decrease overtime with needs.

- Complete implementation of Business One Stop project, to reduce time and expense for small businesses to complete initial paperwork when they enter business.

- All information technology planning, standard establishment and policy setting should be centralized. Identify and consolidate common business objectives and the applications required to serve those objectives so the state can take advantage of economies of scale. Focus on fewer and more standardized platforms and applications.

- The state should not be in the software development business. Application systems should be acquired utilizing a development or maintenance strategy.

- Procurement and information technology planning should be appropriately funded by the Legislature. If appropriate resources are not made available through legislative appropriation, the procurement office may self-fund through fees for services rendered. No fee greater than the minimum required to fund the chief information officer's budget for procurement services should be retained and all fees should be open to the state's chief budget officer and the public. Any fees collected for services greater than that required for the tight operational budget of the CIO office should be used to reduce charges to agencies in the subsequent year. A grievance process should be established to allow any agency that finds like services at a substantially different price than those furnished through the CIO office to present their case and recommend action.

- Procurement regulations must be changed to increase competition and access.

HUMAN RESOURCES

- Initiate a statewide human resources strategic planning process.

- Charge Office of Human Resources with specific authority for human resources consultation, systems development, and support to agencies.

- Charge Office of Human Resources with studying the fiscal impact of high turnover in low-pay entry positions, such as correctional officers, to determine whether higher pay scales would improve recruitment and retention costs.

- Evaluate creating internship programs as a recruitment source for selected positions.

- Assess the viability of centralizing or outsourcing the recruitment function while maintaining the hiring function at the agency level. Implementing such a plan will eliminate duplication of data and increase cost savings as well as enhance the ability to share applicant data between agencies.

- Implement clearly defined public service career paths.

- Create a statewide competencies and skills assessment center with the capability to access the skills and competencies of individuals and to assist agencies in assessing their competency needs. Assessment results would provide agency and employee (or potential employee) profiles to be shared across state agencies by creating a database of skill and competency sets available in the current and potential labor pool.

- Strengthen the screening process, which requires confirmation by the state Senate of all agency director positions appointed by the governor for the purposes of determining qualifications for appointees.

- Create and require the use of assessment centers to identify high performers for leadership positions.

- Fund career path and core curriculum training as a line item in the state budget. Charge Office of Human Resources with the responsibility to work with agencies to identify eligible participants and to provide training at no additional cost to agencies.

- Require agencies to develop and train supervisors to use feedback sources such as management by walking around, open door practices, regular supervisor meetings, small group employee meetings, a telephone "Info and Hot Line" and anonymous feedback mechanisms such as "Q and A" or "Suggestion Box" or a link to an agency intranet site.

TRANSPORTATION

- Create a new state Transportation Services Management Office under the Budget and Control Board or the governor's office.

- Reduce the fees paid to engineering and surveying firms.

- Develop standardized prototype specifications for each roadway and bridge type to simplify design, construction and inspection.

- Document the maintenance activities presently performed and determine which could be privatized.

- Identify interested surveying and civil engineering firms resident in South Carolina and initiate a training program to qualify firms for Department of Transportation work. This would include minority and small businesses in an effort to spread the work. DOT should also identify interested construction testing and maintenance companies in South Carolina and initiate a training program to qualify companies for DOT work.

- Transfer the student transportation program from Department of Education to the new Transportation Services Management Office charged solely with transportation.

- Fund a recurring 15-year replacement schedule in the annual Appropriations Act. This replacement schedule of 375 new buses annually would increase safety for the students and decrease the cost of maintenance. In each of the next five years, 500 buses should be procured to catch up to the 15-year schedule and 250,000-mile replacement schedule.

- State Fleet Management should assume responsibility for managing the state fleet of cars, vans, light trucks and other vehicles up to one-ton capacity.

- Individual agencies, upon concurrence by the state fleet manager, should retain responsibility for managing fleets of generally large (over one ton), agency specific vehicles such as Department of Education school buses and Department of Transportation highway equipment, and federally funded vehicles.

- Create a centralized state travel office, utilizing existing state resources, within the Transportation Management Office.

FACILITIES AND CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT

- Form a Department of Administration responsible for the acquisition, disposal and management of all state-owned or state-occupied real property, except for universities and enterprise agencies. Proceeds from the sale of property would be received into a central real property account within the department.

- So strong is our belief in the potential savings resulting from central ownership authority, we advise that all leasing and procurement activities of the state be held in abeyance until the above recommendations have been successfully implemented.

- Target additional rate changes for camping and lodging based on demand and occupancy levels of the operations.

- The Park Service, in conjunction with an external marketing firm, should develop a comprehensive marketing program.

PROCUREMENT

- Allow state agencies more flexibility in the disposition of unspent appropriations and carry forward at the close of a fiscal year.

- Maximize the expenditure of procurement dollars in-state where feasible.

- Encourage local small business vendors to bid on larger contracts.

PUBLIC SAFETY

- Establish a centralized communications system.

- Utilize a consolidated leasing and purchasing program to enable the state to take advantage of price breaks on vehicle purchases and leases.

- Consolidate all law enforcement vehicle maintenance and service facilities. This could enable agencies to pool resources and eliminate costly and duplicative maintenance facilities and service.

- Consolidation and establishment of a centralized law enforcement data warehouse coupled with universal database standards could enable real time access and protection of vital data to all users in the criminal justice process from arrest to parole.

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES

- Structurally reorganize DSS by consolidating all administrative services along functional lines under a single deputy director and all operational, policy and program services under a single deputy director. Reorganize field operations to regionalize indirect services and retain direct services at the county (point of service) level.

- Move day care licensing to another agency.

- Provide caseworker laptops for casework documentation.

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Source: The Gov.'s Commission on Management, Accountability and Performance.