Katherine Siggerud, managing director of congressional relations for the Government Accountability Office, was recently named a fellow by the National Academy of Public Administration.

How will you use your NAPA fellowship to promote/influence good government?

NAPA and GAO have a number of ongoing and historic collaborations regarding management challenges for the federal government. I look forward to supporting standing panels of NAPA and other projects where NAPA and GAO agree that my knowledge and experience can be helpful.

What’s the best management-related advice you ever received?

Having worked for an agency my entire career that diagnoses problems and challenges and makes recommendations, it’s clear that it is possible to understand the challenges that face federal agencies and to envision change. But focusing on change management is important and difficult in as large an enterprise as a federal program or agency. Keeping focus on implementing new initiatives and recommendations requires creativity, excellent teamwork and relentless attention to detail. I hope to embody that in my work and to encourage that approach throughout the government. In the time that I’ve worked for the federal government, I believe the improvement in data available about performance of federal programs has already helped put better tools in managers’ hands and I hope to be able to contribute to that trend in GAO and through any service I can provide through NAPA.

What do you think is the most important change the government needs to make in the next 5 years?

I think there is consensus across the federal government that its fiscal position is a serious threat to its ability to deliver on promises and obligations to its citizens in a fiscally-responsible manner. And that evolving security threats need heightened attention.

But none of these problems can be adequately dealt with without talented people working for the federal government in the executive branch and the Congress. GAO has had strategic human capital management on its high risk list for years. Closing skill gaps in security areas and management disciplines such as financial and acquisition management is crucial. Making the federal government an attractive employer that can retain talented employees, especially given the likely retirement of the baby boom generation, is an important task the federal government needs to continue to focus on. In GAO, we’ve tried to establish relationships with universities to attract applicants to GAO and to the federal government in general. The Office of Personnel Management has the official leadership of this activity, but all agencies need to partner for success in attracting and retaining talented employees.

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