Deputy Secretary Gould Talks Strategies for Federal Performance

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Deputy Secretary of Veterans
Affairs W. Scott Gould told federal government managers at an "Excellence in
Government" conference today that translating the skills of political
campaigning into governance is a major challenge many newly appointed agency
leaders face in implementing the President's reform agenda.

"President Obama and Secretary Shinseki have committed resources and capital
to invest in delivering high quality services and benefits to our Veterans,"
Deputy Secretary Gould said. "Transforming the department begins with
leveraging the power of information technology, which will dramatically
improve our business processes."

Gould was a panelist with other Cabinet-level deputy secretaries discussing
management of the government's reform at an annual conference organized by
Government Executive magazine. Called "Driving Federal Performance," the
conference aims to inform civilian and military officials about top
administration issues and best practices to adopt.

Gould said one of his roles as VA's chief operations officer is to synchronize
the individual objectives of the Department's separate organizations to
achieve the results he and Secretary Shinseki are working towards as advocates
for Veterans. Among those, he said, are delivering new education benefits in
a timely way, eradicating homelessness among Veterans, improving mental health
outreach, eliminating a disability claims backlog, expanding access to health
care for Veterans previously dropped from the medical system and improving the
technology infrastructure.

In the few months of the President's administration, Gould said he has been
challenged to hire many key leaders in VA top positions whom he will rely on
to compress the strategic management timeframe. Sometimes they have had to
make decisions with uncertain financial and performance information. Gould
said their relationships with other administration leaders and internal team
building is helping drive execution.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Public Affairs, +1-202-461-7600