About the Private Sector Council

With a collective annual budget totaling more than $2 trillion, 1.9 million employees and multiple missions that impact the security and prosperity of nearly 300 million people, no organization faces more complex and consequential management challenges than the U.S. government. Solving these immense challenges requires tapping into America’s best management expertise from the public and private sectors. How well we incorporate best practices from both sectors could make the difference between success and failure when it comes to tackling our most significant national issues.  

The Private Sector Council — A Unique Reformer

The Partnership for Public Service’s Private Sector Council (PSC) connects experts from America’s top corporations with federal leaders to confront government’s key management challenges on an operational level. PSC’s primary purpose is to engage private sector expertise to improve the business of government.

PSC History

In 1983, President Reagan convened the Grace Commission to devise ways to generate savings in government, increase efficiency and reduce the deficit. In an effort to carry forward the Commission’s work, David Packard led a group of executives to form the Private Sector Council. Their message: businesses exist not just to make a profit, but to make a difference.

PSC has offered both business and government leaders a unique opportunity to come together to tackle our nation’s biggest challenges for more than 20 years. PSC’s 400-plus projects range from digitizing the Food Stamp program to helping develop a pay structure for the Iraqi civil service.

In 2005, PSC joined forces with the Partnership for Public Service. The merger has expanded PSC’s capacity to promote innovation and efficiency in government and has permanently connected it to the nation’s leading experts on government reform.

PSC Results

Helping Federal Agencies Hire Faster and Smarter
The federal government’s hiring process is often cumbersome, confusing and time-consuming, causing federal agencies to miss out on in-demand talent. A team of the nation’s premier recruiting and hiring experts was compiled to overhaul the hiring practices at three federal agencies. The result: new employees are being hired in days or weeks, not months; the number of steps in some hiring processes has been cut in half; and new marketing campaigns are attracting more qualified candidates. Lessons learned from this project are also being shared across government through a best practices “toolkit.”

Improving Government Pay Systems…In Baghdad
PSC traveled to Iraq to help the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) develop a new salary structure for employees of Iraq’s civil service, military and state-owned enterprises, about 1.3 million employees in all. Despite limited information and a seemingly impossible timetable of only three weeks, the team achieved its goal, working with the CPA and a number of Iraqi ministries.

Customs Modernization
Processing the flow of goods and services through more than 300 ports across the country is a daunting management task. To speed up the processing of shipment paperwork, PSC assembled a team of private sector technology professionals to help the U.S. Customs Service (now U.S. Customs and Border Protection) develop a new, 21st century system for monitoring trade compliance. Once fully operational, the new system is expected to save our government more than $1 billion. In addition, major importing businesses are expected to save millions of dollars.

Bringing Food Stamps into the Digital Age
The Food Stamp program is America’s first line of defense against hunger, helping to put food on the table of more than 20 million low-income Americans. Frustrated by a costly mail and paper system that invited abuse and embarrassed recipients, the Departments of Agriculture and Treasury invited PSC to help revamp the troubled food stamp program. PSC advised the National Food Stamp Electronic Benefits Program in developing an electronic delivery system using rechargeable debit card technology to get benefits directly to recipients. As a result, millions of dollars are saved in reduced mailing, paper and printing costs. As important, more than 20 million Americans enrolled in this program now use food stamp benefits more conveniently.

Modernizing Federal Cash Management
In the early 1980s, the federal government was losing billions of dollars because of “float” – the money caught in the delays in processing federal financial transactions, money that could have been at work earning interest. One of PSC’s first projects was to pull together volunteers from 40 companies to develop new electronic transfer systems to speed the government’s collection and disbursement of funds. The new cash management systems that PSC helped put in place have saved more than $9 billion in taxpayer funds.

 

For more information, please contact:

Tom Fox
Director, Annenberg Leadership Institute
Partnership for Public Service
(202) 775-2745
tfox@ourpublicservice.org

 

© 2007 Partnership for Public Service