White House Names Open Government LeadershipWhite House Names Open Government Leadership

The White House has named the senior officials in federal government who will drive President Obama's Open Government Directive, as well as the leaders at each government agency with responsibility for data quality.

The newly formed Open Government Working Group is comprised of 34 government agency managers from a variety of job functions, including CIO, CTO, COO, chief management officer, and chief architect. The working group is focused on transparency, accountability, participation, and collaboration in U.S. government as part of Obama's open government initiative.

In addition, the White House named senior officials in each federal agency who will be accountable for the quality of information related to federal spending that's released to the public through USAspending.gov and other sites.

The assignment of that responsibility is one of the requirements set forth in the Open Government Directive, which was released in December in response to Obama's call for increased transparency and openness in the federal government. These "senior accountable officials" are tasked with ensuring that financial information released to the public conforms to Office of Management and Budget guidance on information quality and that adequate systems and processes are in place within their agencies to support that requirement.

The information-quality appointees comprise a mix of CFOs, CIOs, and other titles. Examples include Steve Isakowitz, CFO of the Department of Energy; Danny Harris, CIO of the Department of Education; Ron Raborg, deputy commissioner for quality performance at the Social Security Administration; and James Millette, deputy assistant secretary for the State Department. The complete list of appointees is available on the White House Web site.

The announcement of both groups was made in a Nov. 5 blog post by federal CIO Vivek Kundra and federal CTO Aneesh Chopra. The White House has set aggressive deadlines for the Open Government Directive, which is aimed at giving people access to government information and using the Web to engage the public in participatory government.

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