Welcome to GovIntegrity!
Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, you likely agree that the government has a public trust problem. Far too many Americans believe that the government is not a trustworthy institution. They believe it’s synonymous with fraud, waste and abuse. They believe it’s bloated and inefficient. Americans trust many private sector organizations—organizations with a stated goal to maximize profits for themselves—more than they trust their government.
We believe this can change.
A key reason for declining public trust in government is that fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement are all heightened in a digital world. And that is the world we live in.
The state of data use and technology within government today are at a crisis point. The problems are rooted in legislation, policy, resources, and culture. Data sharing, for example, is incredibly hard in government because of privacy laws, layers of bureaucracy and policy, technology barriers, and cultural resistance.
We have spent our careers in and around government. One of GovIntegrity’s creators, Linda Miller, has spent her career working to help improve the government’s capacity to prevent fraud. We know firsthand how challenging the problems inherent in government efficiency and effectiveness are. We know these problems are nontrivial and that they will require bipartisan, coordinated action to solve.
The private sector offers a host of examples on which to model initiatives. Fraud prevention is a major focus of most financial services companies, which still manage to protect their customer’s privacy and provide a seamless customer service experience. These things need not be mutually exclusive.
We are starting this community to share insights, observations and ideas about how to improve the trustworthiness of government. We welcome participation from a full range of ideological viewpoints. We believe improving the integrity of government is a bipartisan issue that will require a coordinated response from across the political spectrum and across sectors.
We will post weekly here and we want you to share your thoughts, even if—in fact, especially if—you disagree with us. We have big plans for how this community can help rebuild trust in government. Tough problems require thoughtful discourse to solve. Let’s start the conversation!
Photo by Ronda Dorsey on Unsplash. Article first posted on GovIntegrity.