Representatives from the Turkish government recently visited CTG to learn about existing U.S. government strategies and models for assessing the performance of government agency programs. There were a total of eleven visitors from Turkey representing the Turkish Ministry of Finance, Turkish Institute for Industrial Management (TUSSIDE), and Stratek Strategic Technologies R&D.

CTG developed an intensive seven-day program for the representatives to help improve their performance planning and assessment budget model prior to its implementation in the Turkish government, and to give them a better understanding of how to effectively develop and apply information management strategies to enable this process.

The program was designed to allow the Turkish participants to meet with and visit several state and federal agencies who were implementing performance management budgeting within their own agencies. This was coupled with CTG’s facilitation of workshop sessions to help the Turkish representatives to develop strategies and action plans in support of their performance based budgeting strategy.

CTG coordinated and planned a series of site visits and meetings with experts in government financial management, budgeting, and performance management from several New York State agencies, two federal agencies, and the IBM Center for the Business of Government.

The Turkish participants, along with CTG, participated in two site visits to the New York State Office of the State Comptroller and the New York State Division of the Budget to meet with financial management and budget experts. Both New York State agencies hosted the Turkish visitors for half-day meetings and provided key agency staff to share their own experiences in this area and to discuss the Turkish performance management strategy. In addition, the chief information officer at the New York State Department of Correctional Services (DOCS), Tom Herzog, came to CTG to speak with the representatives about the implementation of performance measures at DOCS.

After two days in Albany, CTG arranged for a five-day workshop in Washington, D.C., which included site visits to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Similar to the New York State site visits, both federal agencies hosted the Turkish visitors and provided key agency staff to share their own experiences in this area and to offer observations about the Turkish performance management strategy.

When not visiting federal agencies, the Turkish visitors spent much of their time engaged in CTG-led presentations and facilitated discussions. These discussions included applying CTG’s proven approaches to strategic planning and understanding the value and risk of using information technology to improve government operations and services.

Throughout the program, CTG worked with the Turkish participants to improve their performance planning and assessment models and processes based on the knowledge gained from the workshop activities and visits with the New York State and US federal agencies.