Crossed-fingers management.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: TILTING at windmills - Government oversight - Brief article

A few issues ago I noted the tendency of White Houses to devote little or no attention to the vast bureaucracy underneath, crossing their fingers and hoping any disaster down below can be avoided on their watch. The fiasco with the Mineral Management Services is the latest example of the danger of inattention at the top.

One reason that White Houses tend to avoid bureaucratic oversight is that the task seems impossible, but it is not. In 1939, Franklin Roosevelt moved the Bureau of the Budget, now called the Office of Management and Budget, under the direct control of the White House, and expanded its role, not just to oversee the finances of the various government agencies but to monitor the performance of their missions...