Overlooking oversight

It should come as no surprise, then, that Boston has produced the greatest public works scandal of modern times. As Frank Micciche reports this month, the Big Dig that has torn up downtown Boston in the name of improved transportation will cost some $14 billion, more than five times the original estimate. Uncle Sam, originally in line to cover 90 percent of the costs, has managed to cap the federal share at $8.5 billion. But scathing assessments of the project have impugned the integrity and competence of state and federal executives. The Federal Highway Administration official responsible for overseeing the project failed to discern that state officials were covering up a $3 billion cost overrun, causing "embarrassment and loss of confidence" in the agency's stewardship, an FHWA task force admitted.

The Big Dig bumble persuaded senior Transportation Department officials that they had to exercise much stronger oversight over state and local agencies. There's a lot of talk these days of "partnership" among the feds, other levels of government and private sector institutions, but this story serves as a cautionary tale about oversight and accountability and offers lessons federal executives will ignore at their peril.

A more encouraging look at a federal public works project is found this month in Cyril Zaneski's account of the huge restoration effort in the Everglades. There, the Army Corps of Engineers has been careful to create an open process, featuring a big public Web site, to plan the complex project, whose players include dozens of state, local and corporate officials. The feds have $6.5 billion at stake in the effort to restore South Florida's environment.

Finding the right relationships in these sorts of projects, and in other federal endeavors, is never easy, and the challenges can only grow with the advent of a new administration with different ideas about the federal role. An early example is found in the tepid reaction of the nation's governors to President Bush's plan for a four-year, $48 billion block grant program for states to provide a prescription drug benefit to seniors. The governors are afraid they'll be stuck forever with what recipients will consider an entitlement.

As the federal government continues to shed jobs, the crafting of appropriate relationships and contracts becomes ever more important, a point illustrated this month in George Cahlink's article about the armed services' varying approaches to privatization of military housing. The General Accounting Office again this year has listed contract management at the Defense and Energy departments and at NASA as "high risk" problems. These and other agencies would be well advised to strengthen their capabilities to oversee their partners, lest they suffer the ignominy of colleagues who were caught in the black hole of the Big Dig.