Seventh annual report highlights State’s continuous improvement accomplishments

WILMINGTON, Del. – Governor John Carney on Monday released the seventh annual report of the Government Efficiency and Accountability Review (GEAR) Board. Governor Carney established GEAR under Executive Order #4 in February 2017 to identify ways for State government to sustain its culture of continuous improvement by improving the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of public services, while bending the cost curve of government downward.

“Delaware’s economy is growing, and more Delawareans are working today than at any time in our history,” said Governor John Carney. “However, there is more work to do.  That is why GEAR continues to be a valuable program for us in saving money and promoting continuous improvement.  It ensures an efficient and effective State government that always puts Delaware taxpayers first.”

The report highlights key accomplishments and ongoing efforts across State government in 2023, that include:

• Expanding development of continuous improvement professionals throughout State government. Eighty-three practitioners from 16 State organizations are executing projects within a portfolio of 140 initiatives. Savings to the State are estimated to total $76-80 million over the life of projects underway.
• Achieving savings and improvements for taxpayers through restructuring leases, improving data analysis of school district enrollment projections, minimizing the debt burden for ex-offenders, modernizing the client experience at state service centers, growing the Delaware Communities of Excellence to produce a statewide literacy ecosystem, revamping unemployment insurance processes and systems, enhancing financing options for farmers, optimizing long-term care delivery, along with streamlining financial, human resource, and information technology systems.
• Continuing the GEAR P3 Innovation and Efficiency and Trailblazer Award programs that reward State employees who demonstrate successful implementations of innovative, cost saving, and service enhancing continuous improvement projects.
• Reviewing capital project processes within public school systems through the EdGEAR (Education-GEAR) team with a comprehensive review of the minor capital improvement funding process currently underway.
• Recognizing GEAR’s accomplishments through inclusion in Results for America’s – 2023 Invest in What Works State Standard of Excellence, a nationally recognized state benchmarking program, that the GEAR program will leverage to coordinate with other state governments that are pursuing data driven best practices.

The Board’s report, released each December, also provides policy and budgetary recommendations for possible inclusion in the Governor’s agenda and recommended budgets.  Several of the recommendations included in the 2023 report are highlighted below.  Governor Carney’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget proposal will be released on January 25, 2024.

Recommendations in the 2023 report include:

• Sustaining participation in the Continuous Improvement Practitioner (CIP) Training program and creating project and process leadership training paths using the First State Quality Improvement Fund.
• Establishing job classifications within the State personnel system for project managers, Lean business process analysts, and other continuous improvement specialists.
• Supporting the Ready in Six permitting improvement initiative by investing in specific process improvements being developed with State agency partners.
• Investing in the development of digital government services to allow citizens to transact business with the State anytime, from anywhere, and on any device through the Go DE initiative launching in 2024 beginning with a centralized payment interface.
• Modernizing the State’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems (financial, human resource, and pension administration).
• Building upon GEAR’s foundation of business process management and project management tools by staying engaged with emerging industry trends in artificial intelligence, business process mining, and robotic process automation.

“GEAR was never meant to be a one-time study on government efficiency to gain a few quick wins and then rest easy.  The intent is to drive an ongoing culture change – integral to how the State does business while guiding the services of government,” said Charles Clark and Daniel Madrid, Executive Director and Deputy Director of GEAR respectively, and Bryan Sullivan, Director of Management Efficiency at the Delaware Office of Management and Budget. “This is why GEAR will continue to be necessary in the future – supporting an adaptive, highly effective, and efficient Delaware State government for generations to come.”

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