President-elect charges new chief performance officer with restoring accountability and transparency to D.C.

By Danielle Lee

As part of his plan to bring “a new sense of responsibility to Washington,” President-elect Barack Obama announced Wednesday that he named Nancy Killefer to the newly created role of chief performance officer.

In what Obama called “one of the most important” appointments to his cabinet, Killefer will be responsible for budget and government reformation.

Killefer is senior director of management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. and was previously assistant secretary of the treasury in the Clinton administration.

“Nancy has built a career out of making major American corporations and public institutions more efficient, effective and transparent,” Obama said. “Nancy is an expert in streamlining processes and wringing out inefficiencies so that taxpayers and consumers get more for their money.”

Obama made the announcement on the day the Congressional Budget Office announced a $1.2 trillion deficit for this year that will grow with the implementation of his recovery and reinvestment plan after he takes office Jan. 20.

Killefer will go over the budget line-by-line, Obama said, to eliminate and improve items.

“Most of the operational issues that the government faces today have developed over decades and will take time to address, but there is an urgency to begin now,” Killefer said.

The recovery plan includes strategic investments and saving or creating three million new jobs.

“I will be instructing members of my cabinet and key members of their staffs to meet with Nancy soon after we take office—and on a regular basis thereafter—to discuss how they can run their agencies with greater efficiency, transparency and accountability,” Obama said.