Our View

Our View

New DHS head looking for reduced costs, increased e_ciency, improved client services

In her first major news conference since taking on the troubled $8 billion state Department of Human Services just a little over three months ago, Cindy Gillespie says she knows enough now that when she rolls out her ambitious plan to overhaul the agency there will be reduced costs, increased efficiency and improved client services.

So, how is Gillespie going about getting these major goals accomplished?

Gillespie said that as of July 1, DHS will have an entirely new structure that will include seven centralized offices providing services across all division.

They will include the Office of Finance; the Office of Procurement; the Office of Human Resources; the Office of Information Technology; the Office of Communications and Engagement; the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs; and the Office of Chief Counsel.

This new DHS leader appointed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson, said the creation of the centralized offices will allow the agency’s divisions to focus on the programs and client services they provide.

Following an extensive review of the agency’s complex structure Gillespie found that there has been no consistency among the 10 divisions within the DHS.

And, she said, all 10 divisions have essentially operated independently of each other.

“It means that we have absolutely no consistency across any of the divisions, no consistency in the standards around purchasing and because of that there has been no savings that can only come by pooling what is being done,” she said. And, she said, the current structure also makes it difficult for the director to oversee the activities of each division and for legislators to oversee the agency.

Within these 10 different agencies there are more than 7,000 civil servants. Gillespie said the new structure aims to address a variety of issues, creating a specific line of sight into the agency’s functions, increasing “collaboration and decision-making between business functions,” improving “the ability to recruit top talent;” and emphasizing “benchmarking and performance management.”

As taxpaying Arkansans we have to say that Gillespie’s visions are bold, direct and specific targeting the many serious problems that currently plague this state’s largest and most expensive agency.

We have to commend Gillespie for clearly demonstrating a unique leadership ability especially in dealing with the complexity of an agency that is so large that, up until now, failed to have the expertise in place to cope with the situations at hand.

Only time will tell as to the effectiveness of these bold initiatives, but we believe that with the support of a qualified and supportive staff the Department of Human Services as we know of it today will become just a fading memory of failed policies and inept leadership.

Clearly, Gillespie has demonstrated her ability to identify problems and develop attainable solutions that should benefit all concerned.

BIBLE VERSE

Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool. A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.

17:7-13

Jeremiah