"Government must be a transparent garment, which tightly clings to the people's body," said Georg Büchner, an early 19th-century German dramatist. Indeed, under the auspices of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), federal agencies are on a trajectory to increase transparency of information and resources for taxpayers.

For instance, the OMB recently set up an online resource to help demystify the regulatory labyrinth for small businesses. Dubbed "Compliance Assistance," the Web site is the latest in the OMB's ongoing efforts to put federal agencies in a fishbowl and increase public access to their information.

The Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002 requires all regulatory agencies to summarize their compliance rules and provide detailed contact information for agencies' small business specialists. The Web site is a compilation of this information, along with countless regulatory requirements, applications and other federal resources for small businesses.

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Another ongoing OMB outreach to taxpayers is its portfolio management program, which seeks to expand public access to government information by way of IT. The OMB works with implementing agencies to oversee the performance of e-government portals.

The office's recent appointment of Andrew Ciafardini as government-to-citizen e-government portfolio manager demonstrates greater federal emphasis on public outreach. Ciafardini, formerly of the State Department, oversees five e-government initiatives in particular: GovBenefits.gov, E-Loans, USA Services, IRS Free File and Recreation One-Stop.

Ciafardini explained that the portfolio manager's role is to make sure e-government initiatives are successful, employ quality management principles and allocate resources properly while adhering to federal regulations. "By using portfolio management, hopefully we become more efficient."

Cross-agency collaboration and coordination is another key element of the job. For example, GovBenefits.gov has about 20 federal agency partners. Initiatives are organized by portfolio to enable lesson sharing and synergy among agencies. The site is a centralized portal for all federal benefits, and provides eligibility specifics to employees and retirees. These benefits include federally funded state benefits. The OMB calls the site a pre-screening tool.

"Portfolio management at the OMB is about helping agencies in support of the No. 1 stakeholders -- the citizens -- and improving the customer service they receive from their government," Ciafardini said. "Executive-level leadership at the OMB provides clarity and support so agencies can be effective in serving citizens."

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The OMB can also take some credit for Brown University's No. 1 ranking of the federal government's FirstGov portal in the university's seventh annual State and Federal E-Government study.

Released in September, the report applauded the portal for being clear, organized and user-friendly. "The FirstGov Web site displays a stunning 254 online services for citizens, businesses, federal employees and governments," said the study's author, Darrell West. "We can tell that the government is willing to speak to and help its citizens, which is one telling reason why the portal is ranked as the No. 1 site for this year."

The Brown study rated more than 1,500 e-government portals based on publications, databases, contact information, multimedia features, personal customization, the number of online services, payment methods, disability access, and privacy and security measures.

The report held up components of successful portals as examples of how other e-government portals could improve, and described why certain features were lacking.

Brown ranked federal agencies with the same criteria as the 50 states. Other top-rated federal agency Web sites included the departments of Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Treasury, Internal Revenue Service and State.