Provide Timely, Quality Service to the Congress and the Federal Government to Address Current and Emerging Challenges to the Well-Being and Financial Security of the American People The Strategic Goal and Its Objectives Performance: FY 2000 Accomplishments: FY 2000 Plans: FY 2001 and 2002 Measures and Targets

In keeping with our mission to support the Congress in carrying out its constitutional responsibilities, our first strategic goal focuses on several of the aspirations of the American people that were defined by the Founders: to "establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, ... promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity ...."

Our aging and increasingly diverse population, rapid technological change, and Americans' desire to improve the quality of life all have major policy and budgetary implications for the federal government. In particular, growing commitments to the elderly will challenge the capacity of a smaller generation of workers to finance the competing needs and wants brought to the federal doorstep. Our first goal, therefore, is to help the Congress and the federal government address the challenges that affect the well-being and financial security of the American people, recognizing the constraints of available resources and economic capacity.

To ensure that we provide timely, quality service to support the decision-making of the Congress as a whole and of its Committees dealing with the well-being and financial security of the American people, we have established eight strategic objectives. Each objective is linked to its set of underlying performance goals:

the health care needs of an aging and diverse population,

a secure retirement for older Americans,

the social safety net for Americans in need,

an educated citizenry and a productive workforce,

an effective system of justice,

investment in communities and economic development,

responsible stewardship of natural resources and the environment, and

a safe and efficient national physical infrastructure.

Fiscal Year 2000

In working toward this Strategic Goal in fiscal year 2000, we exceeded four of our five annual performance targets:

We achieved measurable financial benefits of about $14.1 billion--more than $1 billion above our target for the year, which was $13 billion.

We recorded 182 actions taken on our recommendations by executive branch agencies or the Congress to improve government operations or services, again exceeding the target, which was 140 actions.

The implementation rate for the recommendations we made to executive branch agencies 4 years ago was 72 percent, just short of our target of 73 percent. Because the performance target was set at an approximate level and the deviation from that level was slight, we believe our overall performance was not affected.

We testified 131 times before the Congress on matters concerning the well-being and financial security of the American people, exceeding our target of 115 testimonies.

We made 435 new recommendations to executive branch agencies to further improve their operations and services, a third more than our target of 325 recommendations.

In addition, we expect to meet or exceed all 42 qualitative performance goals by the end of fiscal year 2002. These performance goals are listed in the PDF version of our full-length report.

Examples of our work under Strategic Goal 1 include the following:

Analyzing Social Security Reform
Improving Airline Competition
Maximizing the Uranium Enrichment Program

Fiscal Years 2001 and 2002

Guided by our final decisions on realigning the agency's structure to the goals in our strategic plan, we allocated 914 full-time equivalent staff to Goal 1. We revised some of our quantitative targets to reflect these decisions as indicated on the table above and expect to meet our other quantitative targets for fiscal year 2001. In addition, we revised 18 of our 42 qualitative performance goals to more accurately reflect the scope of work being done under Goal 1.

Looking ahead to fiscal year 2002, we have requested 965 full-time equivalent staff for Goal 1. The additional staff will be used to increase emphasis on Social Security solvency, economic development, and Medicare reform. Given these resources, we set the following targets:

$13 billion in financial benefits,

198 actions taken on our recommendations to improve government operations or services, and

a 75-percent implementation rate for the recommendations we made 4 years ago.

These performance targets will continue to focus our attention on work that provides financial benefits and other improvements in government operations. We also set targets of delivering 104 testimonies and making 367 recommendations to executive agencies, two measures of the value of our work for congressional decision-making and for identifying opportunities for improving federal operations that yield benefits to taxpayers.

Annual Quantitative Performance Measures and Targets, Fiscal Years 1997-2002

Outcome		1997	1998	1999	2000		2001	2002
Type	Measure	Actual	Actual	Actual	Target(a)	Actual	Target	Target
	Financial benefits (billions)
	Annual	$8.4	$10.8	$13.8	$13.0	$14.1	$12.65(b)	$13.00
	4-year average	$6.8	$7.5	$9.8	$11.5	$11.8	$12.84	$13.39
	Other benefits
	Annual	116	177	140	140	182	196(b)	198
	4-year average	88	114	129	143	154	174	179
	Recommendations implemented(c)
	4-year implementation rate	70%	69%	72%	73%	72%	75%	75%
Intermediate outcome	Testimonies
	Annual	99	130	123	115	131	71(b)	104
	4-year average	105	110	110	117	121	114	107
	Recommendations made
	Annual	273	285	350	325	435	349(b)	357
	4-year average	297	245	278	308	336	355	373

3-Year Qualitative Performance Goals, Fiscal Years 2000-2002

Expect to meet or exceed

Do not expect to meet

Not started

Qualitative

Performance goals:  42

100%

0%

0%

(a) Because GAO did not have a performance plan for fiscal year 2000, the figures in this column were referred to in past documents as "estimates." They served the same function as the targets we now set in our performance plans.

(b) This is a revised target. For the original target, please see GAO's revised final performance plan for fiscal year 2001 (PDF).

(c) This measure gauges the implementation rate of recommendations made 4 years prior to each respective fiscal year.