Provide Timely, Quality Service to the Congress and the Federal Government to Respond to Changing Security Threats and the Challenges of Global Interdependence

The Strategic Goal and Its Objectives
Performance: FY 2000
Accomplishments: FY 2000
Plans: FY 2001 and 2002
Measures and Targets

As open markets and rapidly developing technology create an increasingly interconnected world, the United States faces new threats and opportunities. Threats to national security come from regional instabilities, the spread of terrorism, and the proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. They come also from the interdependence of global economic and financial systems and the vulnerabilities of the information technology used to conduct many vital functions--from international commerce to warfare.

At the same time, the end of the Cold War and the globalization of markets have created new opportunities for our nation as a whole and for American producers and consumers. Consequently, while trying to anticipate and address the new threats to national security, the federal government also tries to promote foreign policy goals, trade policies, and other strategies to help the nations in every corner of the world that are our military allies and trading partners.

In light of this complex array of global issues, the second goal of our strategic plan is to help the Congress and the federal government respond to changing security threats and the challenges of global interdependence. 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 security and global interdependence issues, we have established four strategic objectives:

responding to diffuse threats to national and global security,

ensuring military capabilities and readiness,

advancing and protecting U.S. international interests, and

responding to the impact of global market forces on U.S. economic and security interests.

Fiscal Year 2000

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

We achieved measurable financial benefits of about $5.5 billion--more than 37 percent above our target, which was $4 billion.

We recorded 129 actions taken on our recommendations by executive branch agencies or the Congress to improve government operations or services, again exceeding the target, which was 95 cases.

The implementation rate for the recommendations we made to executive branch agencies 4 years ago was 84 percent, well above our target of 73 percent.

We testified 56 times before the Congress on national security and global interdependence issues, exceeding our target of 40 testimonies.

We made 376 new recommendations to executive branch agencies to further improve their operations and services, 50 percent more than our target of 250 recommendations.

In addition, we expect to meet or exceed all 20 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 2 include the following:

Revamping the Navy's In-Transit Inventory
Stabilizing the Balkans
Evaluating Trade Agreements

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 685 full-time equivalent staff to Goal 2. We revised some of our quantitative targets for fiscal year 2001 to reflect these decisions, as indicated on the table above, and expect to meet our quantitative targets for fiscal year 2001. In addition, we revised 4 of our 20 qualitative performance goals to more accurately reflect the scope of work being done under Goal 2.

Looking ahead to fiscal year 2002, we have requested 720 full-time equivalent staff for this goal. The additional staff will be used to increase our work on international affairs and trade. Given these resources, we set the following targets:

$5.3 billion in financial benefits,

163 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 62 testimonies and making 291 recommendations to executive agencies, two measures of the value of our work for congressional decision-making and in identifying opportunities for improving federal operations that yield benefits to taxpayers.

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

																																							1997								1998								1999									2000																	2001										2002
Type														Measure																									Actual								Actual								Actual									Target (a)									Actual								Target										Target
Outcome														Financial benefits (billions)
														Annual																									$9.5								$5.8								$3.0									$4.0									$5.5								$5.1(b)										$5.3
														4-year average																									$7.6								$7.4								$6.3									$5.6									$6.0								$4.9										$4.7
														Other benefits
														Annual																									78								73								80									95									129								162(b)										163
														4-year average																									38								50								65									81									90								111										134
														Recommendations implemented(c)
														4-year implementation rate																									84%								76%								65%									73%									84%								75%										75%
Intermediate outcome														Testimonies
														Annual																									45								45								37									40									56								36b										62
														4-year average																									37								38								40									42									46								44										48
														Recommendations made
														Annual																									241								242								255									250									376								283(b)										291
														4-year average																									329								272								266									247									279								289										301

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

Expect to meet or exceed

Do not expect to meet

Not started

Qualitative

Performance goals:  20

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.