Managing for Results: Opportunities for Continued Improvements in Agencies' Performance Plans
GGD/AIMD-99-215
Published: Jul 20, 1999. Publicly Released: Aug 18, 1999.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the fiscal year (FY) 2000 performance plans of the 24 agencies covered by the Chief Financial Officers Act, focusing on the: (1) extent to which the agencies' plans include the three key elements of informative performance plans: (a) clear pictures of intended performance; (b) specific discussions of strategies and resources; and (c) confidence that performance information will be credible; and (2) degree of improvement the FY 2000 performance plans represent over the FY 1999 plans.
Recommendations
Matter for Congressional Consideration
| Matter | Status | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Continued improvements in agencies' plans should help Congress in building on its recent and ongoing use of performance plans to help inform its own decisionmaking. Congressional committees of jurisdiction may wish to consider holding augmented oversight hearings on each of the major agencies at least once each Congress and preferably on an annual basis. Information on missions, goals, strategies, resources, and results could provide a consistent starting point for each of these hearings. Such hearings also will further underscore for agencies the importance that Congress places on creating high-performing executive organizations. Performance planning under the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 should allow for more informed discussions about issues such as: (1) whether the agency is pursuing the right goals and making progress toward achieving them; (2) whether the federal government is effectively coordinating its responses to pressing national needs; (3) whether the federal government is achieving an unexpected level of performance for the budgetary and other resource commitments that have been provided; (4) the degree to which the agency has the best mix of programs, initiatives, and other strategies to achieve results; (5) the progress the agency is making in addressing mission-critical management challenges and program risks; (6) the efforts underway to ensure that the agency's human capital strategies are linked to strategic and programmatic planning and accountability mechanisms; and (7) the status of the agency's efforts to use information technology to achieve results. |
Closed – Implemented
|
Congress is demonstrating the importance it places in creating high-performing executive organizations by using the Act to inform its activities. In January, a CRS study was issued that demonstrated extensive use of the Act during the 105th Congress: eight House committees either enacted Results Act related provisions or included them in committee report language; 37 public laws were enacted that contained, or whose accompanying reports contained, relevant performance-related provisions. In August, Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Fred Thompson sent letters to the heads of federal agencies asking them to, among other things, improve their performance plans based on recommendations included in GAO's reviews of agencies' FY2000 performance plans. As another example, for the confirmation hearing for OMB's Deputy Director for Management, specific questions were asked on management practices, the Results Act, and major management problems. |
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status Sort descending |
|---|---|---|
| Office of Management and Budget | The Director, Office Management and Budget ensure that executive agencies make continued progress in improving the usefulness of performance planning for congressional and executive branch decisionmaking. In GAO's assessment of the FY 1999 performance plans, GAO suggested five key improvement opportunities that provide an ongoing agenda for improving the usefullness of agencies performance plans. In assessing the FY 2000 plans, GAO identified important opportunities for continuing improvements in agencies' plans in each of those five areas: (1) better articulating a results orientation, with particular attention to ensuring that performance plans show how mission-critical management challenges and program risks will be addressed; (2) coordinating crosscutting programs, with particular attention to demonstrating that crosscutting programs are taking advantage of opportunities to employ complementary performance goals, mutually reinforcing strategies, and common or complementary performance measures, as appropriate; (3) showing the performance consequences of budget and other resource decisions; (4) clearly showing how strategies will be used to achieve results, with particular attention to integrating human capital and program performance planning; and (5) building the capacity within agencies to gather and use performance information, with particular attention to ensuring that agencies provide confidence that performance information will be credible. |
Closed – Implemented
OMB has taken action to ensure that agencies are making progress in implementing the provisions of GPRA, including improving the usefulness of performance planning, and expanding the use of performance information into the decisionmaking process. For example, concerning management challenges, the Director of OMB noted in congressional testimony in April 2000 that implementing GPRA is a top management objective, and OMB is working with agencies to achieve significant improvements in dealing with the government's biggest management challenges. The Director also testified that for the fiscal year 2001 budget process, agencies were expected to focus attention on the extent to which current programs are achieving the results intended, and new program initiatives are structured to provide for clear definition of results and the accountability mechanisms for achieving them. Concerning crosscutting programs, the Director of OMB stated in a November 1999 letter to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, that OMB will continue to work with agencies to enhance the coverage of crosscutting efforts in performance plans, but OMB expects the process of developing goals for these programs to take several years. Concerning budget resources, the July 2000 revision of OMB guidance to agencies on the preparation and submission of strategic and performance plans and performance reports notes that budget resources should align with performance goals. The guidance states that by identifying in the performance plan how much an agency will spend to achieve its performance goals, the plan forms the integral link between budget and program results. Concerning human capital, the guidance underscores the increasing emphasis on using workforce planning and other specific strategies that align human capital with the fulfillment of an agency's mission and objectives. Concerning the quality of performance information collected and reported, the guidance states that an agency may address issues or problems associated with the process and systems used to obtain performance information in its report for the fiscal year covered.
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Agency missionsexecutive relationsData integrityInteragency relationsMission budgetingPerformance measuresProductivity in governmentRedundancyReporting requirementsStrategic planning