Summary

Proposed legislation would require all federal agencies to develop standards and goals and to measure and report progress toward them. GAO surveyed more than 100 federal agencies, all of which had more than 1,000 employees or more than $500 million in annual outlays, and found that many of them have a range of program performance measures. However, relatively few reported having the organizational characteristics that would make it more likely for them to use their performance measures to assess progress towards goals in their strategic management plans. In fact, most of the agencies GAO visited used measures to provide internal information on their past activities or present operations. As budgets tighten, many agencies find that using a range of performance measures can be beneficial, providing managers information about accountability, efficiency, and effectiveness while also providing Congress and the public with information on how public resources are being spent.

GAO found that: (1) two-thirds of the agencies in its survey had long-term strategic plans in place that defined their goals and objectives; (2) three-quarters of the agencies reported that they collected a wide variety of data to assess program performance; (3) key performance measures were used for internal purposes and infrequently reported to such external sources as Congress and the Office of Management and Budget; (4) most of the 14 agencies sampled used performance information at the program level; (5) only half of the 103 agencies with strategic plans said they used most or all or their existing measures to assess progress in achieving goals or objectives; (6) only 9 of the 103 agencies reported having organizational characteristics necessary to link plans and measures; and (7) agencies reported using performance measurement systems for a variety of purposes, but few used them to help manage toward long-term goals.