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GAO: 

Performance Plan: Fiscal Year 2006: 

U.S. Government Accountability Office: 

Serving the Congress and the Nation: 

Accountability: 
Integrity: 
Reliability: 

Contents: 

Comptroller General's Letter: 

About GAO: 

Mission: 

Strategic Goals: 

Organizational Structure: 

How We Measure Our Performance: 

Annual Performance Measures: 

Measuring the Results of Our Work: 

Measuring Client Service: 

Measuring the Management of Our People: 

Measuring Our Internal Operations: 

Multiyear Performance Goals: 

Data Quality: 

Our Planned Performance for Fiscal Year 2006: 

Agencywide Performance and Resources Needed: 

Performance Targets and Resource Needs by Goal: 

Goal 1: 

Goal 2: 

Goal 3: 

Goal 4: 

Strategies and Means for Achieving Our Goals: 

Strategies for Goals 1, 2, and 3: 

Strategies for Goal 4: 

Collaboration Efforts: 

Addressing Management Challenges: 

The Human Capital Challenge: 

The Information Security Challenge: 

The Physical Security Challenge: 

Mitigating External Factors That Could Affect Our Performance: 

Image Sources: 

Obtaining Copies of GAO Products: 

[End of Contents]

Abbreviations: 

DOD: Department of Defense: 

FTE: full-time equivalent: 

GAO: Government Accountability Office: 

INTOSAI: International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions: 

IT: information technology: 

NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration: 

[End of Abbreviations]

Comptroller General's Letter: 

June 2005: 

I am pleased to present the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) 
Performance Plan for Fiscal Year 2006. In the spirit of the Government 
Performance and Results Act, this annual plan informs the Congress and 
the American people about what we expect to accomplish on their behalf 
in the coming fiscal year. It sets forth our plan to make progress 
toward achieving our strategic goals for serving the Congress and the 
American people. The plan is based on our strategic plan for 2004 to 
2009, which was prepared in consultation with members of the Congress 
and other key stakeholders and was issued in March 2004. 

This performance plan takes into account that historically the vast 
majority of our engagement resources are devoted to congressional 
mandates and requests for our work. As such, this plan includes work 
related to long-standing national challenges, such as the educational 
needs of the nation's children, the long-term viability of Social 
Security and Medicare, the rising cost of health care and the millions 
of Americans who are uninsured, the vulnerability to sabotage of the 
government's computer systems, and national defense and homeland 
security issues. At the same time, we plan to invest a small percentage 
of our engagement resources in important discretionary work to identify 
and help the Congress address the emerging issues that may affect the 
nation's future, such as managing the large and growing long-term 
fiscal imbalance facing the nation. Consequently, the plan reflects a 
variety of changes and challenges. In addition, this plan describes the 
total resources needed to accomplish our work--information that may be 
useful for appropriations and oversight by the Congress as well as 
informative for the American public. 

Fiscal year 2006 promises to be a challenging year for us, especially 
given increasing budgetary constraints and increasing demands for our 
services. Nonetheless, I believe that our planned work will, as in past 
years, result in an excellent return on the taxpayers' investment in 
us. 

If you have any questions or comments on this plan, please contact Gene 
Dodaro, Chief Operating Officer, at (202) 512-5600 or dodarog@gao.gov 
or Sallyanne Harper, Chief Financial Officer, at (202) 512-5800 or 
harpers@gao.gov. 

Signed by: 

David M. Walker: 
Comptroller General of the United States: 

[End of Comptroller General's Letter]

About GAO: 

GAO is an independent, nonpartisan, professional services agency in the 
legislative branch of the federal government. Commonly known as the 
"investigative arm of the Congress" or the "congressional watchdog," we 
examine how taxpayer dollars are spent and advise lawmakers and agency 
heads on ways to make government work better. As a legislative branch 
agency, we differ in some ways from executive branch agencies. We are, 
for instance, exempt from many laws applicable to the executive branch. 
However, we hold ourselves to the spirit of many of these laws, 
including the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993.[Footnote 
1, which explains this act, is located at the end of this document] 
Accordingly, this performance plan for fiscal year 2006 supplies what 
we consider to be information that is at least equivalent to that 
supplied by executive branch agencies in their annual performance 
plans. 

Mission: 

Our mission is to support the Congress in meeting its constitutional 
responsibilities and to help improve the performance and ensure the 
accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the 
American people. The strategies and means that we use to accomplish 
this mission are described in the following pages. In short, we 
accomplish our mission by providing reliable information and informed 
analysis to the Congress, to federal agencies, and to the public; and 
we recommend improvements, when appropriate, on a wide variety of 
issues. The three core values that are discussed below--accountability, 
integrity, and reliability--form the basis for all of our work, 
regardless of its origin. 

Core Values: 

Accountability: We help the Congress oversee federal programs and 
operations to ensure accountability to the American people. GAO's 
analysts, auditors, lawyers, economists, information technology 
specialists, investigators, and other multidisciplinary professionals 
seek to enhance the economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and credibility 
of the federal government both in fact and in the eyes of the American 
people. 

Integrity: We set high standards for ourselves in the conduct of GAO's 
work. Our agency takes a professional, objective, fact-based, 
nonpartisan, nonideological, fair, and balanced approach to all 
activities. Integrity is the foundation of reputation, and the GAO 
approach to work ensures both.

Reliability: We at GAO want our work to be viewed by the Congress and 
the American public as reliable. We produce high-quality reports, 
testimony, briefings, legal opinions, and other products and services 
that are timely, accurate, useful, clear, and candid. 

[End of Core Values]

Strategic Goals: 

To accomplish our mission, we use a strategic planning and management 
process that is based on a hierarchy of four elements (see fig. 1), 
beginning at the highest level with the following four strategic goals: 

* Strategic Goal 1: 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: 

* Strategic Goal 2: Provide Timely, Quality Service to the Congress and 
the Federal Government to Respond to Changing Security Threats and the 
Challenges of Global Interdependence: 

* Strategic Goal 3: Help Transform the Federal Government's Role and 
How It Does Business to Meet 21st Century Challenges: 

* Strategic Goal 4: Maximize the Value of GAO by Being a Model Federal 
Agency and a World-Class Professional Services Organization: 

Figure 1: GAO's Strategic Planning Hierarchy: 

[See PDF for image] --graphic text: 

A three-dimensional pyramid with four levels.

Strategic Goals: (4); 
Strategic Objectives: (21); 
Performance Goals: (99); 
Key Efforts: (400+). 

Source: GAO. 

[End of figure 1]

Our work is primarily aligned under the first three strategic goals, 
which span both domestic and international issues that affect the lives 
of all Americans as well as the issues specific to governance that 
influence how well the nation's current and future interests are served 
by the U.S. government. The fourth goal is our only internal one and is 
aimed at maximizing our productivity through such efforts as steady 
investments in information technology (IT); ensuring the safety and 
security of our people, information, and assets; pursuing human capital 
transformation; and leveraging our knowledge and experience. We revisit 
the focus and appropriateness of these four strategic goals each time 
that we update our strategic plan. 

The four strategic goals are supported by strategic objectives, which 
are in turn supported by and achieved through numerous performance 
goals and key efforts. Our strategic planning framework, which lists 
the strategic objectives under each goal, is depicted in the following 
graphic. Complete descriptions of the steps in our strategic planning 
and management process are included in our strategic plan for fiscal 
years 2004 through 2009, which is available on our Web site at 
http://www.gao.gov. This site also provides access to our annual 
performance plans since fiscal year 1999 and our performance and 
accountability reports since fiscal year 2001. 

[Beginning of strategic plan framework] 

GAO's Strategic Plan:

[See PDF for image] - graphic text:

Serving the Congress and the Nation: GAO's Strategic Plan Framework:

Mission:

GAO exists to support the Congress in meeting its constitutional 
responsibilities and to help improve the performance and ensure the 
accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the 
American people.

Themes:

* Long-term Fiscal Imbalance; 
* National Security; 
* Global Interdependence; 
* Changing Economy; 
* Demographics; 
* Science and Technology; 
* Quality of Life; 
* Governance; 

Goals and Objectives:

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 related to:

* Health care needs and financing; 
* Education and protection of children; 
* Work opportunities and worker protection; 
* Retirement income security; 
* Effective system of justice; 
* Viable communities; 
* Natural resources use and environmental protection; 
* Physical infrastructure; 

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

* Emerging threats; 
* Military capabilities and readiness; 
* Advancement of U.S. interests; 
* Global market forces; 

Help Transform the Federal Government's Role and How It Does Business 
to Meet 21st Century Challenges by assessing:

* Roles in achieving federal objectives; 
* Government transformation; 
* Key management challenges and program risks; 
* Fiscal position and financing of the government; 

Maximize the Value of GAO by Being a Model Federal Agency and a World- 
Class Professional Services Organization in the areas of:

* Client and customer satisfaction; 
* Strategic leadership; 
* Institutional knowledge and experience; 
* Process improvement; 
* Employer of choice; 

Core Values:

* Accountability; 
* Integrity; 
* Reliability; 

Fiscal Years 2004-2009.

Source: GAO.

[End of strategic plan framework]

[End of Strategic Goals]

Organizational Structure: 

As the Comptroller General of the United States, David M. Walker is the 
head of GAO and is serving a 15-year term that began in November 1998. 
Three other executives join Comptroller General Walker to form GAO's 
Executive Committee; these executives are Chief Operating Officer Gene 
L. Dodaro, Chief Administrative Officer/Chief Financial Officer 
Sallyanne Harper, and General Counsel Anthony H. Gamboa. 

To achieve our strategic goals, our staff is organized as shown in 
figure 2. For the most part, our 13 research, audit, and evaluation 
teams perform the work that supports strategic goals 1, 2, and 3--our 
three external strategic goals--with several of the teams working in 
support of more than one strategic goal. Senior executives in charge of 
the teams manage a mix of engagements to ensure that the Congress's 
need for information on quickly emerging issues is met as we also 
continue longer term work efforts that flow from our strategic plan. To 
effectively serve the Congress with a finite set of resources, senior 
managers consult with our congressional clients and determine the 
timing and priority of engagements for which they are responsible. As 
described below, General Counsel supports the work of all of our teams. 
In addition, the Applied Research and Methods team assists the other 
teams on matters requiring expertise in areas such as economics, 
research design, and statistical analysis. And staff in many offices 
such as Strategic Planning and External Liaison, Congressional 
Relations, Opportunity and Inclusiveness, Quality and Continuous 
Improvement, Public Affairs, and the Chief Administrative Office 
support the efforts of the teams. This collaborative process, which we 
refer to as matrixing, increases our effectiveness, flexibility, and 
efficiency in using our expertise and resources to meet congressional 
needs on complex issues. 

General Counsel is structured organizationally along subject matter 
lines to facilitate the delivery of legal services. This structure 
allows General Counsel to (1) provide legal support to GAO and its 
audit teams concerning all matters related to their work and (2) 
produce legal decisions and opinions for the Comptroller General. 
Specifically, the Goal 1, Goal 2, and Goal 3 groups in General Counsel 
are organized to provide each of the audit teams with a corresponding 
team of attorneys dedicated to supporting each team's needs for legal 
services. In addition, these groups prepare advisory opinions to 
committees and members of the Congress on agency adherence to laws 
applicable to their programs and activities. General Counsel's Legal 
Services group provides in-house support to GAO's management on a wide 
array of human capital matters and initiatives and on information 
management and acquisition matters and defends the agency in 
administrative and judicial forums. Finally, attorneys in the 
Procurement Law and the Budget and Appropriations Law groups prepare 
administrative decisions and opinions adjudicating protests to the 
award of government contracts or opining on the availability and use of 
appropriated funds. 

For strategic goal 4--our fourth and only internal strategic goal-- 
staff in our Chief Administrative Office take the lead. They are 
assisted on specific key efforts by the Applied Research and Methods 
team and by staff offices such as Strategic Planning and External 
Liaison, Congressional Relations, Opportunity and Inclusiveness, 
Quality and Continuous Improvement, and Public Affairs. In addition, 
attorneys in General Counsel, primarily in the Legal Services group, 
provide legal support for goal 4 efforts. 

Throughout GAO, we maintain a workforce of highly trained professionals 
with degrees in many academic disciplines, including accounting, law, 
engineering, public and business administration, economics, and the 
social and physical sciences. About three-quarters of our approximately 
3,200 employees are based at our headquarters in Washington, D.C; the 
rest are deployed in 11 field offices across the country. Specifically, 
we have offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Dayton, Denver, 
Huntsville, Los Angeles, Norfolk, San Francisco, and Seattle. Staff in 
these field offices are aligned with our research, audit, and 
evaluation teams and perform work in tandem with our headquarters staff 
in support of our external strategic goals. 

Figure 2: Organizational Structure: 

[See PDF for image] - graphic text:

An organization chart showing GAO’s basic structure. The agency’s top 
level of organization was the Executive Committee, which includes the 
Comptroller General, the Chief Operating Officer, the Chief 
Administrative Officer/Chief Financial Officer, and the General 
Counsel. Nineteen units report directly to the Comptroller General and 
the Chief Operating Officer. The units include the following staff 
offices: Public Affairs, Strategic Planning and External Liaison, 
Congressional Relations, Opportunity and Inclusiveness, and Inspector 
General, which report to the Comptroller General; and Quality and 
Continuous Improvement, which reports to the Chief Operating Officer. 

Other units that report to the Chief Operating Officer include teams 
and field operations that conduct audits, evaluations, and research. 
These teams perform work primarily supporting one of our three external 
strategic goals but several teams perform work in support of multiple 
strategic goals. Generally the teams fall under the following goals: 

Goal 1: 

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. 

* Education, Workforce, and Income Security; 

* Financial Markets and Community Investment; 

* Health Care; 

* Homeland Security and Justice; 

* Natural Resources and Environment; 

* Physical Infrastructure; 

Goal 2: 

Provide timely, quality service to the Congress and the federal 
government to respond to changing security threats and the challenges 
of global interdependence. 

* Acquisition and Sourcing Management; 

* Defense Capabilities and Management; 

* International Affairs and Trade; 

Goal 3: 

Help transform the federal government’s role and how it does business 
to meet 21st century challenges. 

* Applied Research and Methods; 

* Financial Management and Assurance: 
- Forensic Audits and Special Investigations; 

* Information Technology; 

* Strategic Issues: 
- Federal Budget and Intergovernmental Relations; 

Goal 4: 

Five units that report to the Chief Administrative Officer support our 
fourth goal; which is to maximize the value of GAO by being a model 
federal agency and a world-class professional services organization. 
These are: 

* Controller; 

* Human Capital Office: 
- Chief Human Capital Officer; 

* Information Systems and Technology Services: 
- Chief Information Officer; 

* Knowledge Services: 
- Chief Knowledge Services Officer; 

* Professional Development Program.

Attorneys in General Counsel provide audit and other legal support 
services for all goals and staff offices, as well as manage GAO's bid 
protest and appropriations law work. 

Note: General Counsel's structure largely mirrors the agency's goal 
structure, and attorneys who are assigned to goals work with the teams 
on specific engagements. Thus, the dotted lines in this figure indicate 
General Counsel's support of or advisory relationship with the goals 
and teams rather than a direct reporting relationship. 

Source: GAO.

[End of figure 2]

[End of Organizational Structure]

[End of About GAO]

How We Measure Our Performance: 

We measure our performance using annual quantitative performance 
measures and multiyear qualitative performance goals. Together, these 
indicators help us to determine how well we are meeting the needs of 
the Congress and maximizing our value as a world-class organization. 

Annual Performance Measures: 

For several years, we have assessed our performance annually using 
quantitative performance measures that are related to our work results 
and the usefulness of those results to our primary client--the 
Congress. Recently, we have expanded our focus to include a more 
balanced set of performance measures. Consequently, the measures that 
we plan to use during fiscal year 2006 reflect our mission and 
strategic goals for serving the Congress and focus on four key areas: 
results, clients, people, and internal operations.[Footnote 2, which 
describes our plans to use other measures in the future, is located at 
the end of this document]

* Results. Focusing on results and the effectiveness of the processes 
needed to achieve them is fundamental to accomplishing our mission. To 
assess our results, we measure financial benefits, other (nonfinancial) 
benefits, recommendations implemented, and percentage of new products 
with recommendations.[Footnote 3, which explains a change in our 
measures, is located at the end of this document]

* Clients. Our strategy in this area draws upon a variety of data 
sources to obtain information on the services we are providing to our 
congressional clients. To judge how well we are serving our clients, we 
measure the number of times we are asked to present expert testimony at 
congressional hearings as well as our timeliness in delivering products 
to the Congress. 

* People. As our most important asset, our people define our character 
and capacity to perform. A variety of data sources, including an 
internal survey, provide information to help us measure how well we are 
attracting and retaining high-quality staff and how well we are 
developing, supporting, using, and leading staff. 

* Internal operations. Our mission and people are supported by our 
internal administrative services, including information management, 
building management, knowledge services, human capital, financial 
management, and other services. Through an internal customer 
satisfaction survey, we gather information on how well our internal 
operations help employees get their jobs done or improve employees' 
quality of work life. Examples of surveyed services include providing 
secure Internet access and voice communication systems, performance 
management, and benefits information and assistance. 

To establish targets for these measures, we examined what we have been 
able to achieve in the past and the external factors that influence our 
work (those factors are discussed in the section of this report called 
Strategies and Means for Achieving Our Goals). The teams and offices 
that are directly engaged in the work discussed their views of what 
must be accomplished in the upcoming fiscal year with our top 
executives, who then established targets for the performance measures. 
Once approved by the Comptroller General, the targets became final and 
are presented in this annual performance plan. We may adjust these 
targets after they are initially published when our past performance, 
expected future work, or level of funding provided warrant doing so. If 
changes are made, we include the modified targets in later documents, 
such as a performance and accountability report, and annotate them as 
having been modified. 

Measuring the Results of Our Work: 

We use four of our annual measures to assess our efforts to provide the 
kind of information and recommendations that will lead to benefits for 
the American people. These measures are briefly described in table 1. 

Table 1: Annual Measures of the Results of Our Work: 

Measure: Financial benefits; 
Description: Benefits to the federal government that can be estimated 
in dollar terms (e.g., decreased costs, increased revenues, or monetary 
revenues made available for other purposes) that result in improved 
services to the public, improved statutes or regulations, or improved 
government business operations that occurred as a result of work that 
we completed over the past several years. 

Measure: Other benefits; 
Description: Benefits to the federal government that cannot be 
estimated in dollar terms that result in improved services to the 
public, improved statutes or regulations, or improved government 
business operations that occurred as a result of work that we completed 
over the past several years. 

Measure: Past recommendations implemented; 
Description: Of the recommendations made 4 fiscal years prior to the 
current fiscal year, the percentage of recommendations that were 
implemented. 

Measure: Percentage of products with recommendations; 
Description: Of the written products issued in the fiscal year, the 
percentage that included at least one recommendation. Not all products 
that we issue during the fiscal year contain recommendations--some 
provide the Congress with policy options or are purely informational. 

Source: GAO. 

[End of table 1]

For financial benefits and other benefits we first set targets for the 
agency as a whole and then we set targets for each of the external 
goals--that is, goals 1, 2, and 3--so that the sum of the targets for 
the goals equals the agencywide targets. For past recommendations 
implemented and percentage of products with recommendations, we set 
targets and report performance for the agency as a whole because we 
want our performance on these measures to be consistent across goals. 
We track our performance by strategic goal in order to understand why 
we meet or do not meet the agencywide target. We also use this 
information to provide feedback to our teams on the extent to which 
they are contributing to the overall target and to help them identify 
areas in which they need to improve. 

Financial benefits and other benefits provide quantitative and 
qualitative information, respectively, on the outcomes or results that 
have been achieved from our work. They often represent outcomes that 
occurred over a period of several years. The remaining measures are 
intermediate outcomes in that they often lead to achieving outcomes 
that are ultimately captured in our financial or other benefits. 

Measuring Client Service: 

We use two performance measures--the number of testimonies and the 
timeliness of our products--as indicators of how well we are meeting 
our clients' needs (see table 2). We consider requests to present 
testimony as an indicator that our clients believe our work can add 
value to the congressional decision-making process. We set a target at 
the agencywide level for the number of testimonies and then assign a 
portion of the testimonies as a target for each of the external goals-
-that is, goals 1, 2, and 3--based on their expected contribution to 
the agencywide total. As in measuring the results of our work, we track 
our progress on this measure at the goal level in order to understand 
why we met or did not meet the agencywide target. 

Table 2: Annual Measures of Client Service: 

Measure: Testimonies; 
Description: The number of hearings at which we presented testimony. 

Measure: Timeliness; 
Description: Of the products issued in the fiscal year, the percentage 
that were issued by the date agreed upon with the client or, for work 
initiated under the Comptroller General's authority, by the date agreed 
to internally. 

Source: GAO. 

[End of table 2]

We also believe that our ability to provide products by the agreed-upon 
date means that we have met the clients' needs for providing 
information in time for it to be of value to them. We set agencywide 
targets for timeliness because we want our performance on these 
measures to be consistent across goals. We use this information to 
provide feedback to our teams on the extent to which they are 
contributing to the overall target and to help them identify areas in 
which they need to improve. 

Measuring the Management of Our People: 

Our most important asset is our people, and they determine our capacity 
to perform. Therefore, we hold our managers accountable for performance 
measures that will help us determine how well we are attracting, 
retaining, using, investing in, and leading our human resources. Table 
3 describes the measures that we plan to use to assess our performance 
in this area. We set targets for these measures at the agencywide 
level. The information needed for these measures comes from a variety 
of sources, including the Department of Agriculture's National Finance 
Center database--which handles payroll and personnel data for GAO and 
other agencies--and an annual confidential survey of employees. 

Table 3: Annual Measures Related to Our People: 

Measure: New hire rate; 
Description: The ratio of the number of people hired to the number we 
planned to hire. 

Measure: Acceptance rate; 
Description: The ratio of the number of applicants accepting offers to 
the number of offers made. 

Measure: Retention rate; 
Description: The ratio of the number of people who did not leave GAO 
during the fiscal year to the average number of people on board during 
the year. (Retention rate is the inverse of attrition rate.) We present 
two calculations of retention rate--one that includes retirees in the 
attrition rate and another that excludes retirees from that 
calculation. 

Measure: Staff development; 
Description: From an annual employee survey, the percentage of people 
responding favorably to questions on internal, external, and on-the-job 
training. 

Measure: Staff utilization; 
Description: From an annual employee survey, the percentage of people 
responding favorably to questions on our use of staff's knowledge and 
skills. 

Measure: Leadership; 
Description: From an annual employee survey, the percentage of people 
responding favorably to questions about specific qualities of our 
managers, such as whether leaders treated staff fairly, made timely 
decisions, demonstrated GAO's core values, implemented change 
effectively, and dealt effectively with diversity issues. 

Measure: Organizational climate; 
Description: From an annual employee survey, the percentage of people 
responding favorably to questions on teamwork, morale, and overall 
satisfaction. 

Source: GAO. 

[End of table 3]

Measuring Our Internal Operations: 

Beginning with fiscal year 2006, we plan to add performance measures 
related to our internal operations. Table 4 describes the measures that 
we plan to use to assess our performance in this area. The information 
for these measures will come from an annual survey of employees' 
satisfaction with our internal administrative services. Our 
administrative services are divided into two categories. The first 
service category includes 21 services that help employees get their 
jobs done, such as Internet access, desktop computer equipment, and 
voice and video communication systems. The second category includes 
another 10 services that affect quality of work life, such as 
assistance related to pay and benefits, building security, and 
workplace safety and health. Using survey responses, we calculate a 
composite score for each service category that reflects employee 
ratings for (1) satisfaction with the service and (2) importance of the 
service. We plan to set targets for both service categories for fiscal 
year 2006 after we have completed our analyses of the results of our 
2004 survey, which was administered at the end of 2004. These targets 
will be reported in our fiscal year 2005 performance and accountability 
report. 

Table 4: Annual Measures Related to Our Internal Operations: 

Measure: Help get job done; 
Description: From an annual employee survey, we calculate a composite 
score from questions related to how well internal processes help 
employees get their jobs done. The composite score represents how 
employees rated their satisfaction with these services relative to how 
they rated the importance of those services to them. The importance 
scores and satisfaction levels are both rated on a scale of 1 (low) to 
5 (high). 

Measure: Quality of work life; 
Description: From an annual employee survey, we calculate a composite 
score from questions related to how well internal processes impact 
employees' quality of work life. The composite score represents how 
employees rated their satisfaction with these services relative to how 
they rated the importance of those services to them. The importance 
scores and satisfaction levels are both rated on a scale of 1 (low) to 
5 (high). 

Source: GAO. 

[End of table 4]

[End of Annual Performance Measures]

Multiyear Performance Goals: 

We use two elements in our strategic planning hierarchy--performance 
goals and key efforts--as qualitative indicators of our performance. We 
ask senior managers to determine whether the performance goals 
established in our strategic plan have been met over a multiyear 
period. To do this, senior managers examine the amount of work 
conducted and recommendations made for each key effort supporting each 
performance goal. Senior managers also consider any other assistance 
provided to the client or customer that is related to these efforts. 
These senior executives then judge whether the work completed 
collectively for all key efforts actually achieved the performance 
goal. Our performance and accountability reports include assessments of 
our progress in meeting these performance goals. 

For all four strategic goals, the multiyear, qualitative performance 
goals included in our current strategic plan describe specific areas of 
work that we had planned to complete by the end of fiscal year 2005. We 
will assess our progress toward these multiyear, qualitative 
performance goals at the end of fiscal year 2005. However, during 
fiscal year 2004, we decided to revise our strategic plan every 3 
years, rather than on a 2-year cycle, which means that we will not set 
new multiyear performance goals until 2007. To accommodate this change, 
for fiscal year 2006, we plan to continue to use the current 
performance goals as a basis for aligning our work with our strategic 
goals, but we will not assess our progress toward these multiyear 
performance goals at the end of fiscal year 2006. In preparing our 
fiscal year 2006 budget submission, we made minor revisions that apply 
to fiscal year 2006 for some of these performance goals, mainly in the 
homeland security and justice areas. These revisions are discussed 
later in this plan. In our next strategic plan update, which will cover 
fiscal years 2007 through 2012, we will establish revised performance 
goals and key efforts that cover fiscal years 2007 through 2009. 

[End of Multiyear Performance Goals]

Data Quality: 

To assess our performance, we use performance data that are complete 
and actual (rather than projected) for all of our performance measures. 
The data come from a variety of internal and external sources, 
including our internal accomplishment reporting system, document 
database, and assignment tracking system; staff's responses to annual 
Web-based surveys; and the Department of Agriculture's National Finance 
Center database, which handles payroll and personnel data for many 
agencies, including GAO. 

We believe that the data we use are reliable because we follow multiple 
procedures to ensure the data's quality. In general, internal data are 
reviewed and approved by more than one person in GAO and by people not 
associated with the work being reviewed. In addition, our Inspector 
General either annually or periodically (depending on the data) reviews 
our compliance with the processes used to compile performance 
information. For example, during fiscal year 2003, the Inspector 
General independently tested our process for claiming other benefits 
and found them to be reasonable. Where appropriate, when we identify 
data limitations, we have implemented steps to minimize the impact of 
these limitations. For example, not every financial benefit that 
results from our work can be readily estimated or documented. 
Consequently, we do not include those financial benefits, which means 
that our estimate is a conservative one. 

The specific sources of the data for our annual performance measures 
and multiyear qualitative performance goals, procedures for 
independently verifying and validating these data, and the limitations 
of these data are described in the data verification and validation 
table that begins on page 67 of our performance and accountability 
report (GAO-05-62SP). This table does not include the two new measures 
for internal operations. We expect to include information on those two 
measures in our fiscal year 2005 performance and accountability report. 

[End of Data Quality]

[End of How We Measure Our Performance]

Our Planned Performance for Fiscal Year 2006: 

On the pages that follow, we present agencywide and goal-level targets 
for our performance for fiscal year 2006. Where applicable, we report 
revisions to the fiscal year 2005 targets that were presented in our 
fiscal year 2005 performance plan. 

Agencywide Performance and Resources Needed: 

While much of our performance is planned, managed, and tracked at the 
goal level, to gauge our collective performance, we set targets for the 
agency as a whole for all of our annual performance measures. Table 5 
reflects our agencywide performance during the last 6 fiscal years for 
these measures, where available, along with the agencywide targets for 
fiscal years 2005 and 2006. 

To achieve our strategic goals and objectives, we must ensure that we 
have the appropriate human capital, fiscal, and other resources to 
carry out our responsibilities. Consequently, our budget request will 
allow us to achieve our fiscal year 2006 performance targets, which 
support the Congress as outlined in our most recent strategic plan. 
During fiscal year 2006, we plan to maximize the productivity of our 
workforce and to continue addressing our three major management 
challenges: human capital, information security, and physical security. 
We will continue to take steps to "lead by example" within the federal 
government in these and other critical management areas. 

In developing our fiscal year 2006 budget, we have taken into 
consideration the overall federal budget constraints and our desire to 
lead by example. Accordingly, we have requested $493.5 million, which 
represents a modest increase of 4 percent over fiscal year 2005. This 
increase is primarily for mandatory pay costs and price level changes. 
This budget request will allow us to continue to maximize productivity, 
operate more effectively and efficiently, and maintain the progress we 
have made in technology and other areas, but it does not allow us 
sufficient funding to support a staffing level of 3,269--the staffing 
level that we requested in previous years. Even as we are tempering our 
budget request, it needs to be acknowledged that there are increasing 
demands on our resources. For example, the number of congressional 
mandates for studies, such as our reviews of executive branch and 
legislative branch operations, has increased more than 15 percent since 
fiscal year 2000. While we have reduced our planned staffing level for 
fiscal years 2005 and 2006 in order to keep our request modest, we 
believe that the staffing level we requested in previous years is a 
more optimal staffing level for GAO and would allow us to better meet 
the needs of the Congress and provide the return on investment that 
both the Congress and the American people expect. We will be seeking 
the Congress's commitment and support to provide the funding needed to 
rebuild our staffing levels over the next few fiscal years, especially 
as we approach a point where we may be able to express an opinion on 
the federal government's consolidated financial statements. 

Table 5: Agencywide Annual Performance Results and Targets: 

[Table notes (which are capital letters) appear at the end of the 
table] 

Performance measures: Results: Financial benefits; 
1999 actual: $20.1 billion; 
2000 actual: $23.2 billion; 
2001 actual: $26.4 billion; 
2002 actual: $37.7 billion; 
2003 actual: $35.4 billion; 
2004 actual: $44 billion; 
2005 target[A]: $37.5 billion; 
2006 target: $39 billion.

Performance measures: Results: Other benefits; 
1999 actual: 607; 
2000 actual: 788; 
2001 actual: 799; 
2002 actual: 906; 
2003 actual: 1043; 
2004 actual: 1197; 
2005 target[A]: 1000; 
2006 target: 1050.

Performance measures: Results: Past recommendations implemented; 
1999 actual: 70%; 
2000 actual: 78%; 
2001 actual: 79%; 
2002 actual: 79%; 
2003 actual: 82%; 
2004 actual: 83%; 
2005 target[A]: 80%; 
2006 target: 80%.

Performance measures: Results: New products with recommendations; 
1999 actual: 33%; 
2000 actual: 39%; 
2001 actual: 44%; 
2002 actual: 53%; 
2003 actual: 55%; 
2004 actual: 63%; 
2005 target[A]: 55%; 
2006 target: 55%.

Performance measures: Client: Testimonies; 
1999 actual: 229; 
2000 actual: 263; 
2001 actual: 151; 
2002 actual: 216; 
2003 actual: 189; 
2004 actual: 217; 
2005 target[A]: 185; 
2006 target: 210.

Performance measures: Client: Timeliness; 
1999 actual: 96%; 
2000 actual: 96%; 
2001 actual: 95%; 
2002 actual: 96%; 
2003 actual: 97%; 
2004 actual: 97%; 
2005 target[A]: 98%; 
2006 target: 98%.

Performance measures: People: New hire rate[B]; 
1999 actual: N/A; 
2000 actual: N/A; 
2001 actual: N/A; 
2002 actual: 96%; 
2003 actual: 98%; 
2004 actual: 98%; 
2005 target[A]: 97%; 
2006 target: 97%.

Performance measures: People: Acceptance rate[B]; 
1999 actual: N/A; 
2000 actual: N/A; 
2001 actual: N/A; 
2002 actual: 81%; 
2003 actual: 72%; 
2004 actual: 72%; 
2005 target[A]: 75%; 
2006 target: 75%.

Performance measures: People: Retention rate[B]: Includes retirements; 
1999 actual: N/A; 
2000 actual: 91%; 
2001 actual: 91%; 
2002 actual: 91%; 
2003 actual: 92%; 
2004 actual: 91%; 
2005 target[A]: 90%; 
2006 target: 90%.

Performance measures: People: Retention rate[B]: Excludes retirements; 
1999 actual: N/A; 
2000 actual: 94%; 
2001 actual: 95%; 
2002 actual: 96%; 
2003 actual: 96%; 
2004 actual: 95%; 
2005 target[A]: 94%; 
2006 target: 94%.

Performance measures: People: Staff development[B][C]; 
1999 actual: N/A; 
2000 actual: N/A; 
2001 actual: N/A; 
2002 actual: 71%[D]; 
2003 actual: 67%[E]; 
2004 actual: 70%; 
2005 target[A]: 72%; 
2006 target: 74%.

Performance measures: People: Staff utilization[B][C]; 
1999 actual: N/A; 
2000 actual: N/A; 
2001 actual: N/A; 
2002 actual: 67%; 
2003 actual: 71%; 
2004 actual: 72%; 
2005 target[A]: 74%; 
2006 target: 75%.

Performance measures: People: Leadership[B][C]; 
1999 actual: N/A; 
2000 actual: N/A; 
2001 actual: N/A; 
2002 actual: 75%; 
2003 actual: 78%; 
2004 actual: 79%; 
2005 target[A]: 80%; 
2006 target: 80%.

Performance measures: People: Organizational climate[B][C]; 
1999 actual: N/A; 
2000 actual: N/A; 
2001 actual: N/A; 
2002 actual: 67%; 
2003 actual: 71%; 
2004 actual: 74%; 
2005 target[A]: 75%; 
2006 target: 75%.

Performance measures: Internal operations: Help get job done[F]; 
1999 actual: N/A; 
2000 actual: N/A; 
2001 actual: N/A; 
2002 actual: N/A; 
2003 actual: 3.98; 
2004 actual: 4.01; 
2005 target[A]: N/A; 
2006 target: TBD.

Performance measures: Internal operations: Quality of work life[F]; 
1999 actual: N/A; 
2000 actual: N/A; 
2001 actual: N/A; 
2002 actual: N/A; 
2003 actual: 3.86; 
2004 actual: 3.96; 
2005 target[A]: N/A; 
2006 target: TBD.

Source: GAO.

[A] On the basis of our performance in fiscal year 2004, we increased 
many of these targets after our fiscal year 2005 performance plan was 
issued. Specifically, the targets were increased from $35 billion for 
financial benefits; from 950 for other benefits; from 79 percent for 
past recommendations implemented; from 50 percent for percentage of 
products with recommendations; from 180 for testimonies; from 70 
percent for staff development, staff utilization, and organizational 
climate; and from 75 percent for leadership. In addition, we decided to 
set targets for retention rate with and without retirements; 
consequently, the 94 percent target for retention rate excluding 
retirees was not included in the fiscal year 2005 performance plan.

[B] We set targets for these performance measures for the first time in 
fiscal year 2005. N/A indicates that the data are not available.

[C] These measures are based on employees' responses to selected 
questions from an annual survey that we began administering in 2002.

[D] This percentage does not include employees' responses to questions 
about our computer-based training courses that were added to our 
curriculum of in-house training in April 2004.

[E] This percentage includes employees' responses to questions about 
our computer-based training courses. We recomputed the fiscal year 2003 
number after we had issued our fiscal year 2005 performance plan; the 
percentage decreased from 72 percent as a result. The targets for 
future years assume that we will continue to include in our survey 
questions about our computer-based training.

[F] These measures are based on employees' responses to questions from 
an annual survey that we began administering in 2003 and are based on a 
scale of 1 (low) to 5 (high). We will set targets for these performance 
measures for the first time in fiscal year 2006 after we complete our 
analysis of the results from the 2004 survey. N/A indicates that the 
data are not available or not applicable. TBD indicates that the 
targets are to be determined

[End of table 5]

Table 6 summarizes GAO's requested fiscal year 2006 budgetary resources 
and the associated human capital resources (in terms of full-time 
equivalent (FTE) positions) by strategic goal. Centrally funded 
administrative services and support costs have been appropriately 
allocated across the goals. 

Table 6: Fiscal Year 2006 Requested Resources by Strategic Goal:

Strategic goal: Goal 1; 
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; 
Amount: $198 million; 
FTEs: 1287.

Strategic goal: Goal 2; 
Provide timely, quality service to the Congress and the federal 
government to respond to changing threats and the challenges of global 
interdependence; 
Amount: $135 million; 
FTEs: 877.

Strategic goal: Goal 3; 
Help transform the federal government's role and how it does business 
to meet 21st century challenges; 
Amount: $138 million; 
FTEs: 900.

Strategic goal: Goal 4; 
Maximize the value of GAO by being a model federal agency and a world- 
class professional services organization; 
Amount: $23 million; 
FTEs: 151.

Total; 
Amount: $494 million; 
FTEs: 3215.

Source: GAO

[End of table 6]

In addition to paying for salaries and expenses, we intend to invest 
resources in addressing our key management challenges--human capital, 
information security, and physical security--which are discussed in 
more depth later in the plan. On the human capital front, to ensure our 
ability to attract and retain high-quality staff, we plan to continue 
staff recruitment, succession planning, retention, and recognition 
programs. We also plan to continue efforts to update our training 
curriculum to strengthen performance in the competencies contained in 
our performance management systems, address organizational and 
technical needs, and maximize staff productivity and effectiveness. In 
addition, we will continue efforts to implement new human capital 
authorities included in legislation recently enacted by the Congress. 
Similarly, we will continue to take steps to ensure that our staff have 
the IT resources needed to perform their work and that those resources 
are secure from internal or external threats. 

[End of Agencywide Performance and Resources Needed]

Performance Targets and Resource Needs by Goal: 

The following sections describe the strategic objectives of each of our 
strategic goals. In addition, performance targets are presented for 
goals 1, 2, and 3--our external goals--for the three annual measures 
that we assess at the goal level. For the agencywide measures, each of 
the teams and units is expected to contribute toward meeting the 
agencywide targets. These are accompanied by the resources--in terms of 
FTEs and requested budgetary dollars--needed for each goal. 

Goal 1: 

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: 

Our first strategic goal upholds our mission to support the Congress in 
carrying out its constitutional responsibilities by focusing on work 
that helps address the current and emerging challenges affecting the 
well-being and financial security of the American people and American 
communities. Our multiyear (fiscal years 2004-2009) strategic 
objectives under this goal are to provide information that will help 
address: 

* the health needs of an aging and diverse population; 

* the education and protection of the nation's children; 

* the promotion of work opportunities and the protection of workers; 

* a secure retirement for older Americans; 

* an effective system of justice; 

* the promotion of viable communities; 

* responsible stewardship of natural resources and the environment; 
and: 

* a safe, secure, and effective national physical infrastructure. 

These objectives, along with the performance goals and key efforts that 
support them, are discussed fully in our strategic plan, which is 
available on our Web site at http://www.gao.gov. The work supporting 
these objectives is performed primarily by headquarters and field staff 
in the following teams: Education, Workforce, and Income Security; 
Financial Markets and Community Investment; Health Care; Homeland 
Security and Justice; Natural Resources and Environment; and Physical 
Infrastructure. Table 7 shows the budgetary and human capital resource 
allocations for this goal for fiscal years 2004 through 2006. 

Table 7: Goal 1's Resources by Fiscal Year: 

Resource type: Dollars; 
2004 actual: $183,265,000; 
2005 estimated: $190,147,000; 
2006 requested: $197,573,000.

Resource type: FTEs; 
2004 actual: 1,291; 
2005 estimated: 1,287; 
2006 requested: 1,287.

Source: GAO.

[End of table 7]

To accomplish our work under these strategic objectives, we plan to 
conduct engagements, audits, analyses, and evaluations of programs at 
major federal agencies and develop reports and testimonies on the 
efficacy and soundness of those programs. We anticipate that much of 
our work will be initiated in response to congressional requests and 
mandates and that it will be similar to the work we performed during 
fiscal year 2004, which is highlighted in the box below. 

[Beginning of text box]

Goal 1 Results in Fiscal Year 2004: 

Our past work produced $26.6 billion in financial benefits that were 
predominantly related to work on the Consumer Price Index, the Medicare 
and Medicaid programs, the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development's budget request for fiscal year 2001, and Department of 
Defense (DOD) programs. 

Other tangible benefits resulting from our work included 252 actions 
taken by federal agencies to improve their services and operations or 
by the Congress to make statutory or regulatory changes, including: 

* outreach to notify low-income Medicare beneficiaries of the 
availability of new subsides to assist with drug costs, 

* changes in food stamp program options that will help ease the 
reporting burden for almost all participating households, and: 

* shoring up systemic weaknesses and reducing the risks that 
underground storage tanks will leak and cause significant environmental 
and health risks. 

We made recommendations on: 

* airliner cabin air quality, 

* decommissioning nuclear power plants, 

* improved coordination on managing endangered species, 

* federal funding of public television, 

* election-related voting irregularities, and: 

* improving the accuracy of responses to policy-oriented inquiries from 
Medicare providers. 

We testified on topics such as: 

* student loan programs, 

* Social Security reform, 

* Medicare spending, 

* private health insurance, 

* farm program payments, and: 

* transportation security. 

[End of text box] 

For the annual performance measures for which we report our progress at 
the goal level, table 8 shows, for goal 1, our actual performance for 
fiscal years 2000 through 2004 and our performance targets for fiscal 
years 2005 and 2006. 

Table 8: Strategic Goal 1's Annual Performance Results and Targets:

Performance measure: Financial benefits; 
1999 actual: $13.8 billion; 
2000 actual: $14.1 billion; 
2001 actual: $8.9 billion; 
2002 actual: $24.1 billion; 
2003 actual: $23.6 billion; 
2004 actual: $26.6 billion; 
2005 target[A]: $19.6 billion; 
2006 target: $19.5 billion.

Performance measure: Other benefits; 
1999 actual: 140; 
2000 actual: 182; 
2001 actual: 210; 
2002 actual: 226; 
2003 actual: 217; 
2004 actual: 252; 
2005 target[A]: 240; 
2006 target: 255.

Performance measure: Testimonies; 
1999 actual: 123; 
2000 actual: 131; 
2001 actual: 73; 
2002 actual: 111; 
2003 actual: 80; 
2004 actual: 85; 
2005 target[A]: 78; 
2006 target: 89.

Source: GAO.

[A] On the basis of our performance in fiscal year 2004, we revised 
these targets after our fiscal year 2005 performance plan was issued. 
The targets were increased from $18.8 billion for financial benefits, 
from 215 for other benefits, and from 74 for testimonies.

[End of table 8]

At the close of fiscal year 2004, we were on track to meet all but one 
of our performance goals for this strategic goal. We were not on track 
to meet the goal of assessing the administrative efficiency and 
effectiveness of the federal court and prison systems because we did 
not receive requests to perform work in this area and could not 
undertake self-initiated work because we needed resources for work 
requested by the Congress in other areas. For fiscal year 2006, we are 
planning to replace this performance goal with one on improving the 
administration of the nation's election system, a goal that better 
reflects the interests of our congressional clients. 

Goal 2: 

Provide timely, quality service to the Congress and the federal 
government to respond to changing security threats and the challenges 
of global interdependence: 

The federal government is working to promote foreign policy goals, 
sound trade polices, and other strategies to advance the interests of 
the United States and its allies while also seeking to anticipate and 
address emerging threats to the nation's security and economy. Given 
the importance of these efforts, our second strategic goal focuses on 
helping the Congress and the federal government respond to changing 
security threats and the challenges of global interdependence. Our 
multiyear (fiscal years 2004-2009) strategic objectives under this goal 
are to support the congressional and federal efforts to: 

* respond to emerging threats to security, 

* ensure military capabilities and readiness, 

* advance and protect U.S. international interests, and: 

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

These objectives, along with the performance goals and key efforts that 
support them, are discussed fully in our strategic plan, which is 
available on our Web site at http://www.gao.gov. The work supporting 
these objectives is performed primarily by headquarters and field staff 
in the following teams: Acquisition and Sourcing Management, Defense 
Capabilities and Management, and International Affairs and Trade. In 
addition, the work supporting some performance goals and key efforts is 
performed by headquarters and field staff from the Information 
Technology, Homeland Security and Justice, Financial Markets and 
Community Investment, and Natural Resources and Environment teams. 
Table 9 shows the budgetary and human capital resource allocations for 
this goal for fiscal years 2004 through 2006. 

Table 9: Goal 2's Resources by Fiscal Year:

Resource type: Dollars; 
2004 actual: $123,639,000; 
2005 estimated: $128,283,000; 
2006 requested: $134,632,000.

Resource type: FTEs; 
2004 actual: 879; 
2005 estimated: 877; 
2006 requested: 877.

Source: GAO.

[End of table 9]

To accomplish our work under these strategic objectives, we plan to 
conduct engagements and audits that involve fieldwork related to 
federal programs that will often take us across multiple continents, 
including Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and North America. As in 
the past, we will develop reports, testimonies, and briefings on our 
work, often in response to congressional requests and mandates. We 
anticipate that this work will be similar to the work we performed 
during fiscal year 2004, which is highlighted in the box below. 

[Beginning of text box]

Goal 2 Results in Fiscal Year 2004: 

The financial benefits reported for this goal in fiscal year 2004 
totaled $9.7 billion, exceeding the target of $7.0 billion by over 39 
percent. Most of the financial benefits (66 percent of the total) were 
attributable to four accomplishments valued at $500 million or more 
each. These accomplishments stemmed from engagements that improved 
funding of DOD's activities or reduced costs associated with DOD 
operations. 

The other tangible benefits reported for goal 2 in fiscal year 2004 
included 343 actions taken by federal agencies to improve their 
services and operations in response to our work and another 26 in which 
information we provided to the Congress resulted in statutory or 
regulatory changes. Among these actions are: 

* improving the tracking of in-transit munitions shipments, 

* improving trade advisory committee operations, and: 

* clarifying guidance restricting the promotion of tobacco in other 
countries. 

We made recommendations on: 

* continuity-of-operations plans for ensuring the delivery of essential 
governmental services, 

* preventing foreign countries from obtaining classified spare parts or 
unclassified items containing military technology, and: 

* U.S. assistance to Afghanistan. 

We testified on topics such as: 

* international broadcasting, 

* use of Reserve forces, 

* defense personnel clearances, 

* unmanned aerial vehicles, 

* terrorist financing, 

* oversight of government-sponsored enterprises, 

* mutual funds, and: 

* security at nuclear facilities. 

[End of text box]

For the annual performance measures for which we report our progress at 
the goal level, table 10 shows, for goal 2, our actual performance for 
fiscal years 2000 through 2004 and our performance targets for fiscal 
years 2005 and 2006. 

Table 10: Strategic Goal 2's Annual Performance Results and Targets:

Performance measure: Financial benefits; 
1999 actual: $3.0 billion; 
2000 actual: $5.5 billion; 
2001 actual: $10.5 billion; 
2002 actual: $8.4 billion; 
2003 actual: $7.1 billion; 
2004 actual: $9.7 billion; 
2005 target[A]: $9.4 billion; 
2006 target: $9.1 billion.

Performance measure: Other benefits; 
1999 actual: 80; 
2000 actual: 129; 
2001 actual: 188; 
2002 actual: 218; 
2003 actual: 273; 
2004 actual: 369; 
2005 target[A]: 300; 
2006 target: 275.

Performance measure: Testimonies; 
1999 actual: 37; 
2000 actual: 56; 
2001 actual: 34; 
2002 actual: 38; 
2003 actual: 48; 
2004 actual: 70; 
2005 target[A]: 52; 
2006 target: 58.

Source: GAO.

[A] On the basis of our performance in fiscal year 2004, we revised 
these targets after our fiscal year 2005 performance plan was issued. 
The target for financial benefits was increased from $9.2 billion, the 
target for other benefits was increased from 275, and the target for 
testimonies was increased from 50.

[End of table 10]

At the close of fiscal year 2004, we were on target to meet 22 of our 
23 performance goals for fiscal years 2004 and 2005 for this strategic 
goal. We were not on track to meet the performance goal of identifying 
opportunities to embed homeland security concepts in ongoing national 
initiatives because our homeland security resources were needed for 
other work requested by the Congress and we did not have resources in 
the homeland security area to undertake self-initiated work related to 
this performance goal. For fiscal year 2006, we plan to drop this 
performance goal and concentrate our resources on the remaining 
homeland security efforts. 

Goal 3: 

Help transform the federal government's role and how it does business 
to meet 21st century challenges: 

Our third strategic goal focuses on the collaborative and integrated 
elements needed for the federal government to achieve results. The work 
under this goal highlights the intergovernmental relationships that are 
necessary to achieve national goals. Our multiyear (fiscal years 2004- 
2009) strategic objectives under this goal are to: 

* reexamine the federal government's role in achieving evolving 
national objectives; 

* support the transformation to results-oriented, high-performing 
government; 

* support congressional oversight of key management challenges and 
program risks to improve federal operations and ensure accountability; 
and: 

* analyze the government's fiscal position and strengthen approaches 
for addressing the current and projected fiscal gap. 

These objectives, along with the performance goals and key efforts that 
support them, are discussed fully in our strategic plan, which is 
available on our Web site at http://www.gao.gov. The work supporting 
these objectives is performed primarily by headquarters and field staff 
from the Applied Research and Methods, Financial Management and 
Assurance, Information Technology, and Strategic Issues teams. In 
addition, the work supporting some performance goals and key efforts is 
performed by headquarters and field staff from the Acquisition and 
Sourcing Management and Natural Resources and Environment teams. This 
goal also includes our bid protest and appropriations law work, which 
is performed by staff in General Counsel, and our fraud investigations, 
which are conducted by staff from the Financial Management and 
Assurance team. Table 11 shows the budgetary and human capital resource 
allocations for this goal for fiscal years 2004 through 2006. 

Table 11: Goal 3's Resources by Fiscal Year:

Resource type: Dollars; 
2004 actual: $128,285,000; 
2005 estimated: $133,103,000; 
2006 requested: $138,162,000.

Resource type: FTEs; 
2004 actual: 903; 
2005 estimated: 900; 
2006 requested: 900.

Source: GAO.

[End of table 11]

To accomplish our work under these four objectives, we plan to conduct 
audits, evaluations, and analyses in response to congressional requests 
and to carry out work initiatives under the Comptroller General's 
authority. As in the past, we will develop reports, testimonies, and 
briefings on our work. We anticipate that this work will be similar to 
the work we performed during fiscal year 2004, which is highlighted in 
the box below. 

[Beginning of text box]

Goal 3 Results in Fiscal Year 2004: 

The financial benefits reported for this goal in fiscal year 2004 
totaled $7.6 billion, exceeding our target of $4.7 billion by over 62 
percent. Our financial benefits under this goal stemmed from our work 
on core government business processes and governmentwide management 
reform. 

The other tangible benefits reported for goal 3 in fiscal year 2004 
included 553 instances in which agencies' core business processes were 
improved or governmentwide management reforms were advanced as a result 
of our work. In addition, there were 23 instances in which information 
we provided resulted in statutory or regulatory changes. The larger 
number of other benefits occurred mainly in our financial management 
and IT areas, where we tend to make multiple, specific recommendations 
for change to more than one entity. Examples of other benefits under 
this goal were: 

* addressing shortfalls in foreign language capabilities, 

* influencing federal acquisition rules, and: 

* addressing workforce challenges at the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA). 

We made recommendations on: 

* controlling costs of the 2010 Census; 

* improving controls over DOD's travel cards to decrease losses related 
to unused airline tickets; and: 

* reducing vulnerability to improper, wasteful, and questionable 
government purchase card transactions. 

We testified on topics such as: 

* Army Reserve and Army National Guard pay, 

* tax system abuses by DOD contractors, 

* fraudulent diplomas from diploma mills, 

* federal purchase and travel cards, 

* NASA's shuttle program, and: 

* DOD contract management. 

[End of text box]

For the annual performance measures for which we report our progress at 
the goal level, table 12 shows, for goal 3, our actual performance for 
fiscal years 2000 through 2004 and our performance targets for fiscal 
years 2005 and 2006. 

Table 12: Strategic Goal 3's Annual Performance Results and Targets:

Performance measure: Financial benefits; 
1999 actual: $4.5 billion; 
2000 actual: $5.1 billion; 
2001 actual: $7.0 billion; 
2002 actual: $5.2 billion; 
2003 actual: $4.7 billion; 
2004 actual: $7.6 billion; 
2005 target[A]: $8.5 billion; 
2006 target: $10.4 billion.

Performance measure: Other benefits; 
1999 actual: 414; 
2000 actual: 503; 
2001 actual: 401; 
2002 actual: 462; 
2003 actual: 553; 
2004 actual: 576; 
2005 target[A]: 460; 
2006 target: 520.

Performance measure: Testimonies; 
1999 actual: 100; 
2000 actual: 105; 
2001 actual: 42; 
2002 actual: 65; 
2003 actual: 56; 
2004 actual: 60; 
2005 target[A]: 55; 
2006 target: 63.

Source: GAO.

[A] On the basis of our performance in fiscal year 2004, we revised two 
of these targets after our fiscal year 2005 performance plan was 
issued. The target for financial benefits was increased from $8.0 
billion and the target for testimonies was decreased from 56.

[End of table 12]

At the close of fiscal year 2004, we were on target to meet all of our 
performance goals for fiscal years 2004 and 2005 for this strategic 
goal. 

Goal 4: 

Maximize the value of GAO by being a model federal agency and a world- 
class professional services organization: 

The focus of our fourth strategic goal is to make GAO a model 
organization. For us, this means that our work is driven by our 
external clients and internal customers, our managers exhibit the 
characteristics of leadership and management excellence, our employees 
are devoted to ensuring quality in our work process and products 
through continuous improvement, and our agency is regarded by current 
and potential employees as an excellent place to work. Our multiyear 
(fiscal years 2004-2009) strategic objectives under this goal are to: 

* continuously improve client and customer satisfaction and stakeholder 
relationships; 

* lead strategically to achieve enhanced results; 

* leverage GAO's institutional knowledge and experience; 

* continuously enhance GAO's business and management processes; and: 

* become a professional services employer of choice. 

These objectives, along with the performance goals and key efforts that 
support them, are discussed fully in our strategic plan, which is 
available on our Web site at http://www.gao.gov. The work supporting 
these objectives is performed under the direction of the Chief 
Administrative Office with assistance on specific key efforts being 
provided by staff from the Applied Research and Methods team and from 
offices such as Strategic Planning and External Liaison, Congressional 
Relations, Opportunity and Inclusiveness, Quality and Continuous 
Improvement, and Public Affairs. Table 13 shows the budgetary and human 
capital resource allocations for this goal for fiscal years 2004 
through 2006. 

Table 13: Goal 4's Resources by Fiscal Year:

Resource type: Dollars; 
2004 actual: $28,017,000; 
2005 estimated: $23,032,000; 
2006 requested: $23,182,000.

Resource type: FTEs; 
2004 actual: 151; 
2005 estimated: 151; 
2006 requested: 151.

Source: GAO.

[End of table 13]

To accomplish our work under these five objectives, we plan to perform 
internal studies and complete projects that further the strategic goal. 
We anticipate that this work will be similar to the work we performed 
during fiscal year 2004, which is highlighted in the box below. 

[Beginning of text box]

Goal 4 Results in Fiscal Year 2004: 

* Strengthened communication with our congressional clients by refining 
and issuing protocols that govern our work for the Congress and reflect 
congressional feedback. 

* Measured congressional satisfaction with our work by administering a 
client feedback survey to the staff of congressional committees and 
members that requested work resulting in a product. 

* Published GAO's human capital strategic plan for fiscal years 2004 
through 2006 that includes key efforts, expectations, measures, and 
initiatives for improving our human resources. 

* Implemented provisions of the Human Capital Reform Act of 2004 that, 
among other things, give us permanent authority to offer voluntary 
early retirement opportunities and allow us to create an executive 
exchange program with the private sector. 

* Convened a number of forums, symposia, and other meetings to provide 
opportunities for an exchange of knowledge between accountability and 
professional organizations. 

* Redesigned our Web site to enhance usability and facilitate access to 
our information products and services. 

* Implemented numerous initiatives that resulted in more efficient and 
cost-effective processes, such as our Web-based travel and time and 
attendance systems. 

* Launched a Web-based customer satisfaction survey to get feedback 
internally on product production and other services provided by goal 4. 

* Continued to upgrade IT tools and capabilities. 

* Implemented online access 24 hours a day to more than 900 training 
courses. 

* Launched a telework program that allows staff to work from home when 
feasible. 

[End of text box]

At the close of fiscal year 2004, we were on track to meet all but one 
of the performance goals for this strategic goal. We were not on track 
to meet our performance goal of maximizing the collection, use, and 
retention of essential organizational knowledge. While we have 
performed substantial work for this performance goal, we plan to 
complete this work after fiscal year 2005. Specifically, our work has 
been slower than we anticipated because anticipated funding was 
rescinded in fiscal year 2004 and some essential steps--such as 
developing prototypes and conducting pilot tests--have taken longer 
than we initially anticipated. We now plan to complete efforts under 
this performance goal during fiscal year 2006. 

[End of Performance Targets and Resource Needs by Goal] 

[End of Our Planned Performance for Fiscal Year 2006]

Strategies and Means for Achieving Our Goals: 

We plan to accomplish our strategic goals primarily by providing the 
information from our work to the Congress and the public in a variety 
of forms and continuing and strengthening our internal operations. For 
all four strategic goals, the multiyear, qualitative performance goals 
included in our current strategic plan describe specific areas of work 
that we plan to complete by the end of fiscal year 2005. For fiscal 
year 2006, we plan to continue to use the current performance goals as 
a basis for aligning our work with our strategic goals. In preparing 
our fiscal year 2006 budget submission, we made minor revisions that 
apply to fiscal year 2006 for some of these performance goals, mainly 
in the homeland security and justice areas. In our next strategic plan 
update, which will cover fiscal years 2007 through 2012, we will 
establish revised performance goals and key efforts that cover fiscal 
years 2007 through 2009. 

Our strategies also emphasize the importance of two overarching 
approaches: (1) working with other organizations on crosscutting issues 
and (2) effectively addressing the challenges to achieving our agency's 
goals and recognizing the internal and external factors that could 
impair our performance. Through these strategies, which have proven 
successful for us for a number of years, we plan to achieve the level 
of performance that is needed to meet our annual performance measures 
and our multiyear performance goals and that, in turn, will allow us to 
achieve our strategic goals. 

Strategies for Goals 1, 2, and 3: 

Attaining our three external strategic goals (goals 1, 2, and 3) and 
their related objectives rests, for the most part, on providing 
professional, objective, fact-based, nonpartisan, nonideological, fair, 
and balanced information to support the Congress in carrying out its 
constitutional responsibilities. We develop and present this 
information in a number of ways, including: 

* evaluating federal policies and the performance of agencies; 

* overseeing government operations through financial and other 
management audits to determine whether public funds are spent 
efficiently, effectively, and in accordance with applicable laws; 

* investigating whether illegal or improper activities are occurring; 

* analyzing the financing for government activities; 

* conducting various constructive engagements in which we work 
proactively with agencies, when appropriate, to provide advice that may 
assist their efforts toward positive results; 

* providing legal opinions that determine whether agencies are in 
compliance with applicable laws and regulations; 

* conducting policy analyses to assess needed actions and the 
implications of proposed actions; and: 

* providing additional assistance to the Congress in support of its 
oversight and decision-making responsibilities. 

Staff from our 13 research, audit, and evaluation teams and General 
Counsel perform the work that supports the three external strategic 
goals. These staff plan and implement engagements, audits, 
investigations, and other activities that often involve meeting with 
agency officials and representatives of other organizations to gather 
information. Our work is based on original research and analysis, 
rather than reliance on third-party source materials. Additionally, in 
conducting our work, we have high standards that require an objective 
approach. This usually means that we take responsibility for gathering 
all the relevant data and, to ensure accuracy and objectivity, more 
than one person attends interviews with agency officials. In addition, 
travel, both national and international, is essential to completing our 
audit and evaluation work, which must be sufficiently representative in 
scope and in the number and type of locations covered to ensure the 
validity of our conclusions and recommendations. 

The information we collect and analyze is, more often than not, 
documented in a product that is made available to the public. In some 
cases, we develop products that contain classified or sensitive 
information that cannot be made available publicly. We generally issue 
around 1,200 to 1,300 products each year, including the following: 

* letter reports, which are written in a letter format and are issued 
with our traditional blue cover; 

* chapter reports, which are written in a chapter format and are also 
issued with the blue cover; 

* correspondence, which is a written letter that does not have the blue 
cover; 

* testimony and statements for the record, where the former are 
presented at a hearing by one or more of our senior executives and the 
latter are submitted for the record; 

* briefing reports, which consist mainly of briefing slides with some 
explanatory material; and: 

* oral briefings, which are usually given directly to congressional 
staff members. 

Collectively, our products contain information, conclusions, and 
recommendations that allow us to achieve our external strategic goals. 

Another means of ensuring that we are achieving our goals is to examine 
the impact of our past work and use that information to shape our 
future work. Consequently, we evaluate actions taken by federal 
agencies and the Congress in response to our past recommendations. The 
results of these evaluations are reported in terms of the financial 
benefits and other benefits that reflect the value of our work. We 
actively monitor the status of our open recommendations--those that 
remain valid but have not yet been implemented--and report our findings 
annually to the Congress and the public 
(http://www.gao.gov/openrecs.html). We use the results of that analysis 
to determine the need for further work in particular areas. For 
example, if an agency has not implemented a recommended action that we 
consider to be worthwhile, we may decide to pursue further action with 
agency officials or congressional committees, or we may decide to 
undertake additional work on the matter. Similarly, we will use our 
biennial high-risk report that was issued in January 2005 to provide a 
status report on major government operations that we consider high risk 
because they are vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement 
or are in need of a broad-based transformation. And we will use our 
report on 21st century issues, which was issued in February 2005, to 
alert the nations' leaders to current and emerging challenges facing 
the nation, including the long-range budget challenge, the human 
capital crisis, postal reforms, and the federal government's financial 
management efforts. These reports are valuable planning tools because 
they help us to identify those areas where our continued efforts are 
needed to maintain the focus on important policy and management issues 
that the nation faces. 

During fiscal year 2006, we will adjust our processes, as needed, to 
accommodate changes that stem from the conclusions of external peer 
reviews of our financial and performance audits. For example, in a 
comment letter accompanying the clean opinion report that resulted from 
the financial audit peer review, the auditor included a suggestion for 
clarifying our quality control policies and procedures. We have begun 
to implement this suggestion. In addition, the review for our 
performance audits--which was led by the Office of the Auditor General 
of Canada--assessed whether our quality assurance policies and 
procedures were suitably designed and operating effectively and 
resulted in a clean opinion. The April 2005 audit report cited a number 
of exemplary practices at GAO and offered us some suggestions for 
improvement, including streamlining certain requirements for low-risk 
assignments, a suggestion that we are already working to implement. 

[End of Strategies for Goals 1, 2, and 3]

Strategies for Goal 4: 

Our fourth strategic goal, which is an internal one, is under the 
direction of our Chief Administrative Office. This office takes the 
lead in helping us accomplish our fourth and only internal strategic 
goal with assistance on specific key efforts being provided by staff 
from the Applied Research and Methods team and from offices such as 
Strategic Planning and External Liaison, Congressional Relations, 
Opportunity and Inclusiveness, Quality and Continuous Improvement, and 
Public Affairs. These units work together and include the teams, as 
needed, to plan and implement activities that will help us remain a 
model federal agency. 

To attain our fourth strategic goal and the five related objectives, we 
will build on our groundwork efforts of fiscal years 2004 and 2005. In 
those years we conducted surveys of our congressional clients and 
internal customers to obtain feedback on our products, processes, and 
services, and performed studies and evaluations to identify ways in 
which to improve them. In fiscal year 2006 we will utilize the feedback 
from our surveys and the results and recommendations of our studies and 
evaluations to implement enhancements to current operations. We intend 
to measure the success of these efforts by conducting additional 
surveys and comparing their results to the results from prior years. 

Among the efforts upon which we will focus in fiscal year 2006 to help 
us attain the following five strategic objectives for goal 4 are: 

Improve client and customer satisfaction and stakeholder relationships 
by: 

* identifying means to communicate our work results more effectively 
and efficiently using enhanced technology and media; 

* applying technology solutions to enhance the quality of timeliness of 
service; and: 

* identifying and implementing ways to increase the accessibility of 
GAO products to the press, the public, and other stakeholders. 

Lead strategically to achieve enhanced results by: 

* continuing our integration effort for planning, budgeting, and 
performance measurement to achieve enhanced results by working with our 
enterprise architecture staff to align our strategic plan, budget, 
performance plan, workforce plan, and performance and accountability 
reporting processes; 

* enhancing our competency-based performance system, increasing the 
user- friendliness of the system, and providing training to staff in 
end-of-cycle appraisals; 

* implementing a newly procured financial management system; 

* developing and implementing an IT work management system 
incorporating IT life cycle, enterprise architecture and development 
methodologies, and other IT management processes; and: 

* completing implementation of centralized auditing of network servers 
and devices, refining our network monitoring procedures including use 
of products to automate the detection of potentially harmful threats, 
and implementing planned improvements to our disaster recovery 
operations. 

Leverage GAO's institutional knowledge and experience by: 

* establishing an electronic records management system infrastructure 
to support E-audits and knowledge repositories, 

* increasing the frequency of our speakers series on 21st Century 
challenges, 

* implementing an Executive Exchange Program, and: 

* hosting the biennial forum of the Intergovernmental Audit Forum. 

Continuously enhance GAO's business and management processes by: 

* streamlining and simplifying the engagement management process; 

* revising our annual internal inspection processes to reflect lessons 
learned from the peer review and previous inspections; 

* assessing staff skills in developing and implementing structured 
interviews; and: 

* automating and redesigning our mission and administrative processes 
and systems, such as developing a Web-based suggestion program. 

Become the professional services employer of choice by: 

* evaluating our telework program; 

* providing a streamlined, user-friendly guide to government and 
nongovernment professional development opportunities; 

* expediting and coordinating our new hire process; 

* conceptualizing a development program for new hires at the Band IIA 
level and implementing the program, if warranted; and: 

* redesigning the Professional Development Program Web site. 

[End of Strategies for Goal 4]

Collaboration Efforts: 

All of our strategic goals benefit from coordinating with other 
organizations that have similar or complementary missions, with experts 
outside of our organization, and with our own internal experts. 
Consequently, collaborative efforts are a large part of our strategy 
for achieving our goals. For example, we use advisory panels and other 
bodies to inform our strategic and annual work planning. We also 
initiate and support collaborative national and international audit, 
technical assistance, and other knowledge-sharing efforts. These two 
types of strategic working relationships allow us to extend our 
institutional knowledge and experience, to leverage our resources, and 
in turn improve our service to the Congress and the American people. 

Our office of Strategic Planning and External Liaison takes the lead 
and provides strategic focus for the work with external partner 
organizations, while our research, audit, and evaluation teams lead the 
work with most of the issue-specific organizations. As in past years, 
we will gather information and perspectives for our strategic and 
annual performance planning efforts through a series of activities such 
as forums, advisory boards, panels, and speakers' series. 

GAO-wide advisory boards and panels support our strategic and annual 
work planning by alerting our managers and staff to issues, trends, and 
lessons learned across the national and international audit community 
that we should factor into our own work. These groups include: 

* the Comptroller General's Advisory Board, whose 40 members from the 
public and private sectors have broad expertise in areas related to our 
strategic objectives, from which we obtain views on our strategic 
direction and specific initiatives; 

* the National Intergovernmental Audit Forum, chaired by the 
Comptroller General, and its 10 regional intergovernmental audit 
forums, through which we consult regularly with federal inspectors 
general and state and local auditors; and: 

* the Domestic Working Group, composed of the Comptroller General and 
the heads of 18 federal, state, and local audit organizations, which 
facilitates the exchange of information and opportunities for 
collaboration. 

A number of issue-specific and technical panels will continue to work 
with us to improve our strategic and annual work planning, including 
the following: 

* The Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards provides us 
guidance on promulgating auditing standards. These standards articulate 
auditors' responsibilities when examining government organizations, 
programs, activities, or functions and government assistance received 
by contractors, nonprofits, and other nongovernmental organizations. 

* The Accountability Advisory Council, made up of experts in the 
financial management community, advises us on audits of the U.S. 
government's consolidated financial statements and emerging issues 
involving financial management and accountability reporting. 

* The Executive Council on Information Management and Technology, whose 
19 members are experts from the public and private sectors and 
representatives of related professional organizations, help us to 
identify high-risk and emerging issues in the IT arena. 

* The Comptroller General's Educators' Advisory Panel, composed of 
deans, professors, and other academics from prominent universities 
across the United States, advises us on recruiting, retaining, and 
developing staff and strategic planning matters. 

During fiscal year 2006, we plan to convene various experts from the 
public, private, and nonprofit sectors in a series of forums and panels 
intended to enhance our understanding of emerging issues and to 
identify opportunities for action. In the past, these activities 
included forums on metrics, means, and mechanisms for achieving high 
performance in the 21st century public management environment; human 
capital and civil service reform; unsustainable trends that necessitate 
comprehensive and fundamental reforms to control spending and improve 
value; changing labor force dynamics and the role of government 
policies; and financial literacy. In addition, we plan to continue our 
speakers' series on Conversations on 21st Century Challenges, wherein 
prominent leaders discuss emerging themes and their implications for 
public policy. 

We anticipate that our staff will be involved in other collaborative 
activities during fiscal years 2005 and 2006 that are like the 
following activities undertaken during 2004: 

* Conferring with the Private Sector Council, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, 
public service organization committed to helping the federal government 
improve its efficiency, management, and productivity through the 
cooperative sharing of knowledge. Council members have assisted us on a 
number of engagements. For example, the council assisted a GAO team 
that is examining best practices used by private sector companies to 
plan for, acquire, and manage telecommunications services. Late in 
fiscal year 2004, the Private Sector Council merged with the 
Partnership for Public Service, which is another of our external 
partner organizations. 

* Actively participating in five efforts that involved the Domestic 
Working Group and federal, state, and local audit officials and that 
are aimed at addressing issues regarding access to records, grants 
management, long-term fiscal challenges, information used by water 
utilities to conduct vulnerability assessments, and governance. 

* Leading the effort to develop the National Intergovernmental Audit 
Forum's first-ever strategic plan, which will help maximize the 
organization's effectiveness in promoting good government and 
accountability at all levels of government. The task force working on 
the plan is composed of federal, state, and local auditors and an 
independent public accountant. The forum adopted a strategic plan 
framework, and it is anticipated that a final plan will be adopted 
during fiscal year 2005. 

Internationally, we will continue to participate in the International 
Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI)--the professional 
organization of the national audit offices of 184 countries. During 
2004, we led a 10-nation task force that developed INTOSAI's 5-year 
strategic plan--the first in INTOSAI's 50-year history. The plan was 
unanimously endorsed by INTOSAI's Governing Board and unanimously 
adopted by the INTOSAI Congress this fall. It provides a blueprint for 
a major transformation of INTOSAI and a structure and rationale that 
will facilitate member institutions' strategic engagement in INTOSAI in 
a way that maximizes contributions while minimizing resources. In other 
work with INTOSAI, we chair the accounting and reporting committee and 
we are an active member of INTOSAI's auditing standards, internal 
control standards, and other technical committees. We also publish 
INTOSAI's quarterly International Journal of Government Auditing in 
five languages to further the global understanding of standards, best 
practices, and technical issues. We plan to continue to be similarly 
involved with INTOSAI's activities during fiscal year 2006. 

To continue to build capacity in national audit offices around the 
world, we will conduct an international fellows training program during 
fiscal year 2006 for mid-to senior-level staff from other countries. In 
2004, 22 fellows from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and 
Eastern Europe participated in this program and spent about 4 months at 
GAO learning how we are organized to do our work, how we plan work, and 
what methodologies we use, particularly for performance audits. As part 
of our strategy to promote continuous learning and sustainability once 
the fellows return to their countries, we are working with major 
donors--such as the World Bank and the U.S. Agency for International 
Development--to identify or support relevant capacity-building projects 
for the institutions in which the fellows work. Also, current and 
former auditors general and deputy auditors general of many nations, 
including the current chair of INTOSAI, are graduates of this program. 

Finally, we coordinate extensively within our own organization on our 
strategic and annual performance planning efforts, as well as on the 
preparation of our performance and accountability reports, in order to 
take full advantage of the expertise of our staff. Our efforts are 
completed under the overall direction of the Comptroller General and 
the Chief Operating Officer. We rely on our Chief Administrative 
Officer/Chief Financial Officer and her staff to provide key 
information, such as the resource information that is included in this 
plan. Her staff also coordinated with others throughout the agency to 
provide the information on goal 4's results and provided input on other 
efforts dealing with issues that include financial management, 
budgetary resources, training, and security. We obtain input on all 
aspects of our strategic and annual performance planning and reporting 
efforts from each of our engagement teams and organizational units 
through their respective managing directors, as well as other staff 
responsible for planning or engagement activities in the teams. Staff 
in our Quality and Continuous Improvement office prepared this plan, 
ensuring, among other things, that it reflects our planned activities 
for fiscal year 2006. In short, we involved virtually every part of GAO 
and used our internal expertise in our planning and reporting efforts. 

[End of Collaboration Efforts]

[End of Strategies and Means for Achieving Our Goals]

Addressing Management Challenges: 

At GAO, management challenges are identified by the Comptroller General 
and the agency's senior executives through the agency's strategic 
planning, management, and budgeting processes. Our progress in 
addressing the challenges is monitored through our annual performance 
and accountability process. Under our strategic goal 4, we establish 
performance goals focused on each of our management challenges, track 
our progress in completing the key efforts for those performance goals 
quarterly, and report each year on our progress toward meeting the 
performance goals. Each year, we ask our Inspector General's office to 
examine management's assessment of the challenges and the agency's 
progress in addressing them, and the assessment made by the Inspector 
General's office can be found in our performance and accountability 
report in the section entitled From the Inspector General. 

For fiscal year 2006, we will continue to address three management 
challenges--human capital, information security, and physical security. 
While we anticipate that we will always make improvements in these 
areas, at some point, we may decide that they are no longer 
sufficiently critical to be considered major management challenges for 
us. For now, we anticipate that these areas will remain challenging for 
us for the better part of this decade because they are evolving and 
will require us to continuously identify ways to adapt and improve. 
Also, the solutions to these challenges often can take months or years 
to design and implement. Nonetheless, we revisit the challenges each 
year and refine them, when appropriate. We will report any changes in 
the challenges as we monitor and report on our progress in addressing 
the challenges through our annual performance and accountability 
process. The following sections describe our recent and planned efforts 
to address these challenges. 

The Human Capital Challenge: 

Given our role as a key provider of professional and objective 
information and analyses to the Congress, maintaining the right mix of 
technical knowledge and expertise as well as general analytical skills 
is vital to achieving our mission. We spend about 80 percent of our 
resources on our people, but without excellent human capital policies 
and management practices, we could run the risk of being unable to meet 
the expectations of the Congress and the American people. In fiscal 
year 2006, we will continue to focus on strategic transformation as it 
relates to business processes, alignment of staff for greater 
productivity, and talent acquisition. 

We continue to manage talent and implement flexibilities provided by 
the GAO Human Capital Reform Act of 2004. For example, with assistance 
from a contractor, we completed a market-based compensation study for 
our analyst community in fiscal year 2005 and plan to implement the 
resulting new pay ranges early in fiscal year 2006. Similarly, we are 
working with the same contractor to perform a market-based compensation 
study for our administrative and professional support staff community 
this summer and plan to implement the resulting pay ranges when we 
implement them for our analysts. The goal of these studies is to design 
a competitive, fair, and equitable market-based compensation system 
aligned with the competitive labor markets in which we compete for 
talent. 

On the basis of the results of the market-based compensation study 
performed by a contractor at our request, we have initiated a project 
to restructure our band IIs--the middle band for our analysts. The 
project, which is scheduled to be completed during fiscal year 2006, is 
being implemented by task teams of analysts and specialists under the 
direction of two senior executive project leaders. This project will 
result in the placement of band II staff into two different pay ranges 
and will better align the roles and responsibilities of the persons in 
these two ranges in a manner consistent with the market-based study. As 
with other such initiatives, the approach to this project is designed 
to facilitate interaction between the task teams, the Executive 
Committee, and the employees who will be affected. The latter will be 
accomplished primarily through listening sessions held by the task 
teams, "town hall" meetings held by the Executive Committee, and a 30- 
day employee review and comment period for each phase of the project. 

To meet challenges associated with recruiting, rewarding, and retaining 
a highly qualified and high-performing workforce, we will implement a 
number of the human capital flexibilities authorized by the Congress 
and for which we are drafting, revising, and issuing regulations for 
comment in fiscal year 2005. In addition, we will implement a 
streamlined, user-friendly guide to government and nongovernment 
professional development opportunities; develop and implement an 
expedited and coordinated new hire process; determine the feasibility 
of implementing a development program for new hires with previous 
experience; and enhance our competency-based performance systems. 

During fiscal year 2006, we will continue our recruitment efforts, 
which have proven successful in recent years. Our objective is to 
attract and retain a diverse workforce with the knowledge, skills, and 
abilities to meet the new century's challenges. As in the past, we 
expect to hire college graduates--including interns--with records of 
superior academic achievement. We will continue to hire graduates from 
master and doctoral degree programs and plan to use alternative 
recruiting strategies--such as hiring at the bachelor degree level and 
providing opportunities for postgraduate work while working at GAO--in 
order to help us obtain specific skills and enhance our diversity. We 
will continue to use direct-hire, short-term, and time-limited 
appointing authorities, such as the Visiting Fellows Program, to fill 
gaps identified during our workforce planning effort. Two of our major 
concerns for fiscal year 2006 are hiring and retaining entry-level 
staff in the financial auditing and information technology occupations. 
To address these areas, we will expand use of new student employment 
initiatives such as the Student Career Experience Program--an 
undergraduate co-op program--and fall and spring internships in 
addition to the summer program currently offered. 

To further strengthen the skills, knowledge, and expertise of our 
workforce, we will significantly expand our core analytic skills 
curricula to provide just-in-time courses, job aids, and performance 
support tools on the desktop. For more experienced staff, we will 
implement curricula focusing on more effectively managing engagements, 
leading teams, and providing coaching and feedback to more junior 
staff. We will invest in developing the learning infrastructure needed 
to author and deliver Web-based courses as well as to conduct 
synchronous learning programs for both headquarters and field staff. 

In fiscal year 2006, we will complete a study of market-based 
compensation ranges for our administrative professional and support 
staff positions. We will also be developing criteria and a process for 
placing current senior analyst staff in the appropriate salary ranges 
as we prepare for full implementation of market-based compensation 
ranges for our analysts and specialists. 

The Information Security Challenge: 

Information system security is a critical activity in ensuring our 
information system assets are safe and free from compromise. Our 
inability to respond to the needs of the Congress due to compromised 
information or information systems is not an acceptable risk for GAO. 
In light of these increasing threats, and in keeping with our goal of 
being a model federal agency, we have a wide range of initiatives under 
way to strengthen and protect the security of our information systems 
and data, including our financial systems. 

During fiscal year 2006, we will complete implementation of centralized 
auditing of network servers and devices in order to better secure our 
computing assets within GAO. In addition, we are continually refining 
our network monitoring procedures to include the use of correlation 
products to automate the detection of potentially harmful threats to 
the GAO network. Also, planned improvements to our disaster recovery 
operations will provide a smooth transition during a time of crisis. As 
we refine our operational processes and improve our services during 
fiscal years 2006 and 2007, we will implement additional technologies 
to lessen risks to GAO and improve response and recovery in the event 
of a disruption. 

During fiscal years 2006 and 2007, in support of the requirements in 
the Federal Information Security Management Act, we also will act on 
the results of audits of our security practices and controls that are 
conducted each fiscal year. These assessments are designed to analyze 
the effectiveness of our IT security program and assist management in 
determining how to best utilize resources to protect our information 
assets and systems. They are critical on-site examinations and analysis 
of the program to ascertain the present program status, to identify 
potential weaknesses, to determine the protection required, and to make 
recommendations for improvement. 

The Physical Security Challenge: 

The challenge to provide a safe and secure work environment for 
employees remains a constant in light of international events that can 
have a profound impact on the way we conduct business in and around the 
world. Protecting our people and our assets is paramount to agency 
operations. 

We continue to devote time and resources to the assessment of security 
operations as we further enhance our security posture. For fiscal year 
2006, these enhancements and emergency preparedness efforts will 
include completing the Integrated Electronic Security System, which 
includes installing turnstiles at headquarters, implementing smart card 
technology, and upgrading access control and intrusion detection 
systems for headquarters and field offices. Additional efforts involve 
procuring an emergency notification system; conducting tests, training, 
and exercises in support of our continuity-of-operations plan; updating 
our emergency preparedness plans and documents, such as the Shelter-in- 
Place plan, the emergency response handbook, and a trifold brochure 
summarizing the Shelter-in-Place plan; holding an annual security fair; 
and instituting a more robust security education and awareness program 
for the headquarters and field offices. 

[End of Addressing Management Challenges]

Mitigating External Factors That Could Affect Our Performance: 

Several external factors could affect the achievement of our 
performance goals, including the amount of resources we receive, shifts 
in the content and volume of our work, and national and international 
developments. Limitations imposed on our work by other organizations or 
limitations on the ability of other federal agencies to make the 
improvements we recommend are additional factors that could affect the 
achievement of our goals. 

We are experiencing heavy demand from the Congress for work in a number 
of subject areas, especially in the health care area. Our ability to 
effectively manage this demand could have an impact on our ability to 
meet our performance targets. We will continue to manage these requests 
in order to minimize any negative impact they may have on our ability 
to meet the needs of the Congress and the American people. Given large 
current federal budget deficits and the nation's long-range fiscal 
imbalance, the Congress is likely to place increasing emphasis on 
fiscal constraint. While it is unclear how GAO will ultimately be 
affected, it is reasonable to assume that any attempt to exercise 
additional budgetary discipline in the legislative branch will include 
our agency. As a result, while we believe that we submit reasonable and 
responsible budget requests and we know that the return on investment 
that we generate is unparalleled, we must plan and prepare for the 
possibility of significant and recurring constraints on the resources 
made available to the agency. In addition, because over 80 percent of 
our budget is composed of people-related costs, any serious budget 
situation will have an impact on our human capital policies and 
practices. This, in turn, will have an impact on our ability to serve 
the Congress and meet our performance targets. While, as noted above, 
the nature and extent of any such budget constraints cannot be 
determined at the present time, GAO's executive team is engaged in a 
range of related planning activities. It is both appropriate and 
prudent for us to engage in such planning. At the same time, we are 
hopeful that the Congress will recognize that performance-based 
budgeting concepts would support providing additional resources to 
entities with prudent budget requests and proven performance results. 
If the Congress employs such an approach, GAO should be in a good 
position to continue to provide a high rate of return on the resources 
invested in the agency. 

A growing area for us involves our work on bid protests. As required by 
law, our General Counsel's office prepares Comptroller General 
procurement law decisions that resolve protests filed by disappointed 
bidders. These bidders challenge the way individual federal 
procurements are being conducted or how the contracts were awarded. In 
recent years, we have experienced an increase in the number of bid 
protests that have been filed. A further increase in our workload is 
likely if federal employees or their representatives are granted the 
right to appeal outsourcing decisions. We will continue to monitor our 
workload in this area to ensure that we meet our statutory 
responsibilities with minimal negative impact on our other work. 

As the Congress focuses on unpredictable events--such as the global 
threat posed by sophisticated terrorist networks, international 
financial crises, or natural disasters--the mix of work we are asked to 
undertake may change, diverting our resources from some strategic 
objectives and performance goals. We can and do mitigate the impact of 
these events on the achievement of our goals in various ways. For 
example, we: 

* stay abreast of current events and communicate frequently with our 
congressional clients in order to be alert to possibilities that could 
shift the Congress's priorities or trigger new priorities; 

* quickly redirect our resources, when appropriate, so that we can deal 
with major changes as they occur; 

* maintain broad-based staff expertise so that we can readily address 
emerging needs; and: 

* initiate research under the Comptroller General's authority on a 
limited number of selected topics. 

Another external factor is the extent to which we can obtain access to 
certain types of information. With concerns about operational security 
being unusually high at home and abroad, we may have more difficulty 
obtaining information and reporting on sensitive issues. Historically, 
our auditing and information gathering have been limited whenever the 
intelligence community is involved. In addition, we have not had the 
authority to access or inspect records or other materials held by other 
countries or, generally, by the multinational institutions that the 
United States works with to protect its interests. Consequently, our 
ability to fully assess the progress being made in addressing national 
and homeland security issues may be hampered. Also, we anticipate that 
more of our reports may be subject to classification reviews than in 
the past, which means that the public dissemination of these products 
may be limited. We plan to work with the Congress to identify both 
legislative and nonlegislative opportunities for strengthening our 
access authority as necessary and appropriate. 

[End of Mitigating External Factors That Could Affect Our Performance] 

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FOOTNOTES

[1] The Government Performance and Results Act seeks to improve public 
confidence in federal agency performance by requiring that federally 
funded agencies develop and implement an accountability system based on 
performance measurement, including setting goals and objectives and 
measuring progress toward achieving them. 

[2] In addition, we have begun to explore measures that could help us 
assess how well we develop mutually beneficial relationships with other 
accountability organizations. Such partnerships are important because 
they (1) create opportunities for collaboration and cooperation that 
help all organizations involved address common challenges and enhance 
their ability to improve government operations and serve the public 
better, (2) allow us and other organizations to make meaningful changes 
in our internal accountability processes and policies, and (3) allow us 
to better leverage available resources. See GAO's Performance and 
Accountability Report, Fiscal Year 2004 (GAO-05-62SP) for more 
information on the partnerships we have established. 

[3] As announced in our performance and accountability report for 
fiscal year 2004, beginning in fiscal year 2005, we will stop reporting 
on the number of new recommendations made. We created this measure to 
provide performance information related to recommendations. 
Subsequently, we added a measure for the percentage of new products 
with recommendations. We now feel that it alone is a sufficient measure 
to ensure that our work results in beneficial recommendations. However, 
we will continue to monitor the number of new recommendations made to 
ensure that teams supporting strategic goals 1 through 3 continue to 
plan and complete engagements that result in recommendations--the basis 
for our financial and other benefits for the American people. 

(996409): 

[End of Performance Plan: Fiscal Year 2006]