Summary

The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 requires all executive branch agencies to develop strategic plans that define their missions, establish goals, and map out strategies for achieving them. Agencies must submit these strategic plans to Congress and the Office of Management and Budget by September 30, 1997. This testimony focuses on the Justice Department's August draft strategic plan, which builds on comments GAO had made on the agency's February draft plan. (See GAO/GGD-97-153R, July 11, 1997.) GAO discusses the August plan's compliance with the act's requirements and the extent to which the plan covered crosscutting program activities, management challenges, and Justice's ability to provide reliable performance information.

GAO noted that: (1) Justice's plan discusses, to some degree, five of the six required elements--mission statement, goals and objectives, key external factors, a program evaluation component, and strategies to achieve the goals and objectives; (2) the plan does not include a required discussion on the relationship between Justice's long-term goals/objectives and its annual performance plans; (3) the draft plan could better address how Justice plans to: (a) coordinate with other federal, state, and local agencies that perform similar law enforcement functions, such as the Defense and State Departments regarding counter-terrorism; (b) address the many management challenges it faces in carrying out its mission, such as internal control and accounting problems; and (c) increase its capacity to provide performance information for assessing its progress in meeting the goals and objectives over the next 5 years.